server

This is the server-side codebase for Bitwarden, the open-source password manager. It contains the APIs, database logic, and other backend infrastructure that all Bitwarden client applications — the browser extension, desktop app, mobile app, and web vault — communicate with.

The server is written in C# using ASP.NET Core, a framework for building web applications on Microsoft's .NET platform. The database uses T-SQL and SQL Server. The codebase is designed to run cross-platform on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

For people who want to host Bitwarden themselves (rather than using Bitwarden's own cloud), the project supports self-hosting via Docker containers. Docker is a tool that packages software and its dependencies into isolated containers that can run consistently across different machines. Helper scripts are provided for both Linux/macOS and Windows to download the containers and start them with a single command. The Docker images for individual services — including the API, identity server, billing, notifications, single sign-on, and an admin panel — are published to GitHub Container Registry and available for both US and EU production deployments.

The repo includes extensive documentation links for setting up a local development environment and for deploying a self-hosted instance. Bitwarden is also actively hiring, with a link to their careers page in the readme.