How to Add an Admin to Your Quake Live Server

Quake Live manages admin rights, moderator rights and bans together in a single text file: access.txt. What you enter is the player's SteamID64 — a 17-digit number starting with 7656.

Tip

Here you can find a guide on how to find your SteamID64. Alternatively, connect to a server and enter /players in the in-game console — the output contains the SteamID64 of every connected player.

Permission levels

Level	Meaning
mod	Moderator — may manage players, for example mute them or remove them from the server
admin	Administrator — the highest level in access.txt, includes the moderator rights
ban	Not a permission but a ban: the player can no longer join the server

Add an admin through access.txt

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

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

3. Open access.txt
   Open the following file. If it does not exist yet, create it:

   /baseq3/access.txt

4. Enter the SteamID64
   Add one entry per line, consisting of the SteamID64 and the permission level, separated by a |:

   76561198012345678|admin
   76561198087654321|mod

   Lines starting with # are comments and are ignored.

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

Important

Only edit access.txt while the server is stopped. The server writes the access list from memory back to the file before every map load — changes you save while the server is running get overwritten in the process.

Note

The baseq3 directory sits in the main directory of your server, so the full path is /home/container/baseq3/. Which file the server uses is controlled by the server variable g_accessFile — the default is access.txt.

Grant rights while the server is running

You can also grant rights without stopping the server. To do so, use the console of your server in the dashboard.

1. Find the client ID
   The commands expect the client ID — the number the server assigns to a connected player. To look it up, connect to your server in the game and enter the following command in the in-game console:

   /players

   The output lists every connected player with their client ID and their SteamID64.

2. Open the console
   Open the console of your server via the dashboard.

3. Grant the rights
   Enter the desired command, for example:

   addadmin 3

Command	Description
addadmin <client ID>	Make a player an administrator
addmod <client ID>	Make a player a moderator
demote <client ID>	Remove a player's admin privileges
reload_access	Re-read access.txt

Note

In the console of your server you enter the commands without a leading /. In the game you use the same commands with a leading /, for example /addadmin 3 or /demote 3.

Warning

reload_access does re-read the file immediately, but the server still overwrites it with its own state on the next map change. For permanent changes, editing the file with the server stopped is the safer route.

Security note on remote administration

The bundled server.cfg enables the ZeroMQ remote console (zmq_rcon_enable "1") and ships with the placeholder password ADMINPASSWORD.

Important

Administer your server through the console in the dashboard. If you do not use the remote console, set the following value in /baseq3/server.cfg:

set zmq_rcon_enable "0"

If you do want to use it, always set your own long password via zmq_rcon_password and create the port configured in zmq_rcon_port as an additional port allocation in the dashboard beforehand. The remote console binds to its own TCP port, not to the Game Port.

Tip

To learn how to remove players from your server as an admin, see Kick & Ban Players.

Note

The plugin framework minqlx comes with its own, separate permission system. It is only available if your server is explicitly run with a minqlx image — on a standard Quake Live server only access.txt applies.