Configure your server

Almost nothing is configured in the plugin’s config file. Your settings live in the dashboard, and the plugin collects them automatically.

Open your server and look under Configure in the left-hand menu:

Menu entry	What lives there
Listing & Discord	Your server name, public page and vanity link, Discord, and the message-placeholder list
Plugin behaviour	Messaging, connect-time security, and in-game admin
Gameplay mods	Optional changes to how the game plays, one page per mod
Rust server file	Your server’s own server.cfg — see Server config
Wipe	Your wipe schedule, automatic wiping, and past wipes — see wiping your server
Integrations	The SFTP or game-panel details CerebRUST uses to reach your host (owner only)

These were renamed in August 2026

They used to be called “CerebRUST Settings”, “Server Settings”, “Mods” and “Server config” — four names so alike that nobody could guess which one held the wipe schedule. Same pages, same settings, clearer labels.

Wipe moved out of Plugin behaviour entirely, for the same reason: your schedule, the automatic wiping switch and your past wipes are three views of one decision, and they were spread across two pages that could not see each other. They are three tabs on one page now.

Running several servers? Set Plugin behaviour once

Organisation → Plugin defaults sets messaging, security and in-game admin for every server in your organisation at once, and each server can still override any single setting. See Plugin defaults.

Changes apply live

Save a setting and it reaches your server on the next heartbeat — within 15 seconds. You never need to run o.reload or restart to apply a settings change.

Each area has tabs across the top, and each tab is its own page — you can bookmark one, and refreshing keeps you where you were.

Nothing saves until you press Save

Change as much as you like on a page; a bar appears at the bottom showing how many unsaved changes you have, with Save changes and Discard. If you try to navigate away with unsaved edits, CerebRUST asks first.

This is deliberate — some settings only make sense together, like turning a mod on and then tuning it, and saving them one at a time used to lose work.

Your server name

Listing & Discord → General has a Server name field: a short name for the server, the one you would say out loud. The full name from the Rust server browser — [EU] Thistle Monthly [1x|Max 8] — is a good listing and a mouthful in a chat line, so CerebRUST uses the short name for {{server_name}}, in Discord and in the messages it sends players. Leave it empty and it uses the full browser name, shown greyed out in the field. The same tab holds your public page settings and moderation transparency.

Messaging

Everything your players see in chat.

Message prefix

Every line the plugin sends in chat — periodic messages, the MOTD, alerts and your dashboard broadcasts — starts with a coloured tag and carries an avatar beside it. Both are yours to set under Plugin behaviour → Message prefix, with a live preview of a chat line as you type.

Setting	Default	Notes
Prefix text	[CR]	Up to 32 characters. Empty means no prefix at all
Prefix colour	#b7471f	A hex colour. Empty uses the default
Avatar	the CerebRUST logo	Any SteamID64 — yours, your server’s Steam account. Empty uses the default

Colour and size tags typed into the prefix text are removed, so the prefix can never restyle the message after it.

Needs plugin v1.5.0 or newer

An older plugin keeps the [CR] tag and the CerebRUST avatar whatever these say, and so does a custom {{server_name}}; update the plugin to use them.

Session

Setting	Default	Effect
Announce joiners	On	Broadcast when a player connects
Announce leavers	On	Broadcast when a player disconnects

Periodic messages

Rotating server-wide lines, broadcast in order on each interval.

Setting	Default	Notes
Interval	5 minutes	Minutes between messages (1–1440)
Messages	one line	The lines to rotate through

Every gameplay mod can add a line of its own — “Check the map for NPC bases to raid!” — so players know it is running. Tick Include in periodic messages on the mod’s page and edit the line there. It is sent after your own lines, on the same interval, and only while the mod is on. The Periodic messages tab lists them underneath your own, each linking to its mod.

Message of the day

Sent to a player when they first wake up after joining.

Setting	Default	Notes
Enabled	On
Once per session	On	Send on first wake only, not on every respawn
Lines	A default banner	Supports {{player_count}}
Initial delay	1 second	Delay before the first line

Messages support Rust’s chat colour markup, so this works:

<color=#ffd700>══════════ WELCOME ══════════</color>
Type <color=orange>/help</color> for commands.
{{player_count}}

Message placeholders

Type a placeholder into any message and CerebRUST swaps in the live value as it sends. Fields that accept them show a {{ }} button you can pick from, and the full list is at Listing & Discord → Message placeholders.

