Bitbucket Secrets Management: A Complete Guide

Bitbucket offers a comprehensive secrets management system for developers to safeguard sensitive information such as tokens, login credentials, and API keys within their repositories, workspaces, and environments. It supports keyless authentication through OpenID Connect (OIDC), allowing secure interaction with cloud providers without storing long-lived credentials, and integrates with third-party secret providers like HashiCorp Vault to enhance security. While Bitbucket's native options are sufficient for small projects, larger teams with complex requirements might benefit from integrating dedicated secrets management platforms like Infisical, which streamline secret rotation, versioning, and audit logging. The upcoming deprecation of app passwords in favor of API tokens highlights the shift towards more secure authentication practices. Developers are encouraged to adopt best practices such as using OIDC for cloud authentication, managing access control rigorously, and migrating to API tokens by the 2026 deadline to ensure robust security and efficient secrets management in their continuous integration and deployment workflows.