Vintage Story: configuration, admin, and mods

Vintage Story servers are configured through serverconfig.json, administered with in-game commands, and extended with mods from the official ModDB. This guide covers all three.

Configure serverconfig.json

1. Open your server and click File Manager.
2. Open serverconfig.json (in the root, or under a data/Playersets path shown in the console).
3. Edit values, save, then restart from the Console tab.

Settings you'll commonly change:

• ServerName — name shown in the server browser.
• Password — set to make the server private.
• MaxClients — player cap.
• WorldConfig — world generation options (climate, world height, seed) applied when the world is first created.
• AllowPvP / gamemode-related flags — combat and rules.

Prefer in-game commands where possible. Many settings can be changed live with /serverconfig commands once you're admin, which avoids hand-editing JSON (a stray comma breaks the file).

Grant yourself admin

Admin (op) unlocks the management commands. The safest place to run it is the Console tab, which is already trusted:

/op YourPlayerName

You can now use /gamemode, /time set day, /give, world-edit commands, and the /serverconfig family in-game. Remove admin with /deop YourPlayerName.

Whitelist / access control

To lock the server to approved players, enable the whitelist and add people (from the Console or as admin in-game):

/whitelist on
/player YourFriend whitelist on

Alternatively set a Password in serverconfig.json for a simple shared-secret gate.

Install mods from the ModDB

Vintage Story has an official mod database.

1. Download the mod (a .zip or .cs file) from the Vintage Story ModDB.
2. In the File Manager, drop it into the Mods/ folder.
3. Restart. The server loads mods on boot and prints each one in the console.
4. Every player must have the same mods installed to connect — most content mods are client+server.
5. Check that the mod's version matches your server's game version; a mismatch is the usual reason a mod fails to load.

Common issues

• Server won't start after editing config: invalid JSON — a missing comma, quote, or brace. Restore a backup or fix the syntax carefully.
• Changes ignored: you didn't restart, or edited a config that's overridden by an in-game /serverconfig value.
• Mod won't load: version mismatch with the game, or a missing dependency mod — check the mod's ModDB page for requirements.
• Players can't join: Password is set, the whitelist is on, or their mod set doesn't match the server's.