# See every Bitwarden group and collection on one screen

> A single grid of who can reach what in your password manager, with edits you can make in place instead of opening every group.

- Workflow type: app
- Services: Bitwarden, Slack Bot
- Categories: Operations, Engineering
- Published: 2026-08-16

## What it does

- One grid with your groups down the side and your collections across the top, so you can see every permission at a glance instead of clicking into each group
- Change a permission directly in the grid and save it back, with the rest of that group's access left untouched
- See who was handed collection access directly instead of through a group, and move them into the right group in a couple of clicks
- Copy an existing group to set up a new team's access in one go, with a warning before you remove the last group that can manage a collection, plus a plain English recap posted to Slack

## What you'll need

- A Bitwarden Teams or Enterprise organization, and an owner account that can view the organization admin key
- The groups and collections you already use in Bitwarden (this app edits existing collections, it does not create new ones)
- A Slack workspace and the channel where your security updates go

## Prompt

Build me an internal app for managing which Bitwarden groups can reach which collections. Right now the admin console makes me click into every group one at a time and there is no overview anywhere, so I want one screen that shows the whole picture and lets me fix it in place. This is a structure editing workbench for repairing access, not an access review or an audit sign off.

The main view is a permissions matrix: groups down the left side, collections across the top. Build the columns from List Collections and the body of the matrix from List Groups, which returns each group's collection assignments along with their permission flags. Note that List Collections does not return group assignments, so it can only supply collection names and ids for the column headers, and every cell value has to be assembled from List Groups. Each cell shows the permission level that group holds on that collection (read only, hide passwords, can manage, or full edit access) or an empty state when the group has no access at all. Keep the row and column headers pinned while scrolling, and give me a filter box for group names and one for collection names, since a real organization has too many of both to fit on a screen.

I want to change a cell in place. Clicking a cell opens a small picker for the permission level, including an option to remove that group's access to that collection entirely, and saving writes the change back with Update Group. This is the part to be careful with: every Bitwarden PUT body is a full replacement, so the handler must first read that group's current collection assignments, apply the single change I made, and resend the complete list along with the group's name and external id. If it sends only the changed assignment, the rest of that group's access is silently reset. Show edited cells as pending with a visible before and after until I save them.

The second view lists direct access drift: the people who were handed collection access straight on their own account instead of inheriting it through a group. Read this from List Members, which returns each member's collection access. For each person show which collections they hold directly and at what level, and suggest which existing groups already grant equivalent access. Let me clean up the drift from that view by moving someone into the right group, using Update Member Groups to replace the full set of groups one member belongs to, or Update Group Members to replace the full member list of one group. Both are full replacements too, so read the current state and resend it with the change applied. Where a person's direct collection access should be dropped once they are in the group, use Update Member, and be aware it replaces their role, custom permissions, collection access, and group membership in one body.

I also want to stand up a new team's access in one go by cloning an existing group as a template. Let me pick any group, prefill a new group form with that group's collection assignments and permission flags, rename it, adjust or drop individual assignments before committing, then create it with Create Group.

Guardrail: before saving any change that would remove the last group holding can manage on a collection, stop and warn me plainly (name the collection and say that nothing would be left able to manage it) and make me confirm. Nothing should end up orphaned because I edited a cell too quickly.

Keep a running change log for the session covering every permission change (group, collection, level before, level after), every member moved between groups, and every group created. Give me a button that posts a plain English summary of that log to our security channel in Slack using slackbot Send a Message. Write it as readable sentences a colleague can follow, for example "Gave Support read only access to Shared Vendor Logins and moved Priya Shah out of direct access into the Support group", not a dump of ids or raw field names.

One constraint to design around: collections cannot be created through the Bitwarden API, only edited, so the matrix always works with the collections that already exist. If a collection is missing, the answer is to create it in Bitwarden and refresh, not to add it here.

## How to customize

- Choose which Slack channel gets the change recap, or turn the recap off entirely
- Decide which permission levels appear in the grid and which one is the default when you grant a group new access
- Extend the warning so it also fires on other changes you consider risky, not just the last group that can manage a collection

## FAQ

### Does this change anything in Bitwarden right away?

No. You can use the grid purely as an overview, and nothing is sent back to Bitwarden until you save an edit. Everything you do save is collected into the recap so you can see the full list before it goes to Slack.

### Will editing one permission affect the rest of that group's access?

No. Bitwarden replaces a group's whole set of access whenever it is updated, so the app reads what the group has today, applies just your one change, and sends the complete list back. That is what keeps the rest of the group's access intact.

### Can I create new collections here?

No. Bitwarden only allows collections to be created inside its own apps, so the grid works with the collections you already have. You can freely change which groups reach them and at what level.

### What happens if I remove the last group that can manage a collection?

You get a clear warning and have to confirm before the change is saved, so you do not end up with a collection nobody can manage.

### Do I need a paid Bitwarden plan?

Yes. Groups and the admin access this app relies on come with Bitwarden Teams and Enterprise organizations, and an owner needs to fetch the key once during setup.

Use this prompt in General Input: https://www.generalinput.com/prompts/see-every-bitwarden-group-and-collection-on-one-screen