Squad Server Config Editor: Edit Server.cfg, Rcon.cfg and More

A Squad dedicated server keeps its settings in a folder of .cfg files — Server.cfg for the gameplay and identity settings, Rcon.cfg for remote-admin access, and a set of list files like Admins.cfg, Bans.cfg, and LayerRotation.cfg. The Squad Server Config Editor on a Loafhosts server pulls every one of those files into a single page. You get a friendly form for the settings in Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg, a universal search that finds any setting by name across both files, and a plain text editor for the list files. This guide covers exactly what the editor does — where to find it, how the search and the form work, which keys are locked and why, and how your edits reach the server. Everything below describes the panel as it really behaves, with no invented buttons.

Where to Find the Server Config Editor

Open your Squad server in the panel and look in the left-hand server sidebar for Server Config. The page header reads Server Config and tells you which folder it is editing — by default /SquadGame/ServerConfig — with a one-line reminder that changes take effect after the server is restarted. The editor is Squad-only: the sidebar item checks the server when it loads and stays hidden on any other game, and the page itself shows a short notice if it is ever opened on a non-Squad server.

Viewing the page uses the standard config read sub-user permission, and saving uses config update — so a sub-user needs config read to look and config update to change anything.

Note: The Server Config page only appears on Squad servers — it self-checks on load and hides everywhere else.

Note: Viewing needs the config read sub-user permission; saving needs config update.

Note: Every change here applies after a restart — the editor writes the files, and Squad reads them when it next starts.

The Universal Search: Find Any Setting by Name

At the top of the page is a single search box: Search every setting. Type a few words — server name, max players, team balance — and the editor lists every matching setting from Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg together, each one editable right there in the results. The search is forgiving: it matches against the setting’s key, its current value, the file it lives in, and the short description the editor knows for well-known keys, and every word you type has to appear somewhere in that set. That is why typing the plain-English server name finds the ServerName key — you don’t have to know the exact spelling.

The search spans the two form files only, Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg. It does not search the list files. If a search comes up empty, the editor reminds you of that and points you back to the file dropdown — for Admins.cfg, Bans.cfg, and the like, clear the search and pick the file instead. Clearing the box (the small X on the right, or just deleting your text) drops you back to the normal file view.

Tip: Search by meaning, not spelling — team balance, vote kick, or teamkill all land on the right settings.

Note: Search covers Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg only. For list files like Admins.cfg or Bans.cfg, clear the search and choose the file from the dropdown.

Tip: The results are live editors — change a value in the search list and it joins your unsaved changes just like the form does.

Picking a File

When you are not searching, a File dropdown sits near the top. It lists every file actually present in your ServerConfig folder — the editor reads the folder live, so whatever your server ships shows up, with Server.cfg first. Next to the dropdown is a small pill telling you how that file will be edited: form editor for Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg, or text editor for everything else. The page opens on Server.cfg, where your server name lives.

Note: The file list is read live from the ServerConfig folder — there’s no fixed allowlist, so any .cfg your server keeps there is listed.

Tip: The “form editor” / “text editor” pill tells you which kind of editor you’ll get before you switch files.

The Form Editor: Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg

Choose Server.cfg or Rcon.cfg and you get the form editor: one row per setting, with a control that fits the value. The editor decides the control from the value itself — a true/false setting becomes a real on/off switch, a numeric setting with a documented range becomes a number box, and everything else — including a plain number that has no documented range — is a text field (numeric values still bring up a numeric keypad). Each row shows a friendly, spaced-out label (so PreventTeamChangeIfUnbalanced reads as Prevent Team Change If Unbalanced) with the exact key underneath in monospace, and a small mod tag appears the moment you change a value so you can see at a glance what is unsaved.

