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AI

Background​

At Bitwarden we leverage artificial intelligence tools to enhance developer productivity, improve code quality, and accelerate our development cycles. Our adoption of AI tooling is driven by several key objectives:

Enhanced Developer Productivity: AI assistants help automate repetitive tasks, generate boilerplate code, and provide intelligent code completions, allowing developers to focus on complex problem-solving and architectural decisions.

Code Quality and Consistency: AI tools assist in maintaining coding standards, identifying potential bugs, and suggesting improvements that align with our established best practices and patterns.

Knowledge Sharing: AI assistants serve as intelligent documentation companions, helping developers quickly understand unfamiliar codebases, APIs, and frameworks used across our projects.

Accelerated Onboarding: New team members can leverage AI tools to quickly understand our codebase structure, conventions, and development workflows, reducing the time needed to become productive contributors.

Security-First Approach: We carefully select and configure AI tools that align with our security requirements, ensuring that sensitive code and data remain protected while still benefiting from AI assistance.

Our primary AI tooling stack centers around Anthropic's Claude, which offers both a powerful language model and flexible integration capabilities through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This allows us to create custom workflows and integrate with our existing development tools while maintaining control over data privacy and security.

Installing Claude Code and Claude Desktop​

Claude Code​

Claude Code is Anthropic's official CLI tool that brings Claude's capabilities directly to your terminal. It's ideal for developers who prefer command-line interfaces and want to integrate AI assistance into their terminal-based workflows.

Installation​

  1. Node.js v18 or higher is available

  2. Install via NPM npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code or Homebrew brew install --cask claude-code

  3. Configure your API key:

    claude-code configure

    Walk through the process to sign into the Anthropic Console via SSO and authenticate your local client.

Basic usage​

# Start an interactive session
claude-code

# Ask a question
claude-code "How do I add a feature flag around my changes?"

Claude Desktop​

Claude Desktop provides a graphical interface for interacting with Claude, ideal for developers who prefer a dedicated application with rich formatting and file management capabilities.

Installation​

Install via claude.ai/download or Homebrew brew install claude

  • Launch Claude Desktop
  • Sign in with your Anthropic account via SSO
  • Configure your workspace preferences
  • Enable MCP server connections in Settings → Developer → MCP Servers

MCP servers​

Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers extend Claude's capabilities by providing access to external tools, APIs, and data sources. They enable Claude to interact with your development environment, databases, and other services while maintaining security boundaries.

Understanding MCP servers​

MCP servers are separate processes that communicate with Claude through a standardized protocol. They can:

  • Access local file systems and databases
  • Execute commands and scripts
  • Integrate with third-party APIs
  • Provide specialized reasoning capabilities

We recommend at least two be installed by everyone:

Installing Sequential Thinking MCP server​

The Sequential Thinking server enhances Claude's problem-solving capabilities by providing structured, step-by-step reasoning for complex tasks.

Claude Code​

claude mcp add --scope user sequential-thinking -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking

Claude Desktop​

Edit your ~/.claude.json, go to the mcpServers section and add:

"sequential-thinking": {
   "type": "stdio",
   "command": "npx",
   "args": [
      "-y",
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-sequential-thinking"
   ]
   }

Restart Claude Desktop to activate the server.

Installing Memory MCP server​

The Memory server provides Claude with persistent memory capabilities, allowing it to remember context across sessions and maintain a knowledge graph of your projects.

Claude Code​

claude mcp add --scope user memory -- npx -y @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory

Claude Desktop​

Edit your ~/.claude.json, go to the mcpServers section and add:

"memory": {
   "type": "stdio",
   "command": "npx",
   "args": [
      "-y",
      "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"
   ]
   }

Restart Claude Desktop to activate the server.

Verifying installations​

Claude Code​

claude mcp list

Claude Desktop​

  1. Open Claude Desktop
  2. Start a new conversation
  3. Type: "Can you list your available MCP servers?"
  4. Claude should respond with the configured servers

Troubleshooting​

Common issues and solutions:

Server not starting:

  • Verify NPM packages are installed globally
  • Check Node version (must be 18+)
  • Review server logs in ~/.claude-code/logs/ or Claude Desktop's developer console

Permission errors:

  • Ensure data directories have proper permissions
  • On macOS/Linux: chmod 755 ~/.claude-memory

Configuration not loading:

  • Validate JSON syntax in configuration files
  • Restart Claude Code or Claude Desktop after configuration changes

Best practices​

Security considerations:

  • Only install MCP servers from trusted sources
  • Review server permissions and capabilities before installation:
    • Examine the server's source code or documentation to understand what file system access it requires
    • Verify what external APIs or services the server connects to
    • Check if the server executes system commands and understand which ones
    • Confirm whether the server stores persistent data and where it's stored
    • Review network permissions and ensure the server only communicates with expected endpoints
    • Validate that the server follows principle of least privilege
  • Use trusted LLM providers and models:
    • Prefer established providers with strong security track records (e.g., Anthropic)
    • Verify the provider's data handling policies and ensure they align with Bitwarden's security requirements
    • Confirm that your API keys and credentials are stored securely
    • Understand whether your prompts and code are used for model training (opt out if possible)
    • Use enterprise or business tier services when available for enhanced security guarantees
  • Core model usage guidelines:
    • Use the latest stable model versions to benefit from security improvements and bug fixes
    • Avoid deprecated or experimental models in production workflows
    • Be aware of model capabilities and limitations - not all models are suitable for code generation
    • Consider model context windows and token limits when designing workflows
    • Use model-specific features (like Claude's extended thinking) appropriately for complex tasks
    • Monitor model output for hallucinations or incorrect information, especially in security-critical code
  • Regularly update servers to get security patches

Performance optimization:

  • Limit the number of active servers to those you actively use
  • Monitor resource usage, especially for memory-intensive servers
  • Configure appropriate timeouts for long-running operations

Data management:

  • Regularly backup memory server data directories
  • Clear old session data periodically to maintain performance
  • Use project-specific memory contexts when appropriate

Integration with development workflow:

  • Configure project-specific MCP servers in repository .claude/ directories
  • Document custom MCP server requirements in project README files
  • Share MCP configurations with team members for consistency