Placeholder	Becomes	In-game	Discord
{{player_count}}	Players online right now	✅	✅
{{players_max}}	Your server’s slot count	✅	✅
{{queued_players}}	Players waiting in the join queue	✅	✅
{{server_name}}	Your server name, or the browser name if you set none	✅	✅
{{server_time}}	Real-world clock in your wipe timezone	✅	✅
{{in_game_time}}	The Rust world clock	✅	—
{{time_until_wipe}}	Time left until the predicted wipe	✅	✅
{{next_wipe}}	The date and time of the next predicted wipe	✅	✅
{{wipe_cycle}}	Weekly, Bi-weekly or Monthly	✅	✅
{{cerebrust_url}}	Link to your CerebRUST page (your vanity domain if set)	✅	✅
{{discord_join_url}}	Your Discord invite, set on the Discord page	✅	✅

Placeholders work everywhere CerebRUST sends text: your MOTD, periodic messages, wipe milestones and countdowns, and broadcasts you send from the dashboard.

A placeholder with nothing to show stays as-is

If you use {{discord_join_url}} before setting an invite, the message shows the placeholder rather than a blank gap — so it is obvious what still needs filling in.

In Discord, {{time_until_wipe}} and {{next_wipe}} become native Discord timestamps, so they render in each reader’s own timezone and keep counting down after the message is posted.

Wipe

Wipe is its own menu entry, with three tabs — Schedule, Automation and History. CerebRUST predicts when you will next wipe and broadcasts countdowns — and, if you ask it to, runs the wipe itself. See wiping your server for the full picture; the settings on the Schedule tab are below.

Tell it how you actually wipe

The wipe schedule is not inferred from your wipe history — it is whatever you configure here. The defaults are a starting point, not a detection. If they do not match your real schedule, your countdowns will be wrong.

Setting	Default	Notes
Regular cycle	Weekly	Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly (force wipes only)
Regular weekday	Thursday	0 = Monday … 6 = Sunday. Ignored when monthly
Wipe hour	19:00	Local hour. Ignored when monthly
Timezone	Europe/London	Any IANA timezone name
Hourly countdown	On	Broadcast a countdown every hour
Hourly countdown message	Wipe in {{time_until_wipe}}!
Pre-wipe milestones	10 days, 1 week, wipe night	One-off broadcasts at set offsets

Monthly force wipes are always predicted separately, on the first Thursday of each calendar month at 7pm Europe/London — regardless of your regular cycle, because calendar months are not 28 days.

Each milestone has an in-game broadcast and an optional Discord message, so you can word the two differently.

Gameplay mods

Optional gameplay changes, every one off by default, each on its own page with a dot in the tab strip showing whether it is on. These are big enough to warrant their own page: Gameplay features.

Security — preflight checks

Automatic checks at connect time that kick players who fail them. Checks run server-side as CerebRUST enriches the player’s IP and Steam profile.

Setting	Default	Effect
Block VPN or proxy users	Off	Kick when the IP is detected as a VPN or proxy
Block on VAC ban	On	Kick players with a recent VAC ban
VAC ban most recent (months)	36	Only block if the most recent VAC ban is this recent
Block on game bans	On	Kick players with a recent game ban
Game ban most recent (months)	36	As above, for game bans
Block on community bans	Off	Kick on a Steam community ban (no age threshold available)
Whitelist	empty	Steam IDs that skip every preflight check

VAC and game-ban blocking are on by default

Both default to on, with a 36-month window. A player with a four-year-old VAC ban is let through; one from last year is kicked.

If you run a server where that is not the policy you want, change it before you open to the public — people being kicked at connect for a decade-old ban is a bad first impression.

The whitelist is an escape hatch — put your own Steam ID in it while testing so you cannot lock yourself out.

Where settings actually live

Your settings are stored by CerebRUST, not in your server’s files. The plugin caches a local copy in oxide/config/Cerebrust.json under plugin_settings_cache.

Do not edit that cache by hand. It is overwritten from the dashboard on the next heartbeat, so hand edits are lost, and a malformed one just gets replaced. The dashboard is the source of truth.