Rust server settings, server.cfg and RCON: where everything lives on your GG Host server

A Rust server is configured in three places: the command line it starts with, a server.cfg it reads at startup, and console commands you run while it is up. On a GG Host server the first two are panel pages and the third is a web console. This guide says which setting goes where, what Facepunch's precedence rules mean for you, and how to get admin and RCON access without hunting.

The config editor: your everyday settings

Open your Rust server in the control panel, click Configuration Files, and choose Config Editor next to settings.cfg. This is a form, not a text file, and it covers the settings almost everyone changes:

• Hostname and description: what players see in the server browser. Header image, logo image and website URL sit alongside.
• Seed and map size: the world. Facepunch recommends a size between 1,000 and 6,000; the seed is any number up to 2,147,483,647. Same seed and size, same island.
• Custom map: a tick box plus a URL, for servers running a downloaded map instead of a procedural one.
• Game mode, PvE, global chat, chat enabled.
• Secure (Easy Anti-Cheat), anti-hack and the admin exception to it.
• Idle kick and its mode, save interval in seconds, FPS limit, and server log on or off.
• RCON password (see below).

Save, then restart the server. Settings in this file are read at startup, so nothing changes until the restart.

Anything else: additionalsettings.cfg

Rust has hundreds of console variables and the form only covers the common ones. For the rest, open Text Editor next to additionalsettings.cfg and add one variable per line in the form Rust uses, for example server.saveinterval 300 or decay.upkeep false. Anything valid at the console is valid here.

Both files are merged into the real server.cfg every time the server starts. That is why you should not edit server.cfg in the identity folder directly: it is rebuilt from the two files above on the next start and your edit would vanish.

Why a setting "will not stick"

Facepunch's documentation is explicit that server.cfg takes priority over the command line. On a GG Host server the command line carries the port, the player count from your slot setting, the RCON details and the Rust+ port, and the two config files carry everything else, so the two rarely collide. If a setting does not apply, check that it is not in both places with different values, and that you restarted after saving. Changes made live at the console last until the next restart unless you also put them in a config file.

The command line and the RCON password

Commandline Manager shows the line your server starts with. The standard line sets the game port, the player cap from your slots, the RCON port and password, web RCON on, and the port the Rust+ app uses. Click Selected on the standard line to open its one editable option: the RCON password. Change it there, or in the config editor; either way restart afterwards.

Becoming admin

Rust does not have an admin password. You grant admin to a Steam account from the server console. Open Web Console in the panel and run:

• ownerid 7656119XXXXXXXXXX YourName for full admin (auth level 2).
• moderatorid 7656119XXXXXXXXXX TheirName for a moderator (auth level 1).
• server.writecfg straight after, so the grant is written to the users file and survives a restart. Without it the grant is gone next start.

Use the 17-digit Steam64 ID, not a profile name. removeowner and removemoderator take the same ID to undo. Everyday moderation runs from the same console: kick, ban, banid, unban, and say to broadcast a message to everyone.

RCON: the console from outside the panel

RCON is Rust's remote console. Your server runs it in web mode, which is what Facepunch recommends, and the address is on your server's home page under RCON Info (the RCON port is the game port plus one). The Rcon Login link in the left menu opens Facepunch's own web RCON client; enter the address, the RCON port and your RCON password and you have the same console you get in the panel, from any browser. Third-party RCON tools use the same three details.

Keep the RCON password to yourself and your admins. Anyone with it has full control of the server. If it leaks, change it in the Commandline Manager and restart.

Where the files are

Everything that belongs to your world lives in server/my_server_identity inside the server folder: the world save (.sav), the generated map, the player databases, the cfg folder with your merged server.cfg and the users file, and companion.id, which identifies your server to the Rust+ app. Reach it through the File Manager or SFTP. What each of those files means on wipe day is in our wipe-day guide; the Log Viewer in the panel shows the server output if something refuses to start after a config change.