How to Add an Admin to Your Colony Survival Server

Colony Survival manages permissions through groups. Every player starts in the group peasant; they get admin rights once you assign them a higher group. On a fresh server, however, nobody is allowed to make that assignment in-game yet – which is why you define the first admin through a file.

The permission groups

Add the first admin

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard.

2. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

3. Open or create the file
   Navigate to the folder of your world and open the file permissionusers.json there. <worldname> is the folder name of your world – it matches the World Name field in the dashboard:

   /gamedata/savegames/<worldname>/permissionusers.json
   

4. Enter the SteamID64
   Add your SteamID64 together with the group god. Important: the SteamID64 is prefixed with 1. – that prefix marks a Steam player and is mandatory:

   {
     "1.76561198012345678": {
       "includes": ["god"]
     }
   }
   

   Separate multiple admins with a comma:

   {
     "1.76561198012345678": {
       "includes": ["god"]
     },
     "1.76561198087654321": {
       "includes": ["king"]
     }
   }
   

5. Start the server
   Save the file and start your server.

6. Check your permissions
   Join your server, press T to open the chat and enter an admin command, for example:

   /reloadpermission
   

   If the command goes through, you have admin rights. If you lack the rights, the server tells you that the matching permission is missing.

Add more admins in the game

Once you are in the group god yourself, you can grant all further permissions conveniently through the chat.

1. Open the chat
   Press T in the game to open the chat.

2. Assign the group
   Assign the desired group to the player – either by their player name or by their SteamID64:

   /setgroup god Sam
   

   /setgroup king 76561198012345678
   

3. Revoke permissions
   To take the rights back, remove the group again:

   /removegroup god Sam
   

Command overview

Create custom permission groups