Open the In-Game Console in Garry's Mod

Garry's Mod has a developer console built into the game. You open it on your own computer, not in the panel. Use it to type connect and join a server, to read the game's messages when a join fails, and to run commands such as the ones cheats unlock. This guide covers the player's side of the game.

Open the console

The Garry's Mod wiki says the developer console "can be opened via" Shift+Escape or the tilde key.

1. Start Garry's Mod and reach the main menu, or load into a game.
2. Press the tilde key. If nothing happens, hold Shift and press Escape instead.
3. Type a command into the console and press Enter.

The wiki also lists a toggleconsole command, which will "Show/hide the console."

Join your server from the console

1. Copy your server's address from the dashboard. How to make a Garry's Mod server shows where to find it.
2. Open the console and type connect followed by your server's address, so the line reads connect <your address>.
3. Press Enter. The wiki describes connect as "Connect to specified server."

Related commands:

• retry will "Retry connection to last server."
• disconnect will "Disconnect game from server."
• status will "Display map and connection status."

You don't need the server browser to join, so the console gets you in even if the server never turns up there. Servers without a Steam token rank lower in the browser: Generate a GSLT for your GMod server fixes that.

Find an error when joining fails

The console prints the game's messages, errors included. When someone can't join, ask them to open the console right after the failure and copy the lines it printed. Useful commands:

• clear clears all the console output, so you can reproduce the error with a clean screen.
• find <text> will "Find concommands with the specified string in their name/help text."
• help <command> will "Find help about a convar/concommand."
• con_filter_text and con_filter_enable filter the output. Set con_filter_text to a word, then turn on con_filter_enable: the wiki says 1 "filters completely" and 2 "displays filtered text brighter than other text".

Typing whereis followed by a file path searches for "the highest priority instance of a file within the GAME mount path". The wiki uses it to find which addon a sound or model comes from, which is handy when an addon you added is overriding something.

Server commands versus your commands

The wiki says console commands "can be called from the console of the server or client". To run a command on the server, such as banning someone or changing the map, use the Send a command box on the Console tab in the panel. Garry's Mod server console commands lists the ones worth knowing.

Checked against the Facepunch Garry's Mod wiki, October 2026.