Every Factorio dedicated server reads its listing, access, autosave, and performance settings from a single file called data/server-settings.json. On a Factorio server you host with Loafhosts, you do not have to open that file by hand or worry about a stray comma breaking it. The Config Editor reads server-settings.json, lays the settings out as a clean, grouped form with a one-line tip under each one, and lets you search the whole file instantly. This guide explains what the Factorio Config Editor does, how to open it, what each group of settings covers, why a few keys are locked, and when a change needs a restart. This feature is in BETA.
What the Factorio Config Editor Does
The Config Editor is a form-based editor for one file: data/server-settings.json, the settings file Factorio reads when its server process boots. Instead of a raw JSON object, it shows you a labelled control for each setting, a text box, a number field, a dropdown, or an on/off toggle depending on what the setting expects, with a short explanation of what it does. Your input is validated before anything is written: numbers must be whole and inside the allowed range, dropdown values must be one of the listed options, and toggles are written as true or false. If a value is out of range or the wrong type, the save is rejected and the on-disk file is left exactly as it was.
Note: The Config Editor edits
data/server-settings.jsononly, the main dedicated-server settings file.Note: Values are checked against an allowed range or list before saving, so a bad entry is caught before it reaches the server.
Opening the Config Editor
The editor appears automatically on Factorio servers. Open your server in the Loafhosts panel and look in the left sidebar under the Game section for the configuration item for Factorio. Click it to open the Config Editor page. The page loads over your normal server view, so your sidebar and the live status header at the top stay in place while you work.
The item only shows up on a Factorio server; on any other game it is hidden, because the editor understands server-settings.json specifically. If your server has never started, server-settings.json may not exist on disk yet, since it is created from Factorio’s default template on first install. Start the server once so the file exists, then come back to the editor.
Tip: If the editor says no settings were found, start the server once to generate the file, then reopen the editor.
How the Settings Are Grouped
The form splits server-settings.json into four groups so you can find a setting without scrolling the whole file:
- Listing (how your server appears to players): server name, description, max players, whether it is publicly listed in Factorio’s server browser, and whether it is visible on the local network.
- Access (who can join and what they can do once they’re in): requiring verified factorio.com accounts, letting returning players rejoin a full server, who may use in-game console commands (everyone, no one, or admins only), and pause behavior for admins and empty servers.
- Autosave (save cadence and idle handling): autosave interval, how many autosave slots to rotate through, whether only the server writes autosaves, and the AFK auto-kick timer.
- Performance (bandwidth controls for the initial map sync new players download when they join): max concurrent upload slots and the upload speed cap.
Each setting carries a one-line tip explaining what it does. For example, the tip on max upload slots notes it caps how many players can download the map at once, and the tip on public visibility notes it requires a valid factorio.com account token to work.
Tip: A short explanation sits under every setting’s label, written to help you decide, not just describe the key.
Tip: Use the search box at the top of the editor to jump straight to a setting by name.
Universal Search
Above the form is a “Search settings…” box. Type into it and the editor filters the form in real time, showing only the rows that match. The search looks at setting names, so you can search by what a setting is called, such as “autosave”, “public”, or “pause”. Clearing the box brings the whole form back.
Locked Settings and Why They Are Read-Only
Four settings are shown with a lock icon and cannot be edited here: username, password, token, and game_password. These are the credential-shaped keys in server-settings.json, so the editor treats them as sensitive and refuses to write them under any circumstances, both to keep them out of a form you might screenshot or share, and because two of them are already managed elsewhere.
Specifically, username and token mirror the Server Username and Server Token fields on your server’s Startup tab. Set them there, and the server writes them into the file automatically the next time it starts; editing the file directly would just be overwritten. password and game_password do not currently have a Startup-tab equivalent, since the shipped configuration has no dedicated join-password variable. If you need to restrict who can join, use the Access group’s verified-account requirement together with keeping public and LAN visibility off, rather than a password.
Note: Locked settings (shown with a lock icon) are managed elsewhere, not edited in this file.
Note: Username and token are populated from the Startup tab’s Server Username and Server Token fields; password and game_password have no panel-managed equivalent today.
Overlap With the Startup Tab
A handful of unlocked settings in the form, name, description, max players, autosave interval, autosave slots, and the AFK auto-kick timer, are also written from Startup-tab variables (Server Name, Server Description, a plan-level max player ceiling, Auto Save Interval, Auto Save Slots, and AFK Kick) every time the server starts. If you edit one of these fields in the Config Editor without also updating the matching Startup variable, your Config Editor change can be silently overwritten back to the Startup value on the next restart.
For these specific fields, the safest habit is to make your edit in the Startup tab, not the Config Editor, so the value survives every future restart. Use the Config Editor for the settings that have no Startup equivalent: visibility, access control, pause behavior, autosave-only-on-server, and the performance limits.
Note: Name, description, max players, autosave interval, autosave slots, and AFK auto-kick timer are re-applied from the Startup tab on every server start. Set these on the Startup tab, not in the Config Editor, if you want the value to stick.
How Changes Apply: Restart Required
After you make changes, click Save changes. The editor writes only the settings you changed to server-settings.json and confirms how many it saved. Because Factorio reads server-settings.json at boot, your changes are not live until the server reads the file again.
- Every setting in this file applies on the next restart. There is no live-reload for
server-settings.json; Factorio reads it once at process start. - The save itself only changes the file. Nothing is applied until you restart, so you can make several edits, save, and then do a single restart to bring them all in at once.
Note: Saving writes the file but does not apply the change; restart the server to load the new settings.
What This Editor Does Not Cover
server-settings.json is the server’s own listing and access configuration. It does not include world generation, which lives in data/map-gen-settings.json and data/map-settings.json. Those two files only take effect at the moment a save is created, so they are edited through the File Manager rather than this form; changing them after your world already exists has no effect on that world. This editor also does not manage your save file itself, ports, or RCON, all of which are handled from the server’s Startup tab and allocation settings.
Tip: If you want different world generation (resource richness, terrain scale, enemy evolution), edit map-gen-settings.json or map-settings.json through the File Manager before your first boot or before starting a fresh save, not through this editor.
Putting It Together
The Factorio Config Editor turns server-settings.json from a file you would otherwise hand-edit into a guided form: grouped settings with plain-English tips, instant search, validation that stops bad values before they reach disk, and clear locking on the credential fields that are managed elsewhere. Set your name, description, and autosave cadence on the Startup tab, use this editor for visibility, access, and performance tuning, save, restart, and your Factorio server is running exactly the way you want. This feature is in BETA, so if you spot a setting behaving unexpectedly, let support know.