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

Installation

RconDataBridge is a server-side-only mod. There's no client component to install; players don't need it, and it does nothing to the game client. It only needs to run on the dedicated server process itself.

Requirements

• A Project Zomboid dedicated server, Build 42.0.0 or newer.
• RCON enabled on that server, meaning RCONPort and RCONPassword are set in the server's .ini file. RconDataBridge has no transport of its own; every interaction happens over the RCON connection the server already exposes, so if RCON isn't reachable, this mod isn't reachable either.

Getting the mod onto the server

Install it like any other Project Zomboid mod:

1. Copy, or Steam Workshop subscribe to, the mod so that its folder, containing mod.info, poster.png, and the common/ tree, ends up under the server's mods search path (typically the server's Zomboid/mods/ directory, or the Workshop cache if installed that way).
2. Add the mod to the server config, either through the in-game or admin server settings screen, or by editing the server's .ini directly: add RconDataBridge to the Mods= list, and, if installed via Steam Workshop, the corresponding Workshop item id to WorkshopItems=.
3. Restart the server. Lua mods in Project Zomboid have no hot reload, so any install or update requires a full server restart to take effect.

Verifying it's running

Once the server is back up, connect with any RCON client and run:

showoptions

You should see, among the roughly 140 built-in server options, a handful of RconDataBridge_* entries:

• RconDataBridge_ProtocolVersion
• RconDataBridge_WorldStats
• RconDataBridge_Request
• RconDataBridge_Response
• RconDataBridge_LastResponse

All of their values are base64 encoded; see Protocol Reference before trying to read them by eye.

If the server has a very large showoptions output, be aware that Project Zomboid's RCON implementation chunks large responses across multiple packets with no explicit end-of-response marker. A client that stops reading after the first packet can appear to be missing these options intermittently, even though the mod registered them correctly; that's a client-side accumulation issue, not a sign the mod isn't running. If in doubt, check the server's own log for a [RconDataBridge] bootstrap complete line, which is printed once boot finishes successfully.

RconDataBridge_PlayerStats_<id> options are not present at boot; they're created lazily, the first time a get_player request is made for that specific player (see Operations Reference). Don't expect to see them until then.

Configuring it

Everything tunable, such as rate limits, poll cadence, and the idempotency window, is exposed through Project Zomboid's own Sandbox Options system, under an RconDataBridge page reachable either when creating a new save ("Sandbox Settings"), or from the in-game admin panel on an already running server. See Configuration for the full list and what each value does.