pz-rcon-data-bridge/wiki/Home.md

RconDataBridge

RconDataBridge is a server-side Project Zomboid (Build 42) mod that exposes structured world and player telemetry, plus a small allowlisted RPC surface, over the server's existing RCON connection. There is no new port and no new authentication layer to configure; it uses the RCON connection your server already has.

It rides entirely on two vanilla RCON commands, changeoption and showoptions, which every RCON client or library already speaks.

There is no client-side mod component. "Client" throughout this wiki means an external RCON tool, bot, or dashboard backend, not in-game Project Zomboid UI.

Why?

Vanilla RCON gives you console commands and raw showoptions server settings, but nothing structured and nothing queryable, and no safe way to trigger a handful of specific server actions without giving a bot full console access. RconDataBridge adds a thin, versioned, allowlisted JSON protocol on top of that same connection.

Wiki contents

• Installation: getting the mod onto a server and confirming it's running.
• Configuration: the admin-tunable Sandbox Options, such as rate limits and poll cadence.
• Protocol Reference: how the RCON transport works, covering the option map, base64 encoding, the request/response cycle, idempotency, rate limiting, and error codes.
• Operations Reference: every operation, such as get_player and list_players, with its arguments, response shape, and errors.
• Architecture: how the mod is built internally, covering module responsibilities, the boot sequence, and the engine quirks it works around.

Requirements and License

• A Project Zomboid dedicated server, Build 42.0.0 or newer, per the mod manifest's versionMin.
• RCON enabled on the server, meaning RCONPort and RCONPassword are set in the server's .ini. This mod adds no transport of its own, so if RCON isn't reachable, neither is this mod.
• Licensed under AGPLv3.