Project Zomboid Config Editor: INI, Sandbox Vars and Spawn Regions

A Project Zomboid dedicated server is configured through three files it writes into its Zomboid/Server folder once a world has been created: <SERVER_NAME>.ini for the flat server options, <SERVER_NAME>_SandboxVars.lua for the difficulty and world settings, and <SERVER_NAME>_spawnregions.lua for the list of maps players can spawn on. The Project Zomboid Config Editor on a Loafhosts server pulls all three into one place and turns them into a type-aware form — toggles, number boxes with sane limits, dropdowns with the game’s own option labels, and a map picker — so you never have to open an FTP client or hand-edit Lua. This guide walks through exactly what the editor does, how each of the three files is presented, how to seed them before the first boot, and the one rule that catches everyone: nothing applies until you restart. Everything below describes the panel as it really behaves — no invented buttons.

What the Project Zomboid Config Editor Does

The Config Editor exposes the three files a PZ dedicated server uses and lets you change them directly in your browser inside LoafHub. Instead of downloading a file, editing it locally and uploading it back, you open the editor, change values in a form, and save. Each file is presented the way it’s meant to be edited: the server INI as labelled server options, the SandboxVars as grouped difficulty settings, and the spawn regions as a simple checklist of maps.

The form is type-aware because the editor knows what each setting is. A toggle for an on/off option, a number box with a minimum and maximum for things like player count, a dropdown for the multiple-choice settings, and a multi-line box for long text like your welcome message. The setting labels, tooltips and dropdown choices for the world settings come from Project Zomboid’s own translation data, so what you see in the panel matches what you’d see in the game’s host screen.

Note: The editor reads and writes the three files in Zomboid/Server — the server INI, the SandboxVars Lua, and the spawn-regions Lua

Note: Everything is edited in your browser inside LoafHub — no FTP client or SSH access is required

Note: Settings are shown as typed form controls (toggles, numbers, dropdowns, text) with help text, not as a raw file you have to format by hand

Open the Config Editor

Every tool in the panel starts the same way: sign in, open your server, and pick the tool from the sidebar.

1. Sign in to LoafHub at hub.loafhosts.com
2. Open your Project Zomboid server from your server list
3. Open the Config Editor from the server’s tool sidebar
4. Choose what you want to change: the server INI options, the Sandbox world settings, or the spawn-region maps
5. Make your changes, then save

The editor only works on a Project Zomboid server, and it has to be switched on for that server. If you don’t see it or it tells you it isn’t active, an administrator needs to enable the Config Editor plugin for the Project Zomboid egg — it’s an opt-in tool, not on by default. Once enabled, anyone with permission to view the server’s config can read it, and anyone with permission to update config can save changes.

Tip: If the editor reports the plugin isn’t active for the server, ask whoever manages your hosting to enable it for the Project Zomboid egg — it’s a one-time admin step

Tip: Bookmark hub.loafhosts.com so you can jump straight to your server for a quick edit

Bootstrap: Seeding the Files Before First Boot

Project Zomboid only writes these three files after a world has been initialised — that is, after the server has booted at least once. On a brand-new server that hasn’t started yet, the files don’t exist, so the editor shows a Bootstrap action instead of an error. Bootstrap creates any missing file with sensible defaults so all three sections have something to show before that first boot.

When you bootstrap, the server INI is seeded with a working set of defaults, the spawn regions are seeded with the four base-game maps, and the SandboxVars file is seeded from Project Zomboid’s own canonical Survival preset. If the Survival preset isn’t on disk yet — for example the game files haven’t finished downloading — the editor writes an empty SandboxVars scaffold instead, which you can then fill in. Bootstrap is idempotent: running it again once the files exist does nothing, so it’s always safe to click.

