Vintage Story server commands are typed into the server console, or into chat with a leading / once you are admin. The ones you will actually use: /op to make someone admin, /whitelist add to let friends in, /kick and /ban for trouble, /serverconfig and /worldconfig to change settings live, and /autosavenow and /genbackup to save. There is no restart command: you /stop the server and start it again. Everything below is checked against the 1.22.7 server.
How to use server commands in Vintage Story
Server commands start with / and run on the server, so they affect everyone. Client commands start with . and only touch your own game. You can type server commands in the server console window, in chat while connected (if your role allows it), or from a Linux shell with server.sh command "/your command". Admins can run all of them.
- Brackets are not typed. The docs write
/time set [12]; you type/time set 12. - Built-in help:
/helplists every command your role may use, and/help <command>shows its exact syntax for your version. - The Command Handbook: type
.chbin chat or open it from the pause menu. The wiki itself says the handbook is more current than its own command list. - Player selectors: anywhere a command wants a player name you can also use
s[](you),o[](everyone online) ora[](everyone who has ever joined), with filters such aso[role=suplayer].
Admin commands: /op and roles
To make a player admin on a Vintage Story server, run /op PlayerName in the console. It is shorthand for /player PlayerName role admin. You can’t op yourself from chat until you already have rights, so do the first one from the console. Without console access, put /op YourName in StartupCommands in serverconfig.json and restart.
Admin is only one of nine built-in roles. Give trusted friends a moderator role instead of full admin:
| Role code | What it can do |
|---|---|
suvisitor |
Look around and chat. Can’t place, break or use anything. |
limitedsuplayer |
Survival, but only builds where permitted. |
suplayer |
Normal survival player (the default for new joiners). Can claim land. |
crplayer |
Creative player: flies and sets its own game mode. |
sumod |
Survival moderator: builds everywhere, kicks, bans, makes announcements. |
crmod |
Creative moderator: the same, plus fly and game mode control over others. |
admin |
Everything, including making other admins. |
The other two are crvisitor and limitedcrplayer, the creative versions of visitor and limited player. Change a role with /player Name role sumod; check one with /player Name role. Fine-grained rights work too: /player Name privilege grant tp or revoke. /list roles and /list privileges show what exists on your server.
Whitelist and access commands
Dedicated Vintage Story servers have been whitelisted by default since 1.20, so nobody can join until you add them. Use /whitelist add Name (or /player Name whitelist on) and /whitelist remove Name. To let anyone with the address in, switch the whitelist off with /serverconfig whitelistmode off. A password is a separate lock you can add on top.
/whitelist add Rowan
/whitelist remove Rowan
/serverconfig whitelistmode off (on | off | default, or 2 | 1 | 0)
/serverconfig password hearthfire (no spaces allowed)
/serverconfig nopasswordAll the options behind these, and how they sit in the config file, are in Vintage Story server settings explained.
Kick, ban and moderation commands
Moderation in Vintage Story comes down to five commands: /kick, /ban, /unban, /hardban and /list. Moderators (sumod, crmod) and admins can use them. One rule catches people out: you can’t kick or ban someone whose role is equal to or higher than yours, so two admins can’t ban each other.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/kick Name [reason] |
Disconnects the player. They can rejoin. |
/ban Name … |
Bans with a duration and a reason. Run /help ban for the exact format your version wants. |
/hardban Name |
Bans forever, no reason needed. |
/unban Name |
Lifts a ban. |
/list clients |
Who is online right now. /list banned shows bans. |
/announce message |
Sends a message to every chat group. |
/land adminfreehere |
Removes the land claim where you stand (admin use). /land adminfree Name deletes all of that player’s claims. |
Server config commands: /serverconfig
Most Vintage Story server config commands are subcommands of /serverconfig (short form /sc). Run one with no value to read the current setting, or with a value to change it. The server writes the change into serverconfig.json for you, so you don’t have to stop the server to edit the file. Some changes need a restart to take full effect.
| Command | Changes |
|---|---|
/serverconfig maxclients 20 |
Player cap (default 16) |
/serverconfig allowpvp false |
Player-versus-player damage |
/serverconfig allowfirespread false |
Fire spreading to nearby blocks |
/serverconfig allowfallingblocks false |
Sand and gravel falling |
/serverconfig passtimewhenempty true |
Keep the calendar running when nobody is online |
/serverconfig maxchunkradius 10 |
Furthest view distance players may load, in chunks |
/serverconfig welcome Hi {0}! |
Join message (motd works too) |
/serverconfig advertise on |
List the server publicly |
/serverconfig setspawnhere |
Default spawn point to where you stand |
/serverconfig afkkickseconds 1800 |
Kick idle players after this many seconds (0 = off) |
/serverconfig autosaveintervall 600 |
Seconds between autosaves (spelled with two Ls) |
/serverconfig modblacklist add modid |
Turn away players who run a given client mod |
On some hosted servers a few of these (max clients, chunk radius, tick time) are locked, and the server answers “Can’t access this feature, this server is in hosted mode.”
World config commands: /worldconfig
World rules such as death punishment, temporal storms and creature hostility are changed with /worldconfig <setting> <value>. Type the setting name with no value to see what it is now. The server replies “Ok, value … set. Restart game world or server to apply changes,” so restart afterwards. Names are case-sensitive: deathPunishment, not deathpunishment.
/worldconfig deathPunishment keep (drop | keep)
/worldconfig temporalStorms rare (off | veryrare | rare | sometimes | often | veryoften)
/worldconfig creatureHostility passive (aggressive | passive | off)
/worldconfig playerlives 3 (-1 = unlimited)
/worldconfig daysPerMonth 12 (default 9; longer seasons)Some world-generation options (climate, world size, starting climate) can only be set when the world is created. If a setting has never been stored in your save, create it with /worldconfigcreate bool colorAccurateWorldmap true (data types: bool, int, float, double, string).
