How to Add Resources to Your FiveM Server

Scripts, maps, vehicles and frameworks are all installed the same way on FiveM: as a resource. Every resource is its own folder that contains an fxmanifest.lua, sits in your server's resources directory and is started from the server.cfg.

Tip

Create a backup before installing anything. That way you can quickly return to a working state if a resource stops your server from starting.

Where is the resources folder located?

Resources are loaded from a folder called resources/ in the server data directory. Where that directory is depends on how you set up your server:

Setup	Path
Default (recommended)	/home/container/resources
txAdmin Recipe / Deployer	/home/container/txData/<ProfileName>/resources
Manual import	The folder you specified during the import

Warning

If you upload a resource into the wrong resources directory, the server will not find it. The guide Set the Game Server Port lists the same setups together with the path to the matching server.cfg.

Upload the resource

1. Stop the server
   Stop your server via the dashboard before changing any files.

2. Extract the archive
   Extract the downloaded archive on your PC. The server cannot read ZIP or RAR files.

3. Check the folder structure
   The fxmanifest.lua has to sit directly inside the resource folder. Many downloads are nested twice (for example my-script-main/my-script/) — in that case only upload the inner folder:

   resources/
   └── my-script/
       ├── fxmanifest.lua
       ├── client.lua
       └── server.lua

4. Note the folder name
   The folder name is the name of the resource — this is exactly the name you enter in the ensure line later.

   Warning

   Your servers run on Linux, so names are case sensitive. The name in the ensure line has to match the folder name exactly.

5. Connect via SFTP
   Connect to your server via SFTP.

6. Upload the folder
   Upload the resource folder into your resources directory.

Categories with square brackets

Every folder inside the resources directory is read as a resource — except folders in [square brackets]. Those are categories and may contain multiple resources:

resources/
├── [standalone]/
│   ├── script-a/
│   └── script-b/
└── my-script/

Note

You can start an entire category with a single line, for example ensure [standalone]. Frameworks such as QBCore already ship their own categories like [qb], [standalone] or [voice]. A default FiveM server comes with categories such as [system], [managers], [gameplay] and [local].

Categories can also be nested. A category name never becomes part of the resource name: a resource located at [standalone]/my-script is still simply called my-script.

Start the resource in the server.cfg

1. Open server.cfg
   Open your server's server.cfg via SFTP or through the CFG Editor in the txAdmin web interface.

2. Add the ensure line
   Add one line for every new resource:

   ensure my-script

3. Mind the order
   Resources are started in the order the lines appear in the server.cfg. Dependencies therefore have to be listed above the scripts that need them — so your framework and your database resource first, then the individual scripts.

4. Start the server
   Save the file and start your server via the dashboard.

Note

On every server start, the dashboard rewrites the lines endpoint_add_tcp, endpoint_add_udp, sv_hostname, set sv_licenseKey, set steam_webApiKey and sv_maxclients in the server.cfg. Your ensure lines and all other custom entries are kept.

ensure, start and stop compared

Command	Effect
ensure <name>	Starts the resource. If it is already running, it is restarted.
start <name>	Starts the resource if it was stopped.
stop <name>	Stops the resource if it was started.
restart <name>	Restarts a running resource.
refresh	Rescans the resources folder so newly uploaded resources become available.

ensure, start, stop and restart all work with category names as well.

Tip

Always use ensure in the server.cfg. That guarantees the resource is running after the start, no matter whether it was already active before.

Check the console

After the start, watch the console in the dashboard — or the Live Console in txAdmin if you use it. Typical messages:

• Started resource <name> — the resource started successfully.
• Couldn't find resource <name>. — the folder name does not match the ensure line, or the folder is in the wrong resources directory.
• <name> does not have a resource manifest (fxmanifest.lua) — the fxmanifest.lua is missing from the folder. This typically happens when a doubly nested folder was uploaded.
• An error while starting a script — usually a dependency is missing or listed below the script in the server.cfg.

Tip

You can also activate an uploaded resource without a restart: run refresh in the console first, then ensure <name>. Still add the ensure line to your server.cfg so the resource is loaded again on the next server start.

Remove a resource

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

2. Remove the ensure line
   Delete the matching ensure line from the server.cfg, or comment it out with a # at the beginning of the line.

3. Delete the folder
   Delete the resource folder from the resources directory via SFTP.

4. Start the server
   Start your server and check the console for follow-up errors from other scripts that depended on the resource.

Note

Many scripts and frameworks also need a MySQL database. The guide Create Database explains how to create one and where to find the credentials.