How to become an admin on your Barotrauma server

Barotrauma permissions are granted per player and stored in clientpermissions.xml. The console does the work for you, so you rarely need to touch the file.

1. Join the server once

The server has to have seen the player before it can grant them anything. Have them connect, then leave them connected while you do this.

2. Grant permissions from the panel console

1. Open the Console tab in the Game Panel.
2. Run giveperm "PlayerName" all to give every permission.
3. Or run giverank "PlayerName" admin to give the admin rank, which is a preset bundle of permissions.

Quotation marks matter when the name has a space in it. The console confirms what was granted.

3. Useful console commands

• listclients or status shows who is connected.
• kick "PlayerName" and ban "PlayerName" for moderation.
• revokeperm "PlayerName" all takes permissions away.
• endround and startgame control the round from outside the game.

Commands typed into the panel console run as the server itself, so they always work, even when you are not in game.

4. Where it is stored

Grants are written to clientpermissions.xml in the server root. You can edit it directly while the server is stopped, one entry per player. Doing it in the console avoids the formatting mistakes that make the whole file fail to load.

5. If permissions disappear

• Permissions are tied to the account the player joined with. A different account is a different player as far as the server is concerned.
• If clientpermissions.xml is not valid XML, the server starts with nobody having permissions. Check the console during boot.
• Editing the file while the server runs loses the change on shutdown.

Open a ticket if a grant is confirmed in the console but does not work in game, and include the console output.