Rust Server Configuration Guide: server.cfg, ConVars, and Settings

Rust's server.cfg is where most of your server's personality actually lives. Name, description, world size, PvE toggle, decay, RCON — it all starts there. I'll walk through the ConVars I actually use day to day, point out the stuff that needs a plugin (because Rust has changed a lot and a chunk of the old guides on the internet are flat-out wrong now), and show you how it all fits together on LOW.MS.

Your server.cfg file typically lives at server/<identity>/cfg/server.cfg. On LOW.MS you'll edit it through the control panel at control.low.ms — either through File Manager directly, or via Configuration Files which gives you a nicer editor for the common stuff. Everything in server.cfg runs when the server starts, so think of it as a list of console commands that fire on boot.

Identity — what players see in the browser

This is the first thing to get right. The hostname and description are your shopfront.

server.hostname "[EU] My Rust Server | 2x | Weekly"
server.description "Weekly wipes every Thursday. 2x gather, active admins, no cheating. Discord: discord.gg/example"
server.url "https://discord.gg/example"
server.headerimage "https://example.com/header.png"
server.logoimage "https://example.com/logo.png"
server.tags "weekly,2x,EU"

A couple of things worth knowing. server.headerimage needs to be 512×256 and hosted somewhere public — imgur works, your own CDN works. server.tags drives a lot of how players filter you in the browser, so pick honest tags: wipe cadence (weekly, biweekly, monthly), region (EU, NA, AU), and any rate multipliers. If you run Oxide or Carbon, the modded tag gets added for you automatically — don't bother setting it yourself.

Map and world

server.worldsize 3500
server.seed 1337
server.level "Procedural Map"
server.maxplayers 100

Valid server.worldsize values run 1000 to 6000. Most community servers sit between 3000 and 4500 — anything much smaller and monuments overlap awkwardly, anything bigger and players just can't find each other. 3500 is where I'd start for a 100-slot server and tune from there.

Pick a seed before you commit. rustmaps.com lets you render any worldsize + seed combo and look at monument placement, rivers, and roads before your players ever log in. Saves a lot of "why did you pick this map" complaints.

PvP, PvE, decay, teams

server.pve false
server.radiation true
server.stability true
decay.scale 1.0
decay.upkeep_period_minutes 1440
relationshipmanager.maxteamsize 8

Flip server.pve to true if you want a no-PvP server (players can't damage each other). decay.scale defaults to 1.0 — drop it to 0.5 on a PvE server if you want bases to stick around longer, or 0 to switch decay off entirely. decay.upkeep_period_minutes defaults to 1440, which is 24 hours.

Team size is the one that trips people up. The command is relationshipmanager.maxteamsize — with the relationshipmanager. prefix. Not maxteamsize. Default is 8, set it to 0 to disable teams entirely (solo-only servers), or something like 3 or 4 for small-group servers.

Performance bits

server.saveinterval 300
fps.limit 256

server.saveinterval defaults to 300 (5 minutes) and that's genuinely fine — dropping it lower hammers disk and doesn't save you much if the server crashes. server.savebackupcount can stay at its default; how many backups to keep varies depending on how paranoid you are. server.tickrate I'd leave alone unless you know exactly what you're doing — the "correct" value varies server to server and messing with it tends to cause more problems than it solves. Schedule a restart every 6–12 hours via Scheduled Tasks in the panel — Rust leaks memory over time and a fresh process fixes a lot.

EAC and RCON

server.secure true
rcon.password "put-a-long-random-string-here"
rcon.port 28017
rcon.web 1

Leave server.secure on. EAC is what keeps the obvious cheaters out, and turning it off tanks your player count because Rust warns people before they connect to a non-secure server. The only reason to disable it is if you're running a private dev box.

RCON is how tools like Rustadmin, Battlemetrics, and most of the admin Discord bots talk to your server. rcon.web 1 enables the websocket mode that all the modern tools want. Port is 28017 by default. Pick a long random password and don't share it.

Stuff that needs a plugin

Here's where a lot of old guides lead you astray. Rust has removed, renamed, or never actually had a lot of the ConVars you'll see on random forum posts. For anything in this section, you want a modding framework. Oxide/uMod (umod.org) is the most common modding framework for Rust, though Carbon is a newer Oxide-compatible alternative that's gaining traction — most uMod plugins work on either.

• Gather rates. You'll see gather.rate.dispenser 2 style lines all over the internet. That dotted form isn't right for persistent config. If you want proper gather-rate control that survives restarts and lets you tune per-resource, install the GatherManager plugin and configure it there.
• Crafting speed / instant craft. No vanilla ConVar for this anymore. Plugin territory.
• Day/night length. env.daylength and env.nightlength are not vanilla commands — they were removed. Only env.time (to set the current time) still exists. If you want longer days or shorter nights, grab a plugin like Night Skipper or Time Of Day.
• Economy, shops, kits, teleports, homes. All plugins. The Rust vanilla server has none of this built in.

Example configs

Both of these are safe to paste in and tweak. Nothing in them is fabricated.

Vanilla monthly

server.hostname "[EU] Vanilla Monthly | Low Pop Friendly"
server.description "Monthly wipes on force wipe day. Vanilla rates, active admin, no BS."
server.url "https://discord.gg/example"
server.maxplayers 150
server.worldsize 4000
server.seed 12345
server.level "Procedural Map"
server.tags "monthly,vanilla,EU"
server.secure true
server.pve false
server.radiation true
server.stability true
decay.scale 1.0
relationshipmanager.maxteamsize 8
server.saveinterval 300
rcon.password "change-me"
rcon.port 28017
rcon.web 1

Light community (2x-ish, weekly)

server.hostname "[EU] Community 2x | Weekly | Small Teams"
server.description "Weekly wipes Thursday. Small teams, active admins. Discord: discord.gg/example"
server.url "https://discord.gg/example"
server.maxplayers 100
server.worldsize 3500
server.seed 54321
server.level "Procedural Map"
server.tags "weekly,2x,EU"
server.secure true
server.pve false
decay.scale 0.75
relationshipmanager.maxteamsize 4
server.saveinterval 300
rcon.password "change-me"
rcon.port 28017
rcon.web 1

Gather rates on the 2x server get set via the GatherManager plugin, not in server.cfg — same for any crafting speed tweaks.

Wiping your server

Rust forces a map wipe on the first Thursday of every month when Facepunch pushes their monthly update — that one happens automatically, you don't have to do anything. The Steam Update item in the panel sidebar handles the update when it drops.

For your own wipes in between (weekly or biweekly), there's no magic button. The wipe is a file operation:

1. Stop the server from the panel.
2. Open File Manager and go to server/<your-identity>/.
3. Delete the save directory and the .map / .sav files for your current map.
4. Start the server. It'll regenerate on the next boot. Change server.seed first if you want a fresh layout.

You can automate this with a Scheduled Tasks entry that runs the delete + restart on your wipe day. Blueprints wipe only happens on force wipe day by default — that's a Facepunch thing.

Applying changes

Most ConVars can be set live via Web Console or RCON without a restart — handy for quick tweaks. Anything in server.cfg only fires at boot, so for config file edits, restart the server after saving. To check a current value, type the ConVar name on its own in the console (e.g. server.maxplayers) and it'll print what's actually set.

If you're still getting set up, the Rust getting started guide covers the basics, and if something's misbehaving after a config change the Rust troubleshooting guide is where I'd look next. Pricing, RAM, slots and the rest of the host-side stuff lives on the Rust hosting page.