How to Use the 7 Days to Die Server Console and Telnet
Connect to your 7DTD server console remotely via Telnet and get comfortable with the most useful admin commands for managing players, the world, and server state.
Enabling Telnet
Telnet is disabled by default. To enable it, edit serverconfig.xml:
<property name="TelnetEnabled" value="true" />
<property name="TelnetPort" value="8081" />
<property name="TelnetPassword" value="YourStrongPassword" />
Restart the server after making these changes.
Connecting via Telnet
From any machine with network access to the server:
telnet yourserver.ip 8081
On Windows, Telnet isn't installed by default. Enable it via Windows Features, or use PuTTY in raw mode, or a tool like ncat.
After connecting, you'll be prompted for the password. Type it and hit Enter. You won't see characters as you type — that's normal.
Essential Console Commands
Player management:
listplayers # Show all connected players with IDs
kick <id> "<reason>" # Disconnect a player
ban add <steamID> permanent "<reason>"
say "Server restart in 10 minutes" # Broadcast to all players
World state:
gettime # Current in-game day and time
settime 7 12 0 # Set to day 7, 12:00 (noon)
saveworld # Force a manual save right now
Server info:
version # Current game build
mem # Memory usage stats
help # List all available commands
help <command> # Detailed help for a specific command
Item and player commands:
giveself <itemName> <count> # Give yourself an item
give <playerID> <itemName> <count> # Give item to a player
teleport <playerID> <x> <y> <z> # Teleport a player to coordinates
Live config changes:
setgamepref <name> <value> # Change a serverconfig value without restart
setgamepref MaxSpawnedZombies 32
Clean shutdown:
shutdown # Saves world and stops the server cleanly
Always use shutdown instead of killing the process — it ensures the world saves properly.
Mod Commands
If you have mods loaded, they may add their own console commands. Use help to see everything available including mod-added commands.
Security Warning
Telnet sends everything in plaintext — your password, your commands, all output. Don't expose port 8081 to the public internet. If you need remote console access, restrict 8081 to your IP only via the control panel firewall, or connect through a VPN.