Skip to content

Administration tools

Five Rust admin plugins: what to use and how to start

Observe a player, find an entity, remove a building, set raid hours or translate plugin messages: these are five different jobs. Pick the plugin for yours; you do not need the whole list.

Contents · 8 sections

Observe without being seen — Vanish

Cost
Free on uMod
Framework
Oxide
Dependencies
No additional plugin
First command
/vanish in chat

Use Vanish when a moderator needs to watch a player without appearing beside them. /vanish switches invisibility on; run it again to become visible.

  • Grant vanish.allow to the moderators who need it; the permissions example below shows how.
  • For manual use, leave automatic vanish disabled. Keep public sound effects off if you do not want the effect to announce your presence.

Important: Do not grant vanish.permanent for this workflow: it prevents the normal return-to-visible toggle.

Vanish settings in PimpMyRust’s configurator
Vanish’s default settings. Import your server’s JSON before changing them.

Find players and entities — Admin Radar

Cost
Free on uMod
Framework
Oxide
Dependencies
DiscordMessages is optional
First command
/radar in chat

Admin Radar draws player and entity information on a staff member’s screen. Use it to locate a reported player or inspect a nearby situation, rather than searching the map blindly.

  • Use /radar to switch the display on or off, and /radar help to see the available filters.
  • Begin with the player display. Set drawing distances to cover your investigation rather than enabling every entity type across the map.

Important: Reserve access for staff. adminradar.allowed can temporarily give the user Rust’s admin flag to draw the radar; also check the configured auth-level and Steam64 restrictions.

Remove buildings and deployables — Remover Tool

Cost
Free on uMod
Framework
Oxide
Dependencies
None for basic removal; ImageLibrary for UI images
First command
/remove help in chat

Choose Remover Tool to let players undo permitted construction or to let staff clean up a site. It can charge for removal and refund materials; the normal player mode and unrestricted admin modes are separate.

  • Give players only removertool.normal if they should use normal removal. Test ownership, price and refund settings on a disposable structure before opening access.
  • Run /remove to toggle the tool. If you need entity-specific settings, first import the configuration generated by your server: those lists are filled after the plugin starts.

Important: Do not give players removertool.admin, removertool.all, removertool.structure or removertool.external. These modes can delete entities beyond the normal ownership rules; removal is not undoable.

Set permitted raid hours — Raid Time Protection

Cost
Paid on Codefling
Framework
Oxide or Carbon
Dependencies
Zone Manager is optional for zone exclusions
First command
/raid_date in chat; no permission needed

This PimpMyRust plugin fits servers where raids are allowed only at certain times. Set a post-wipe protection period and each day’s raid window; players can check the next change with /raid_date.

  • For a Friday 22:00–Saturday 04:00 window, set Friday’s start to 22:00 and its duration to 360 minutes.
  • Set the UTC offset to match the schedule you announce. It is fixed: adjust it yourself if you follow daylight-saving time.

Important: The plugin does not protect every possible damage source or entity. Read its damage rules and check your server’s raid scenarios before advertising complete raid protection.

Translate plugin messages — AI Translation Free

Cost
Free plugin; OpenAI API usage is paid separately
Framework
Oxide or Carbon
Requirements
Your OpenAI API key, credit and an English plugin language file
Command location
Server console or RCON

Use AI Translation Free to prepare a plugin’s messages in another language without translating each JSON value yourself. One command translates one installed plugin’s English language file into one target language. It does not translate player chat.

  • Install AITranslation.cs, enter your key in OpenAIToken and reload the plugin. Keep the key private and set request limits before use.
  • For the example below, install Vanish first and check that oxide/lang/en/Vanish.json exists. Replace Vanish with your plugin name and fr with the target language code.

Important: Run Free or Pro, not both together.

Server console/RCON: request a French translation of Vanish’s English file.
aitfree.translateplugin Vanish fr

Expected resultAfter a successful request, review oxide/lang/fr/Vanish.json before using it. Running the command uses paid OpenAI API credit.

Install the chosen plugin and edit its settings

On Oxide, a plugin is a .cs file in oxide/plugins/. Here is the short installation path; use the linked plugin guide for any additional requirements.

  • Download the plugin from its author’s page above. Upload its .cs file to oxide/plugins/ and check the server console for a successful load.
  • Download the generated JSON from oxide/config/ and keep a backup. Open the matching configurator, choose your installed version, then Import that JSON.
  • Change the settings and Export the result. Replace the corresponding server configuration and reload the plugin; for Vanish, the server-console command is oxide.reload Vanish.

Give a moderator access: Vanish example

After Vanish has loaded, run the commands below in the server console. Replace <Steam64ID> with the moderator’s 17-digit Steam ID: users in that console lists IDs for connected players. This creates an observers group and grants only the invisibility toggle.

Oxide server console: grant Vanish access to one moderator.
oxide.group add observers
oxide.grant group observers vanish.allow
oxide.usergroup add <Steam64ID> observers
oxide.show user <Steam64ID>

Expected resultThe moderator can now use /vanish in chat. Check both invisible and visible states with another player nearby.

Remove that access when it is no longer needed

This is a separate action, not part of installation. Run it when the moderator leaves the role or after a temporary test.

Oxide server console: remove this group membership.
oxide.usergroup remove <Steam64ID> observers
oxide.show user <Steam64ID>

Expected resultCheck that /vanish is denied after reconnecting. If it still works, look for vanish.allow granted directly to the user or through another group.