Space Engineers keeps its dedicated-server settings spread across a handful of XML files rather than a single flat config, which makes hand-editing them a good way to break a world if you get a tag wrong. The Space Engineers Config Editor is a BETA feature in the Loafhosts panel that gives you a safer, in-browser way to open and edit two of those files without an FTP client or the File Manager. This guide explains exactly what the editor touches, how the settings are organized, what is locked and why, and when a change actually takes effect.
Note: This feature is in BETA. It covers the two dedicated-server settings files described below; it does not yet manage Steam Workshop mod IDs, which live in a separate file.
What the Space Engineers Config Editor Does
The editor gives you direct, in-panel access to two files:
SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfgat/config/SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg: the main dedicated-server config. Despite the.cfgextension, the content is XML (root elementMyConfigDedicated), and it is the file the server reads at boot for its core settings: game mode, max players, autosave behavior, ports, server name and description, and the path to the active world.Sandbox_config.sbcat/config/Saves/<WorldName>/Sandbox_config.sbc: a world-level mirror of the same core settings (root elementMyObjectBuilder_WorldConfiguration), stored alongside your actual world save.
Both files are genuinely nested XML rather than a simple key-value list, so unlike some other games’ config editors on Loafhosts, this one does not break every setting out into its own labelled field with a tip underneath. Instead, each file opens as a direct XML editor, with the settings loosely organized under World, Server, and Network so you have a sense of what you are looking at, but you are still editing the underlying XML rather than filling in individual form controls. If you are comfortable with the layout of SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg, this is a much faster way to change it than downloading it, editing it locally, and re-uploading through the File Manager.
Note: The Config Editor edits
SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfgandSandbox_config.sbconly. It does not editSandbox.sbc, the third file in the set, which holds your world’s checkpoint data and its Steam Workshop<Mods>list (that file is edited through the File Manager for now).Note: Because both files are XML, the editor works as a structured text editor rather than a fully broken-out settings form. Keep tags balanced and attributes quoted the way they already are in the file.
Opening the Config Editor
Open your Space Engineers server in the Loafhosts panel and look in the sidebar under the Game section for a Server Config item (near Change Game). Click it to open the Space Engineers Config Editor. It only appears on Space Engineers servers.
If the server has never been started, these files will not exist on disk yet, since they are created by the install script when the world template is first unpacked. Start the server once, then come back and the editor will find both files.
Tip: If the editor reports no file found, start the server once so it can finish its first install and generate the config and world files, then reopen the editor.
The Two Files and Their Settings Groups
SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg is organized into three groups:
- World: the load path for the active world (built from your World Name) and world-affecting flags like Experimental Mode and in-game scripts.
- Server: game mode, max players, server name and description, autosave on/off, and the autosave interval.
- Network: the main server port, the Steam port used for server-browser visibility, and the Remote API port.
Sandbox_config.sbc carries a single World group, since it exists purely as a per-world mirror of the same core settings (game mode, max players, autosave behavior, experimental mode, and in-game scripts) rather than anything server-wide.
Between the two files, you can adjust the same handful of settings that matter day to day: whether the world is Survival or Creative, how many players can join, whether saving is on, how often it autosaves, and whether Experimental Mode and in-game scripts are enabled. Ports, the server name, and the world load path are also visible in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg, but several of them are locked, as covered below.
Tip: Because
SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfgandSandbox_config.sbcmirror several of the same values, keep them consistent if you edit both. The install script templates them together on a fresh install, but a manual edit to only one of them will not automatically update the other.
No Presets
Unlike some other games’ config editors on Loafhosts, Space Engineers does not currently ship any one-click presets. There is no Casual, Hardcore, or PvP preset button here; every change is a direct edit to the file. If you want a specific gameplay profile, you set Game Mode, Maximum Players, and the saving/autosave settings by hand, the same way you would with the Startup variables.
Locked Settings and Why They Are Read-Only
Four keys in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg are locked and cannot be written from the Config Editor:
- ServerPort: tied to the network allocation assigned to your server. Change it from the Startup tab / your server’s allocation, not here.
- SteamPort: the fixed UDP port (default 8766) used for Steam server-browser discovery. It is managed alongside your allocation.
- RemoteApiPort: the fixed port (default 8081) the Remote API listens on when enabled. Turning the Remote API on or off is a Startup setting; the port itself is not user-editable.
- LoadWorld: the path to the active world’s checkpoint file, built directly from your World Name. It has to stay in sync with the save folder that actually exists on disk, so it is locked rather than left open to a typo that would break server start.
These are locked for the same reason ports and secrets are locked in other games’ config editors on Loafhosts: their values are tied to infrastructure the panel manages for you (your assigned allocation) or to a value that has to match something else exactly (the world’s real save-folder path). Editing them here would either be ignored on the next boot or would break the server outright, so the editor refuses to write them.
Sandbox_config.sbc has no locked keys of its own, since it is a pure per-world settings mirror with no ports or paths in it.
Note: Locked keys are enforced by the editor itself, not just hidden by convention: a save attempt that tries to change a locked key is rejected rather than silently dropped.
Tip: Need to change your server’s port or the Remote API port? Those live on the Startup / allocation side of the panel, not in this editor.
Validation
Because both files are edited as XML rather than through typed form fields, the main thing to watch for is structural validity: every opening tag needs its matching closing tag, and attribute values need to stay quoted the way the original file has them. The editor will not silently accept a save that breaks the file’s XML structure. If you are unsure about a change, make one edit at a time and save between edits, rather than rewriting a large block in one pass, so it is easier to tell which change caused a problem if the server fails to start afterward.
Tip: Keep a backup before a larger hand-edit. If a save produces a config the server cannot parse, the fastest way back to a known-good state is restoring the backup rather than debugging XML by eye.
When Changes Apply
Space Engineers reads SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg and Sandbox_config.sbc at boot, not while it is running, so a save in the Config Editor changes the file immediately but does not change the live server. Restart the server to bring the new values into play.
Two things to keep in mind beyond a plain restart:
- World Name changes never happen here. The Config Editor does not expose World Name as an editable field, because the
LoadWorldpath it feeds into is locked. World Name is set once at server creation from the Startup tab and stays fixed afterward. - Experimental Mode changes affect more than the config. Turning Experimental Mode on is required for mods and in-game scripts to load, but it also loosens some of the game’s vanilla stability guarantees. It takes effect on the next restart like any other setting here, but it is worth telling your players before you flip it on a world they already care about.
Note: Saving in the Config Editor writes the file only. Nothing changes on your live server until you restart it.
What This Editor Does Not Cover
Steam Workshop mod IDs live in Sandbox.sbc’s <Mods> block, a third file the Config Editor does not currently manage. If you are adding or removing Workshop mods, that is still a File Manager task: enable Experimental Mode here (or from Startup settings), then edit config/Saves/<WorldName>/Sandbox.sbc directly to add the mod’s Workshop item ID to the <Mods> block, and restart. See the Space Engineers server hosting setup guide for the full walkthrough.
Putting It Together
The Space Engineers Config Editor gives you a direct, in-browser way to edit SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg and Sandbox_config.sbc without pulling files down over FTP, organized into World, Server, and Network sections so you know roughly what you are looking at even though you are editing real XML. Ports, the Remote API port, and the world-load path are locked because the panel manages them or because they have to match something else exactly. There are no presets yet, so tune Game Mode, Maximum Players, and your autosave settings by hand, save, and restart the server to bring the changes live. For Steam Workshop mods, the File Manager and Sandbox.sbc are still the path until a dedicated mod manager exists for this game.