Note: The three files only appear after the world is created on the first boot — until then the editor offers Bootstrap rather than showing an error

Note: Bootstrap seeds the INI with defaults, the spawn regions with the four base-game maps, and SandboxVars from the game’s Survival difficulty preset

Tip: Re-running Bootstrap after the files already exist is a no-op, so you can’t overwrite your settings by clicking it twice

The Server INI: Identity, PvP, Loot and More

The server INI holds the flat key = value server options — the same ones you’d set on the game’s host screen. The editor groups the most important ones into six categories so you edit the right thing in the right place:

• Server Identity — Public Name, Public Description, public listing on or off, server password, welcome message, max players, ping limit, and whether the server is open to new players.
• PvP & Safety — PvP on or off, the safety system and its indicator, and the melee and firearm PvP damage percentages.
• Loot Respawn — how often loot respawns, the respawn cooldown in hours, the max items per respawn, and whether player constructions block respawning.
• Sleep & World Save — pause when empty, the auto-save interval in minutes, and whether sleeping is allowed.
• Map / Spawn / Mods — the active map list, spawn point, Workshop items and active mods.
• RCON & Voice — the RCON port and password, and the voice-chat toggles.

Each setting uses the right control for its type. Max Players is a number box capped between 1 and 100 (default 32). Ping Limit is a number in milliseconds where 0 disables it. Loot Respawn is a dropdown with the in-game choices — None, Every Day, Every Week, Every Month, Every 2 Months, Every 6 Months. The PvP damage modifiers are percentages where 100 is normal. Password and RCON Password are marked as secret fields because they’re stored in plaintext on disk, so pick unique values.

Beyond the curated categories, the editor recognises the full set of roughly ninety server options — including the entire anti-cheat protection family — and surfaces the rest under a “show all settings” expander as plain text fields. That means even an obscure option has a place to live without breaking the form.

Note: The Map, Workshop Items and Active Mods fields are normally filled in for you by the separate Project Zomboid Mod Manager — you rarely edit them here by hand

Note: When you do set the Map list manually, “Muldraugh, KY” must be the final entry — it’s the implicit base map

Tip: Password and RCON Password sit in plaintext in the file on disk, so use long, unique values rather than something you reuse elsewhere

Sandbox Vars: Tuning the World

The SandboxVars file is the survival preset — the dial-by-dial difficulty and world tuning you’d normally set on the game’s sandbox screen. The editor flattens it into a grouped form and pulls every label, tooltip and dropdown option from Project Zomboid’s own data, so the wording matches the game. The curated groups are:

• Zombie Population — overall zombie count, distribution, and the population, respawn-hours and respawn multipliers.
• Zombie Lore — speed, strength, toughness and transmission.
• Time & Climate — day length, temperature and rain.
• Loot Rarity — food, weapon, medical and ammo rarity.
• Character — the XP multiplier and how fast stats decrease.

The multiple-choice settings are dropdowns using the game’s exact option names, so Zombie Count, Speed, Day Length and the loot-rarity settings read the same way they do in-game. The continuous settings are number boxes with limits — for example the zombie population multiplier runs from 0.0 to 4.0, where 4.0 is Insane and 0.0 is None, and the XP multiplier runs from 0 to 10. As with the INI, the curated groups cover the settings most people change, and the full long tail of SandboxVars is available under a “show all settings” expander so nothing is hidden.

Note: SandboxVars settings are addressed by their grouped paths, like the population multiplier living under the zombie config group — the editor handles that for you in the form

Note: The dropdown choices and tooltips come from Project Zomboid’s own translation files, so they match the game’s sandbox screen

Tip: SandboxVars has to exist before you can edit it — if it’s missing, Bootstrap it first (or boot the server once) and the form will populate

Spawn Regions: Choosing Your Maps

The spawn-regions file decides which maps players can choose to spawn on. The editor turns it into a checklist of available maps, and saving writes the whole list back in the format Project Zomboid expects. The four base-game maps — Muldraugh, West Point, Rosewood and Riverside — are always available, with Muldraugh pinned to the top as the canonical starting town.

