Project Zomboid admin commands and roles

Every Project Zomboid server starts with one admin account. From there you hand out roles, kick and ban, and decide who may log in at all. The panel's Players tab does all of it without joining the game, and the same commands work in game chat and in the Console.

Log in as the admin

Your server made an admin account on its first start. Its name and password are in the Startup tab:

• Admin Username is admin unless you changed it.
• Admin Password was generated for your server.

1. Wait for *** SERVER STARTED **** in the Console.
2. In Project Zomboid, join your server with that username and password. It is a separate account from the one you play on, with its own character.
3. Press Escape and open the Admin Panel for the in-game tools, or type commands in chat with a leading /.

The five roles

Project Zomboid calls roles access levels. From most to least power:

The game's Admin Panel shows what each level unlocks. Give the lowest role that does the job.

Give someone a role

1. Open your server's Players tab.
2. Find the player in the list. The Staff filter shows everyone who already has a role.
3. Open the menu on their row and pick Set role.
4. Choose the role and press Set role. A message confirms it, such as Sam is now moderator.

The player must have logged in once, so their account exists. To do the same in game chat, type /setaccesslevel "Sam" moderator. Use none to take the role away.

Kick, ban and unban

From the menu on a player's row in the Players tab:

• Kick puts an online player off the server. They can rejoin straight away.
• Ban puts them off and refuses their account from then on. Add a reason in Reason (optional) and press Ban player.
• Unban lifts it. The Banned filter lists every ban.

The server has to be running for any of these, since the panel sends them to the game's console.

Make the server whitelist-only

An open server lets anyone with the address (and the join password, if you set one) create an account on first login. To decide who gets in yourself:

1. Open Server Settings and switch Anyone can join off. Save and restart.
2. The Whitelist tile at the top of the Players tab now reads On.
3. In the Players tab, type a Username and Password and press Add account. The player logs in with exactly those.
4. To take someone off, open the menu on their row and pick Remove account.

Passwords need 4 characters or more, and Add account works while the server is running. Accounts players made while the server was open stay in the list and keep working.

Auto-add joiners to the whitelist, also in Server Settings, lets a first login still create an account while the whitelist is on. It's handy while a group is settling in. Switch it off once everyone has joined.

Message everyone

Message everyone, at the bottom of the Players tab, shows your text to every player in game. It's handy before a restart, such as Server restarting in 10 minutes.

Commands in the console

The panel's Console takes the same commands as game chat, without the leading slash (Use your server console and send commands). The ones the Players tab runs for you:

Put names in quotes, so a name with a space still works.