Save and backup commands
The Vintage Story server save command is /autosavenow: it writes the world to disk straight away. The server already autosaves every 300 seconds by default. For a copy you can roll back to, run /genbackup, which saves a full copy of the world into the data folder’s Backups folder without pausing the game. Run it before updates and before adding or removing mods.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/autosavenow |
Saves the world now. |
/genbackup [name] |
Full copy into Backups; named by date and time if you give no name. Same as /db backup. |
/db vacuum |
Repacks the save file to make it smaller. |
/db prune … |
Deletes barely-touched chunks so they regenerate. Only a dry run unless you add confirm. Irreversible, so back up first. |
If /autosavenow answers “Server is currently doing a backup”, wait for the backup to finish. Repeated “server is already saving” warnings in the log point to slow disk I/O.
Vintage Story server restart command: how to restart
There is no /restart server command in Vintage Story. Restarting means /stop, which saves and shuts the server down cleanly, followed by starting it again. How you start it again depends on where it runs: the shortcut or .bat on Windows, server.sh restart on Linux (which does exactly stop plus start), or your host’s panel.
- Windows: type
/stopin the console, wait for the window to close, then launch it again. - Linux with the bundled script:
server/server.sh restart, orserver.sh stopthenstart. - systemd:
systemctl restart vintagestoryserver.service; a cron line gives you a nightly restart (see the Vintage Story dedicated server guide). - Warn players first:
/announce Restarting in 5 minutes. - Hosted: on Vintage Story server hosting the panel or the AI copilot restarts it for you.
Restart after changing world config, after adding mods, and after editing serverconfig.json by hand.
Time and weather commands
Time commands control the calendar: /time set morning, /time stop and /time resume, /time setmonth may, and /time calendarspeedmul for longer or shorter days. The wiki warns that changing time often has side effects on a world, so test in a copy or make a backup first.
/time set 12or a word:sunrise,day,sunset,night,midnightand more./time calendarspeedmul 0.25: lower values mean longer days (0.5 gives two real seconds per game minute). The developers recommend this over/time speed./time hoursperday 24: hours in a game day./weather stoprain: skips ahead to dry weather./weatheralone prints the current state./nexttempstorm: days until the next temporal storm.
Game mode, teleport and item commands
Admins can switch game modes with /gamemode creative (or /gm c, since mode names can be shortened), teleport with /tp, and spawn things with /giveitem and /giveblock. These are the “cheat” commands, handy for fixing a lost inventory or building spawn.
/gamemode Rowan survival (guest | survival | creative | spectator)
/tp Rowan (teleport to Rowan)
/tp Rowan 500 120 -300 (teleport Rowan to coordinates)
/giveitem <itemcode> 10 Rowan
/player Rowan clearinvPerformance and debug commands
When the server lags, start with /stats: it shows uptime, memory use, average tick time, ticks per second, loaded chunks and entities, and players online. Then use /debug logticks 100 to log every tick slower than 100 ms, and /wgen pregen to generate terrain in advance so exploring players don’t overload it.
/chunk forceload x1 z1 x2 z2keeps an area loaded until the next restart./birremaps block IDs, which fixes broken blocks after you remove or update a mod./moddb install modidinstalls a mod from the ModDB. The full mod workflow is in how to add mods to a Vintage Story server.
When a command doesn’t work
When a Vintage Story command fails, it is almost always one of four things: you lack the privilege, you typed the brackets from the docs, a /worldconfig name has the wrong capitals, or the command changed in a newer version. /help <command> on your own server settles the last one.
| What you see | Fix |
|---|---|
| “No such command” or nothing in chat | Check your role with /player YourName role; get opped from the console. |
| “Can’t kick or ban a player with a superior or equal group level” | Use an account with a higher role, or lower theirs first. |
| “Command not available. Disabled probably by the host.” or “Can’t access this feature, this server is in hosted mode” | Your host has locked that command or setting; change the value another way, or ask them. |
| “No such config found” | Fix the capitals, or create it with /worldconfigcreate. |
| The value changed but nothing happened | Restart the world or server. |
Skip the setup: let the copilot run the commands
Remembering which setting lives under /serverconfig and which under /worldconfig is optional. On GameTeam’s Vintage Story server hosting the built-in AI copilot runs server commands for you from the panel. Type “whitelist Rowan and Ash, make Ash a moderator, keep inventories on death and back up the world” and it runs /whitelist add, /player Ash role sumod, /worldconfig deathPunishment keep and /genbackup, then restarts the server so the world rule applies. You pay per GB of RAM, from $0.49/GB a week (or $1.99/GB billed monthly), with unlimited slots and no ports to forward.
FAQ
Is there a Vintage Story restart server command?
No. Use /stop, then start the server again. On Linux, server.sh restart does both in one go; on a hosted server, use the panel’s restart button.
What is the Vintage Story server save command?
/autosavenow saves immediately. /genbackup makes a separate copy of the world in the Backups folder, which is what you want before risky changes.
How do I give myself admin on my own server?
Type /op YourName in the server console. If you only have file access, set "StartupCommands": "/op YourName" in serverconfig.json and restart.
How do I see all commands in game?
Run /help for the server commands you are allowed to use, or type .chb to open the Command Handbook.
Do server config commands survive a restart?
Yes. /serverconfig changes are written into serverconfig.json, and /worldconfig changes are stored in the world save.
Can I use admin commands in singleplayer?
Yes. A singleplayer world runs its own internal server and you are its admin, so the same / commands work there.