Space Engineers Server Admin Guide: Promotion Levels, Admin Screen & the VRage Remote API
How to run and administer a Space Engineers dedicated server: SteamCMD install, the SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg vs Sandbox_config.sbc trap, adding admins and the six promotion levels, the Alt+F10 Admin Screen and F3 player list, how kick/ban actually works (no chat commands), the real vanilla chat-command list, VRage Remote API setup with HMAC auth, Torch, and the crossplay caveats.
Space Engineers is unusual among dedicated servers: there is no traditional RCON protocol at all. Administration happens through three surfaces - the in-game admin screens (F3 and Alt+F10), the Dedicated Server GUI on the host, and the VRage Remote API (an HTTP REST interface some hosting panels loosely - and inaccurately - call "RCON"). Several hosting knowledge bases also document /kick and /ban chat commands that simply do not exist in the vanilla game. This reference keeps to what the official wiki and Keen's own published source code actually support.
Installing the server
The dedicated server is Steam app 298740, and unlike Arma or DayZ, anonymous SteamCMD login works:
The server is officially Windows-only (needs .NET Framework 4.8+ and the VC++ redistributables). There is no native Linux build and LinuxGSM does not support Space Engineers (the feature requests were closed - LinuxGSM only targets native Linux binaries). Linux hosting is possible through community Wine wrapper scripts or Wine-bundling Docker images, but it is unsupported territory; most operators run Windows.
The install ships two things you will use: DedicatedServer64\SpaceEngineersDedicated.exe (the server plus its management GUI) and, in the same folder, VRageRemoteClient.exe (the official remote-administration client - more below).
The two config files (the trap most admins hit)
SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg (XML) is the server's own config: ports, server name, instance paths, the admin and ban lists, Remote API settings - plus a session-settings block that is used only when creating a NEW world.
Sandbox_config.sbc inside the save folder holds the live settings of an existing world - autosave interval, experimental mode, gameplay limits.
Changing a world setting (for example AutoSaveInMinutes) in the top-level .cfg after the world exists does nothing. Edit the save's Sandbox_config.sbc instead - or change it from the Dedicated Server GUI, which writes to the right place. Any hand edit to either file requires a server restart to take effect.
Where the files live depends on how you run the server: a foreground/local run uses %APPDATA%\SpaceEngineersDedicated\, while instances created as Windows services through the GUI's "Add new instance" each get their own folder under %ProgramData%\SpaceEngineersDedicated\<InstanceName>\. Multiple instances on one machine work fine as long as each has a unique instance name and port.
Ports
The default game port is UDP 27016, set as ServerPort in the .cfg. A separate SteamPort handles Steam master-server listing. Forward/allow UDP for both. The Remote API listens on its own port (commonly 8080) and only needs opening if you enable it - never expose it without a strong security key.
Adding admins
Admins are SteamID64 entries in the <Administrators> block of SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg:
Only SteamID64 works - profile URLs, usernames and group IDs do not. Config-listed admins hold the Owner promotion level in-game and cannot be demoted. Editing the file needs a restart; everything below Owner can also be granted live, with no restart, by an existing Admin/Owner from in-game (F3 or Alt+F10), from the Dedicated Server GUI, or through the Remote API.
The six promotion levels
The ladder, lowest to highest (from Keen's own MyPromoteLevel API):
Level
Grants
None
Normal player
Scripter
Can use the Programmable Block code editor when the server gates scripts behind the Scripter role
Moderator
Can kick and ban players; sees all players in Admin Tools
Space Master
The GM toolkit: spectate, teleport, spawn/delete grids, edit voxels
Admin
The server-management side of the Alt+F10 screen: trash removal, entity list, safe zones, global permissions
Owner
Reserved for SteamID64s in the config <Administrators> list; cannot be demoted
Promote and demote from the F3 player list (select a player, then Promote/Demote) or the Admin Screen's player tab.