If you’ve installed Workshop map mods through the Project Zomboid Mod Manager, the maps those mods provide are discovered automatically and added to the picker, so you can enable them alongside the base maps. The discovery uses the mod manager’s catalogue rather than scanning the disk, which keeps the page fast. If a map mod was installed some other way — by SFTP, bypassing the mod manager — its maps may not appear in the picker; in that case you can still add the map by typing its name into the Map list in the server INI.

Note: Saving the spawn regions replaces the whole list with exactly the maps you’ve selected — it’s a full rewrite, not a merge

Note: Workshop map mods show up automatically once they’ve been installed through the Mod Manager

Tip: The four base maps are always available; you only need a Workshop mod for anything beyond Muldraugh, West Point, Rosewood and Riverside

Saving and Restarting

This is the rule that catches almost everyone. The editor writes your changes to disk and nothing more — it never restarts your server for you. Project Zomboid reads the server INI when it boots, and reads the SandboxVars and spawn-region files when the world loads, so a server that’s already running keeps using the old values even though the editor shows the new ones. After you save, the editor surfaces a non-blocking banner reminding you a restart is needed.

1. Make your changes and save in the editor
2. Note the “restart required” banner that appears after a save
3. Restart the server from its console or power controls
4. Wait for the server to finish loading
5. Reconnect and confirm the new settings are live

Because all three files share the same save flow, you can change the INI, the SandboxVars and the spawn regions in one session and then do a single restart at the end rather than one per change.

Tip: Batch your edits across all three sections, then restart once — there’s no benefit to restarting between saves

Note: Saves are protected by a short per-server lock, so a config save and a mod install can’t collide and corrupt the file

Permissions and the Mod Manager

Viewing the editor needs the server’s read-config permission; saving needs the update-config permission. That’s the same permission pair the panel uses for its other game config editors, so a sub-user you’ve already trusted with config access elsewhere can use this one too. The plugin itself is enabled per server by an administrator scoping it to the Project Zomboid egg.

The Config Editor has a sibling, the Project Zomboid Mod Manager, which edits the same INI from a different angle — only the Map, Workshop Items and Mods keys. The two are deliberately separate so you can grant one without the other: someone can be allowed to tune the world and server options without being able to install mods, or vice versa. They share a save lock, so editing config in one never clobbers a mod install in the other.

Note: Read access shows the editor; update access lets you save — the same config permissions used by the panel’s other config editors

Note: The Mod Manager handles Workshop items and active mods; the Config Editor handles everything else — they’re separate tools on purpose

Frequently Asked Questions

Where are the Project Zomboid config files I’m editing?

All three live in your server’s Zomboid/Server folder: the server options in <SERVER_NAME>.ini, the world/difficulty settings in <SERVER_NAME>_SandboxVars.lua, and the map list in <SERVER_NAME>_spawnregions.lua. The editor reads and writes those files for you, so you don’t have to find or format them yourself.

Why does the editor show a Bootstrap button instead of my settings?

Project Zomboid only creates those three files after the world is initialised on the first boot. On a fresh server they don’t exist yet, so the editor offers Bootstrap, which seeds any missing file with defaults — the base-game maps for spawn regions and the game’s Survival preset for SandboxVars. Bootstrap is safe to run and does nothing if the files already exist.

Do I need FTP to edit my Project Zomboid server config?

No. The Config Editor runs entirely in your browser inside LoafHub. You open and save the files directly in the panel, so no FTP client or SSH access is needed.

Why didn’t my change take effect?

Because the server was already running. Project Zomboid reads the INI at boot and the SandboxVars and spawn-region files when the world loads, so saved changes only apply after a restart. Save your edits, then restart the server and reconnect — the editor shows a restart reminder after every save for exactly this reason.

Can I add a custom map to spawn regions?

Yes — install the Workshop map mod through the Project Zomboid Mod Manager and its maps appear automatically in the spawn-region picker, alongside the four base-game maps. If a map was added outside the Mod Manager and doesn’t show up in the picker, you can still enter its name in the Map list on the server INI.