Rust Admin Commands and RCON Guide for Server Owners
Essential Rust admin commands for banning, kicking, managing players, and remote server control through the MANAfuel RCON console.
Open the RCON Console
Navigate to your Rust server in the MANAfuel dashboard and open the RCON Console tab. This connects directly to your server over the RCON protocol (port 28016 by default) with your admin credentials pre-filled — no external RCON client needed. The console shows real-time server output including player connections, chat messages, and system events. Type commands directly in the input field at the bottom and press Enter to execute.
Manage Players: Kick and Ban
The most common admin commands are player management. To kick a player, type kick "PlayerName" "reason" — they disconnect immediately but can rejoin. To ban a player permanently, use ban "PlayerName" "reason" — this adds them to the server banlist. To unban, use unban SteamID64. View all connected players with status, which shows each player's SteamID, display name, ping, and connection duration. For temporary bans, use banid SteamID64 "reason" duration where duration is in seconds.
Grant and Revoke Admin Access
Rust has two admin tiers: owner (full access) and moderator (limited access). Add an owner with ownerid SteamID64 "PlayerName" "reason" and a moderator with moderatorid SteamID64 "PlayerName" "reason". Remove access with removeowner or removemoderator followed by the SteamID64. These commands modify the users.cfg file on your server. After adding or removing admins, run server.writecfg to save the changes permanently.
Control Server State
Manage your server state from the RCON console. Use server.save to force an immediate world save — useful before maintenance or plugin changes. Check server performance with server.fps to see the current tick rate and perf to get a detailed performance breakdown. To send a message to all players, use say "Your message here" — it appears in global chat as a server announcement. For scheduled maintenance, warn players with say before initiating a restart.
Manage Oxide Plugin Permissions
If you run Oxide plugins (and you should — see our Oxide plugins guide), the permission system is managed through RCON. Grant a permission with oxide.grant user SteamID64 pluginname.permission or to an entire group with oxide.grant group groupname pluginname.permission. View all permissions with oxide.show perms, list groups with oxide.show groups, and check a specific player's permissions with oxide.show user SteamID64. Create custom groups for VIP players or staff with oxide.group add groupname.
Teleport and Spawn Management
As an admin, use teleport "PlayerName" to teleport to a player's location, or teleport "Player1" "Player2" to teleport one player to another. To move yourself to specific coordinates, use teleportpos x y z. Spawn items with inventory.give "PlayerName" "item.shortname" amount — useful for testing or compensating players after a bug. View all available item shortnames with inventory.giveid to browse the item list.
Monitor Server Health with Bob
Beyond manual RCON commands, Bob monitors your server continuously. If tick rate drops below acceptable levels during high-population periods, Bob surfaces a performance alert in your dashboard with the specific metric and timestamp. If a player reports abuse and you miss it in chat, Bob logs chat history that you can review in the server panel. Bob also detects crash loops — if your server restarts unexpectedly more than twice in 10 minutes, Bob captures the error, rolls back to the last stable state, and notifies you with a diagnostic summary.