Creating Allowlist(Whitelist) Slots for Your Don't Starve Together Server

On a Don't Starve Together server, an "allowlist" refers to a set of reserved player slots and a file that lists specific player ID numbers in it. Only the players on that list will be allowed to use those reserved slots when the normal slots are full.

You can use the reserved allowlist slots to make sure there's always an available slot for yourself, your family, your close friends, or an admin, whenever you want to play on your server. You can also still allow players from the public to join the server too if you want.

When all the normal non-reserved player slots are in use, any random players who attempt to subsequently join the server will receive a message window in the in-game server browser that no spots are available on the server. As if the server was completely full.

Error message telling players that all available slots are reserved

Used as a Traditional Allowlist

If you set the total number of reserved slots to the max total player count, you will make this system behave more like a traditional allowlist in other games (like Minecraft). Since all slots are reserved, requests to join from random players are refused, and only the people on the specific list can join the server.

Combined with a Password

You can still use a password for the server, as an extra layer of security. This might be useful if you have concerns that someone is handing out the password to the server to random people. They'll get past the password, but won't match the list of user IDs.

Setting up the Allowlist

Add Setting to `cluster.ini` Config File

Navigate to the /.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/MyDediServer folder and look for the config file cluster.ini.

Select it, and click "Edit" at the top of the file manager window. This will open the config file in a text editor.

A view of the Nodepanel's File Manager showing the location of the cluster.ini file

Look for the section of the config file [NETWORK] in purple letters. In that section, down below the other settings, insert a new line, and add the following:

whitelist_slots = #

Replace the pound sign (#) with the actual number of reserved slots you want on the server. These reserved slots will be subtracted from your max players on the server! For example, if you have 10 max players and set whitelist_slots to 5, then only 5 slots will remain for the public to use.

A view of the cluster.ini file for Don't Starve Together in Nodepanel, adding the whitelist_slots setting

Get the User "KU" ID

This is an ID number assigned to each customer by the game developer, Klei itself when they create an account on Klei's website.

These ID numbers are called "KU" IDs because they always begin with "KU_" followed by the actual ID "number" (which can actually be a combination of letters and numbers too).

NOTE: There's a second ID number shown on their account, which is longer and made entirely of numbers. That's the player's Steam64ID number, which is not needed for making a player on a Linux Don't Starve Together server.

From a Player

A player can provide their own "KU" ID if they know it. They can get this information from their account page on Klei, when they log into their website with their account name and password. A player can also automatically go to their account page on the Klei website if they click on the "Account" button on the title page of Don't Starve Together in Steam.

A view of a player's Klei account page, showing their KU ID

From Chat Logs

You can also get a player's "KU" ID from the chat logs on the server - simply have the player say something in chat first. These logs will be located in both the "Master" and "Caves" directories (/.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/MyDediServer/Master or /.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/MyDediServer/Caves). The logs are named server_chat_log.txt. Select the file, and click "Edit" on the Nodecraft control panel, to show the contents of the log. A player's "KU" ID should be listed in front of every message they have sent.

Create `whitelist.txt` File

In the same folder, /.klei/DoNotStarveTogether/MyDediServer, create or upload a .txt file, called whitelist.txt.

A view of how to create a file in Nodepanel for Don't Starve Together

Inside the file, on a separate line for each player, add their "KU" ID and then save any changes made to the file.

A view of creating and editing the whitelist.txt file for Don't Starve Together within Nodepanel

You can include more KU IDs than the number of reserved slots you made. Players on the allowlist will receive the normal messages about the server being full if all the reserved and regular slots are in use. It will not bump anyone offline, and they will still need to wait for an opening.

If your allowlist has fewer IDs than the number of reserved slots, this seems to cause issues with it working correctly. So don't make 5 reserved slots, and only put 2 KU IDs in the whitelist.txt file. Make the reserved slots equal to lower than the number of KU IDs in the whitelist.

Restart the Server

The changes made to the config file, and the new whitelist.txt file, will not be loaded until the server is restarted.

Once the allowlist is loaded, if all the regular slots are full, any players that attempt to join will see this message in their client: