Private Hytale Server: Password, Whitelist and Bans

Password or whitelist

A password is the quickest option for a group of friends: drop it in the chat and you're done. The downside is that anyone who has it can pass it on, and changing it means telling everybody.

The whitelist gives you more control: only listed players get in, and removing one doesn't affect the rest. In exchange, you have to add each new player by name. For a community or a server with people you don't know, it's the right one.

Set a password

1. Stop the server

   The server rewrites its files while it runs: anything you change with it on will most likely be lost.

2. Open config.json

   With the official launcher, it's in Server/config.json.

3. Fill in the Password field

   Left empty, anyone with the address can join. Take care not to break the format: one extra comma or an unclosed quote and the server can't read it. The config.json editor checks it for you.

4. Start it and test it

   When you join, the game will ask for the password.

Turn on the whitelist

Since Update 6 (August 2026), the whitelist is a permission, hytale.server.join, and no longer a separate file: if you had a whitelist.json, the server moved it to whitelist.json.migrated. You type commands in the server console without the slash, or in chat with it if you're an operator (how to become one).

1. Add yourself first

   With whitelist add and your player name, before turning it on: that way you don't lock yourself out.

2. Add everyone else

   With whitelist add and each name. whitelist list shows who's on it.

3. Turn it on

   With whitelist enable. From then on only people with the permission can join. whitelist status tells you whether it's on.

4. Test with someone who isn't listed

   If they get in, the whitelist isn't on.

Removing someone

whitelist remove and their name takes them off the list: they can't come back while it's on. kick and the name only throws them out for now: they can return. ban and the name or their UUID keeps them out even if the server is open, and unban lifts it; bans are saved in bans.json.

whitelist disable opens the server again without removing anyone, and whitelist clear empties the list.

Whole groups, without adding them one by one

Because the whitelist is a permission, you can give it to a group with perm group add and hytale.server.join: everyone you put in that group can join. It's explained in the permissions guide.

Does it show up in the in-game server list?

Not on its own. To appear in Server Discovery, the game's server browser, you have to create a profile, pass review and link the server with a command (how it works). If you haven't done that, only people with the address reach it. Even so, use one of the two locks: an address shared with a group ends up getting around.

On NapNodes

1. Stop it

   With “Stop”: the password can only be changed with the server stopped.

2. Set the password

   In “Settings” → “Password to join”. It saves itself and applies when you start the server; left empty, anyone with the address can join.

3. Press “Start”

   Your friends join with the address from “Address to play” and the password.

4. Or use the whitelist

   In “Console”, with the server on, type the commands above as they are, without the slash.

Frequently asked questions