Adding moderators and moderating players on your Rust server

Running a Rust server means dealing with cheaters, toxic chat and griefers, usually at 3am when you are asleep. This guide covers how to give trusted people moderator access in rustd.xyz without handing them the keys to everything, and how to kick, ban, mute and look into a player once they have it.

Before you start

• Your server is connected to the panel over RCON.
• You are an admin of your rustd.xyz account. Only admins can invite people.
• Your account is on the Community or Network plan. Solo and the free trial allow admins only; the invite form says so and links to Billing.

Invite a moderator

1. Open Users in the sidebar.
2. Under Invite a user, enter their email address and leave the role on Moderator.
3. Click Send invite. They get a one-time sign-in link by email. There is no password to share.
4. Back in the user list, click Manage access on their row.
5. Tick Access for each server they should moderate, then any extra permissions they need, and click Save access.

A moderator sees only the servers you tick. Their row stays in the list, and you can change their access, promote them to admin, or Disable them at any time.

What a moderator can do

On every server they have access to, a moderator can:

• see the live map, the player list and player reports;
• kick, ban and unban players;
• mute and unmute players in chat or voice;
• mark player reports handled.

Each of these is off until you tick it, per server:

• May wipe and modify server files: wipes, snapshot restore and delete, and installing or removing the Oxide plugin framework.
• May set convars: change server variables.
• May manage plugins: install, update and reload plugins.
• May give items: give and take items, and place honeypots.
• May teleport, heal, kill: act on players directly.

What a moderator cannot do

• see servers you have not given them;
• invite users, change anyone's role or access, or see Billing;
• add or delete servers, or change SSH credentials;
• use the raw RCON console;
• grant in-game owner or moderator status;
• spawn entities, trigger server events or set up Discord.

If someone needs any of those, make them an admin, and only if you would trust them with the server itself. Rust server owners vs moderators covers roles and per-server grants in more depth, including how they differ from in-game ownerid and moderatorid.

The Players page

Every player the panel has seen on the server is listed with their status, playtime, current session, kills and deaths. The buttons at the top switch between this wipe, all time on this server, and all of your servers together.

Click a player's row to look into them:

• Kills and deaths by category, and their recent deaths.
• IP addresses they have connected from, with the country.
• Names they have played under.
• Teammates they have played with.
• Shares IP with: other accounts seen on the same address, which is often the first sign of a ban-evading alt.

Kick, ban or mute a player

• Kick removes an online player with a reason. They can rejoin.
• Ban asks for a reason and an expiry: permanent, 1 day, 7 days or 30 days. Timed bans are lifted automatically when they run out. If the player is already banned on another of your servers, the ban dialog lists those bans first.
• Mute silences chat, voice or both, with a reason and an expiry.

Bans apply to the server you issue them on. The ban dialog's list of other bans tells you whether to repeat the ban elsewhere.

Managing the ban list

The Bans tab has two lists. Our bans are bans made through the panel, with who was banned, why, when, and when it expires. External is the rest of the server's own ban list, such as bans made in-game or by another tool. Either kind can be lifted with Unban. The Mutes tab works the same way.

Player reports

When a player presses F7 in game and reports someone, the report shows up on the Reports page, grouped by the player reported, with the reporter, the type of report and their message. Kick and Ban buttons sit on each group, so you can act without switching pages. Mark a report handled when you are done and it leaves the Open view; All keeps the history. Reports are never deleted, so they stay as evidence.