Enshrouded does not have admin commands in the usual sense. It has passwords. Your server carries a set of permission groups — Admin, Friend, Guest — each with its own join password, and the password a player types when connecting decides what they are allowed to do. Hand out the right password and you have handed out the right permissions. That is the whole system, and used well it is a genuinely good one.
What each group can do
| Explore, fight, loot | Open chests & containers | Build & edit bases | Kick & ban | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Friend | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Guest | Yes | No | No | No |
Every group can play the game world itself — fight, gather, dig, quest. The differences are about your bases and your rules: a Guest can adventure alongside you without being able to open a single chest or move a single block. For a public-facing server, that is exactly the distinction you want.
Passwords are the keys, so treat them like keys
Your server generates randomized passwords for each group out of the box, which means it is protected from day one. Two rules worth keeping:
- Always run with passwords set. A server without one is visible and joinable by anyone who finds it in the server list — Keen's own documentation says this in bold, and so do we.
- Give each person the password for the role you mean them to have — and if a password leaks, change that group's password rather than tearing the setup down.
Reserved slots: your regulars always get in
Each group can reserve a number of the server's slots. Reserve two for Admins and your moderators can always join, even when the server reads as full to everyone else — the server simply reports “full” to lower groups sooner. On a busy 16-slot server this is the difference between managing the world and queueing for it.
Where the settings live
All of this is configured in one file on the server, enshrouded_server.json,
which you can reach from your control panel under Configuration Files.
Each group in the file has a name, a password, its permission switches and its reserved-slot
count — and you can add groups of your own. A fourth preset, Visitor, goes further than
Guest and blocks changes to the world outside bases as well; and if you want something between
Friend and Guest — say, chest access without build rights — you can create exactly
that.
Two practical notes. The server reads the file at startup, so restart after changing it. And copy the file's contents somewhere safe once you have your groups the way you like them.
What this system does not do
There is no in-game admin console, no whitelist file, and no per-player ban list you can edit by hand — kicking and banning happens in-game, by players holding the Admin role. Keen have said better admin tools and rights management are on their roadmap; until those arrive, the role passwords above are the full toolset, and they cover the everyday cases well.
See also: connecting to your Enshrouded server · moving your local world onto your server.