For the well-known Squad keys, an info icon sits next to the label with a short explanation — for example what MaxPlayers, NumReservedSlots, the team-balance settings, the vote-kick threshold, the automatic-teamkill-ban settings, the map-rotation and end-of-match voting options, and the Rcon.cfg timeout and connection limits each do. Keys the editor doesn’t have a note for still appear and are still fully editable — they just show no tooltip and take an unconstrained input. Numeric settings that have a documented range get a real number input and are range-checked: a value that isn’t a whole number, or that falls outside the recommended bounds, is flagged as invalid and blocks saving until you fix it.

The form lists the settings already present in the file; editing a value never disturbs the rest of the file. When you save, the editor patches the file in place — your comments, blank lines, the order of your keys, and each key’s existing quote style are all kept exactly as they were. A value that was quoted on disk stays quoted, and any value containing a space is quoted for you so Squad parses the line correctly.

Tip: The control adapts to the value — true/false shows a switch, a numeric setting with a documented range shows a number box, and everything else (including plain numbers) shows a text field — so you rarely have to think about formatting.

Note: Numeric settings with a known range are validated; an out-of-range or non-whole number is marked invalid and stops the save.

Note: Saving rewrites only the settings you changed and preserves your comments, spacing, key order, and quoting.

Locked Network Keys

In Rcon.cfg you will see two keys shown with a small lock and a greyed-out input: the RCON Port and IP. These are the network and allocation settings, and the panel manages them — hover the lock and it tells you so. The lock is honest on every path: you can’t change them in the form, a batch save refuses them, and even a raw edit that would change their on-disk value is rejected. Your RCON Password, the connection limits, and the various timeouts in Rcon.cfg are all yours to edit normally — only the bind address and port are held.

The server’s main game, query, and beacon ports aren’t in these files at all — they come from the server’s startup command — so they are out of scope for this editor and you won’t find them here.

Note: Rcon.cfg’s Port and IP are locked because the panel allocates them — change the RCON Password, limits, and timeouts freely, just not those two.

Note: The locked keys are protected on the form, on a batch save, and on a raw save — there’s no path around them.

Tip: Looking for the game or query port? Those live in the server’s startup command, not in Server.cfg or Rcon.cfg.

The Raw Text Editor: Admins.cfg, Bans.cfg and Layer Rotation

Pick any other file — Admins.cfg, Bans.cfg, LayerRotation.cfg, a licence or exclusion list, and so on — and you get a plain monospace text editor with the file’s full contents. This is the right tool for the list-style files, where each line is an entry rather than a key and value: add your admin group lines and Steam IDs, your bans, or your layer rotation directly, then save. The text area is resizable, and there’s a Reset to drop your edits back to what’s on disk if you change your mind.

Tip: Use the raw editor for the list files — admins, bans, and the layer rotation are line-based, so editing the text directly is the natural fit.

Note: Each file’s raw editor loads that file’s current contents fresh, so you always start from what’s actually on disk.

Saving Your Changes

A save bar sits at the bottom of both the form and the raw editor. It shows how many changes are unsaved, with Reset to discard them and Save to write them. The form’s save bar counts settings across Server.cfg and Rcon.cfg and saves them in one go; the raw editor saves the single file you’re editing. Save is disabled while there’s nothing to save, while a validation error is outstanding, while a save is in flight, or if you don’t hold the config update permission — in which case the bar says so. A successful save pops a short confirmation telling you how many settings, or which file, was written.

Because the Squad egg leaves Server.cfg alone, the file on disk is the single source of truth — the panel never rewrites it from your Startup-tab variables, so your edits here persist across restarts. The whole editor is confined to the one ServerConfig folder: it reads and writes only files directly inside it, rejects any path outside it, and caps a single file at 1 MB by default, which is far more than these config files ever need.

So in practice: search for a setting or pick Server.cfg/Rcon.cfg and use the form, edit your admins, bans, and rotation in the raw editor, hit Save, and restart the server for the changes to take effect.

Note: Save needs the config update permission — without it the editor is read-only and the save bar tells you why.

Note: Server.cfg on disk is the authority and survives restarts — the panel doesn’t overwrite it from your startup variables.

Tip: Edits don’t go live until the next restart — make all your changes, save, then restart the server once to apply them cleanly.