The Isle Evrima admin commands and RCON

On an Evrima server, administration runs through RCON. You enable it in Game.ini with bRconEnabled=True, a port and a password, list your admins' SteamID64s under AdminsSteamIDs, and connect with a client written for The Isle - not a Source RCON tool, because Evrima speaks its own protocol. From there the commands are short lowercase words with comma-separated arguments: announce, directmessage, playerlist, getplayerdata, kick, ban, save, wipecorpses, the whitelist toggles, and live controls for AI and growth. This guide covers setup, every command worth knowing with its exact syntax, and a moderation routine that keeps a dinosaur server civil.

Installing the server, the full Game.ini and the ports are in the Evrima dedicated server guide. AI and growth tuning are in Evrima AI, growth and mods.

Enabling RCON#

RCON lives in the main game session section of Game.ini, at TheIsle/Saved/Config/LinuxServer/Game.ini on Linux and the WindowsServer equivalent on Windows:

[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession]bRconEnabled=TrueRconPort=8888RconPassword=use-a-long-random-string-here

Three rules apply:

• Stop the server before editing. Unreal rewrites Game.ini on shutdown, so changes made to a running server are overwritten when it stops.
• The port is TCP. The game itself uses UDP, but RCON is a TCP connection. A firewall rule for UDP only does nothing for it.
• The port must be one the server actually has. On a panel host that means one listed on the server's network allocations. 8888 is just the conventional example.

After a restart, check the log for the RCON listener starting. If it does not appear, the section header is wrong - the key has to sit under [/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession], spelled exactly - or the boolean is not True.

Admins and who RCON recognises#

Admins are listed in a different section of the same file, one SteamID64 per repeated key:

[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase]AdminsSteamIDs=76561198012345678AdminsSteamIDs=76561198087654321WhitelistIDs=76561198011112222VIPs=76561198033334444

The ID is the 17-digit SteamID64, not a profile name or vanity URL. The reliable way to get it is to have the person join once and read it from the server log, or from playerlist once RCON is running.

The admin list and the RCON password are two different things. The password lets a client connect to the RCON port; the admin list decides who the game treats as an administrator in game. In practice, the people holding the RCON password should also be in AdminsSteamIDs, and moderators who should not hold the password should not be given it - more on that below.

What admins can do inside the game, as opposed to through RCON, has varied between Evrima builds. Legacy The Isle had an in-game admin panel; Evrima's in-game tooling has been more limited and has changed with updates. Treat RCON as the dependable route for moderation, and use whatever in-game tools your current build offers for things that need eyes on the world.

Choosing an RCON client#

Because the protocol is Evrima's own, the familiar Source tools - rcon-cli, mcrcon, the RCON consoles in generic server tools - connect and then fail. You need one of:

• A community desktop or web RCON client written for The Isle. Several exist; pick one that is maintained and whose source you can read or whose authors you can identify.
• A Discord bot that wraps the protocol. This is how most Evrima communities moderate: staff type commands in a private channel, and the bot logs who ran what.
• A library, if you want to build your own tooling. Open-source implementations exist for several languages, which is also the best documentation of the protocol, since official documentation is thin.

Whatever you choose holds your RCON password, which is effectively the keys to the server. A hosted bot means a third party holds it. That can be a fine trade for the convenience, but make it knowingly, and rotate the password if you stop using the tool. RCON safely covers the general risks.

The command reference#

Arguments are separated by commas, not spaces. That is the single most important quirk: directmessage 76561198000000000,Hello works, and the same thing with a space after the ID does not. Command names are lowercase.

Communication

Players

Whitelist and queue

Server and world

Growth

Not every command exists on every build: the RCON command set has grown over Evrima's development, and a few commands differ between client tools in name or argument order. If a command is rejected, check the version of your tool against the current server build before assuming the syntax here is wrong.

Kicks, bans and the evidence behind them#

Evrima disputes are mostly about behaviour the game does not enforce: killing a juvenile you were grouped with, hunting in a nesting area your rules protect, abusing a mechanic. The commands are easy; making the decision stick is the work.

A routine that holds up:

1. Identify by ID. Run playerlist and copy the SteamID64. Dinosaur names and Steam names are not unique, and banning the wrong person is worse than banning nobody.
2. Check the record. The server log records connections; your RCON bot, if it logs chat and kills, records the rest. Note the time and what you saw.
3. Warn privately first for anything short of cheating. directmessage with a reason converts more people than a public kick does.
4. Kick with a reason for a repeat. The reason is shown to the player.
5. Ban with a reason that names the rule. Record the ID, date, reason and evidence in a staff channel or spreadsheet. If you ever have to reverse a ban, or a ban is challenged, that record is the only thing you have.

Keep that ban record independently of the server. A reinstall, a host move or a config mistake can lose the server's own list, and the cheater you banned last month will notice before you do. Back up the config and database folders together - see the backup section of the Evrima server guide.

For the policy side - writing rules, appeals, choosing moderators - server rules, moderation and staff applies to The Isle as much as anything.

Announcements and restart warnings#

announce is the command you will use most. The patterns that work:

• Restart warnings at 15, 5 and 1 minute before a scheduled restart, followed by save. Players can find safety and log out instead of losing a dinosaur to a disconnect in a fight.
• Event notices for migrations, hunts or community events.
• Rule reminders at peak hours, short and specific.