In-game admin tools: Alt+F10, Shift+F10, F3
Alt+F10 opens the Admin Screen: Admin Tools (player permissions), Cycle Objects (find the grids eating your sim speed), Trash Removal (automatic debris/voxel cleanup rules - the single most important tab for long-running servers), Entity List (every grid and object, with delete/stop/depower actions), Safe Zones, Global Permissions, Replay Tool, Weather, Spectator, Economy, and a Cheaters tab that flags suspicious players for kick/ban.
Shift+F10 opens the spawn menu (spawn items/components directly) - it requires enabling "Creative mode tools" in Alt+F10 first.
F3 opens the player list with join/leave history and the Kick / Ban / Promote / Demote buttons.
Kick and ban: buttons, not commands
There are no /kick or /ban chat commands in vanilla Space Engineers - guides that show them are wrong. Kicking and banning is done through the F3 player list or the Admin Screen's Cheaters tab (or remotely via the GUI tool / Remote API, which expose the same Online and Banned lists).
Bans persist as SteamID64 entries in a <Banned> block in SpaceEngineers-Dedicated.cfg, written automatically when you ban in-game. To unban: remove the entry from the Banned list in the GUI/Remote client (live), or hand-delete the <unsignedLong> line from the .cfg and restart.
The chat commands that DO exist
Vanilla SE has a short, fixed command list typed into chat. For everyone: /g and /f (global/faction channel), /w "Name" (whisper), /m "Name" and /u "Name" (mute/unmute), /timestamp on|off, /help /command. For admins:
/save save the world now
/stop save and shut the server down
/weatherlist list weather types
/weather Name set weather
/rweather random weather
/smite lightning strike where you aim
/nml <n> network monitor latency threshold
That is the whole vanilla vocabulary - everything else (kick, ban, promote, teleport, give) is GUI-driven or comes from Torch plugins.
VRage Remote API (the thing hosts call "RCON")
The Remote API is Space Engineers' official remote-administration channel: an HTTP REST API with HMAC-SHA1-signed requests, not a Source/Quake-style RCON socket. Enable it in the .cfg:
(Generate the key from the Dedicated Server GUI rather than inventing one - clients derive an HMAC from it, so both sides must hold the exact same value.) On Windows the HTTP listener also needs a URL reservation and a firewall opening:
Connect with the official VRageRemoteClient.exe from the DedicatedServer64 folder. It exposes the online/banned player lists (kick, ban, unban, promote), chat, the mods and session settings, save/stop/restart buttons, and read endpoints for grids, planets and asteroids - enough to run scheduled restarts and off-hours moderation without joining the game. Two caveats: every request is signed with the security key (anyone holding the key owns your server - treat it like a password), and the Remote API does not work while Torch is running.
Torch
Torch is the community server wrapper (successor to SE Server Extender): it downloads/wraps the vanilla dedicated server and adds a management UI, a real command system, and a plugin ecosystem - most famously Essentials (admin utilities, scheduled commands, faster world loads) and Concealment (suspends simulation of grids far from any player, the classic sim-speed rescue). If your server struggles to hold sim speed 1.0, Torch + Concealment is the standard community answer. Trade-offs: Torch blocks the VRage Remote API, and crossplay servers cannot run Torch at all.
Crossplay and other footguns
Crossplay (Xbox/PlayStation) servers are limited to 3 planets maximum, require Torch to be uninstalled, and switching an existing PC-only save to crossplay requires starting a new save.
Experimental mode must match between server and clients or joins fail - and the Dedicated Server GUI has a known footgun where it can switch experimental mode ON even when you decline it. If clients suddenly cannot join, check the experimental flag in the save's Sandbox_config.sbc first.
Autosave: for an existing world, AutoSaveInMinutes lives in Sandbox_config.sbc, not the top-level .cfg (see the config-file trap above).
Sim speed: the server slows the simulation rather than dropping ticks. The Alt+F10 Entity List and Cycle Objects tabs find the offending grids; Trash Removal rules prevent the slow accumulation of debris that kills week-old worlds.
MantaScope tracks the live Space Engineers server list with decoded server attributes - filter by Survival vs Creative, modded, and console-compatible servers, browse real player counts, population history and uptime per server, and claim your own server to get monitoring, population graphs, downtime alerts and Discord notifications alongside the in-game tools above.
SEServer Admin