Most RCON bots can schedule announcements. If yours cannot, a host's scheduler can still restart the server at a fixed time; on RE:NODE the Schedules tab takes a cron expression and runs ordered tasks with delays, so a backup and a clean restart can always land at the same quiet hour. Restart schedules that help covers how often is worth it.

Keep announcements rare enough that people read them. A server that broadcasts every ten minutes trains players to ignore the one message that matters.

Everyday admin jobs and the commands behind them#

Most days on an Evrima server are not about bans. They are a handful of small jobs that RCON handles well once you know which command fits.

A player is stuck or bugged. A dinosaur trapped in terrain or frozen after a desync is common enough that every server needs an answer. Where your build supports slay, killing the stuck dinosaur lets the player respawn - but it costs them their growth, so ask first and record it. Some communities compensate with a growth event later. Do not promise restorations you cannot deliver: without a mod framework there is no supported way to hand a player back a grown dinosaur by command.

The map is littered with bodies. After a mass migration or a big fight, corpses pile up. wipecorpses removes them all at once. It also removes food carnivores were relying on, so announce it a minute ahead rather than running it in the middle of a feeding frenzy.

Before a restart. Send announce warnings, then save just before the stop. A clean stop saves anyway, but an explicit save immediately before means a crash during shutdown loses nothing.

Checking a complaint. playerlist confirms who is online and their IDs; getplayerdata shows what each player is playing and how far grown, which is often enough to tell whether a "juvenile killed by an adult in a nesting zone" report is plausible before you start reading logs.

Quiet hours. getqueuestatus and serverdetails at peak tell you whether the server is full and turning people away, which is the information you need before deciding whether to raise slots or tighten AI.

announce Server restart in 5 minutes - find a safe spot and log out.savedirectmessage 76561198000000000,Your report is logged; staff will review the kill tonight.wipecorpses

Whitelists, VIPs and the queue#

The whitelist turns a server allow-list only. It needs both the toggle and a populated list:

[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession]bServerWhitelist=True[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase]WhitelistIDs=76561198011112222WhitelistIDs=76561198033334444

Adding people through addwhitelist takes effect without a restart, which is the main reason to use RCON for it. As with other live changes, check whether your build writes the addition to the file; if it does not, add the ID to Game.ini at the next stop so it survives a restart.

VIPs bypass the join queue. On a busy public server, give VIP status to the people who keep the community running - staff, event organisers, long-standing regulars - and the queue becomes a feature rather than a complaint.

getqueuestatus tells you who is waiting, which is useful when deciding whether to raise MaxPlayerCount. A queue that is full every evening and a server that stays healthy at that load are both signs it is time; a queue with a struggling server is a sign it is not.

Securing admin access#

The RCON password is a root password for the game. Treat it like one:

• Long and random, stored in a password manager, never pasted in a Discord channel.
• Held by as few people as possible. If moderators use a bot, the bot holds the password and moderators hold Discord roles. Removing a moderator then means removing a role, not changing a password everybody knows.
• Rotated when someone with access leaves, or when you stop using a tool that had it.
• Separate from hosting access. Moderators need RCON commands, not your hosting account. If someone needs files or the console, give them their own sub-user with only those permissions - subusers and least privilege explains why.

If the password leaks, change it in Game.ini, restart, and then read the log for what was done with it. What to do when your server is hacked has the containment order.

Troubleshooting#

RCON client cannot connect. The port is not allocated to the server, is blocked, or is being tested as UDP. Confirm bRconEnabled=True under the right section header and that the listener started in the log.

It connects but commands fail. You are using a Source RCON tool, or a client written for an older protocol. Use a maintained Evrima client.

Commands with arguments do nothing. Arguments are comma-separated with no space after the comma. kick 76561198000000000,Spawn killing.

A live change disappeared after a restart. RCON changes are not written to Game.ini. Edit the file with the server stopped.

Whitelisted players cannot join. The whitelist is on but the IDs are malformed or under the wrong section. Each must be a bare SteamID64 on its own WhitelistIDs= line under [/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase].

Edits to admins vanish. The file was edited while the server ran and was rewritten on shutdown. Stop, edit, start.

FAQ#

Does The Isle Evrima work with normal RCON tools?

No. Evrima uses its own RCON protocol, so Source RCON clients connect but cannot run commands. Use a client or bot built for The Isle.

How do I add an admin to an Evrima server?

Stop the server, add an AdminsSteamIDs= line with their SteamID64 under [/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase] in Game.ini, and start it again. One line per admin.

Why does my RCON command with a message not work?

Evrima separates arguments with commas. Write directmessage 76561198000000000,Your message with the comma directly after the ID.

How do I send a server-wide announcement?

Use announce followed by the message. Most RCON bots can also schedule announcements for restart warnings.

Do RCON changes survive a restart?

Not usually. Live changes to AI density, growth or playable species apply to the running server only. Make the same change in Game.ini with the server stopped to keep it.

Can moderators kick and ban without the RCON password?

Yes, through a bot that holds the password and exposes commands to a Discord role. That way you can remove a moderator without changing the password.