Starting your server
Start the server for the first time, then learn the files you'll edit and the ones the server manages for you.
First launch
With Endstone installed, start a server in an empty directory:
endstoneOn first run, Endstone downloads Bedrock Dedicated Server from Microsoft's official mirror. Press y then Enter to accept the Minecraft EULA and the download continues. Once it finishes, the server listens on UDP 19132 (IPv4) and 19133 (IPv6).
To run from a different folder, skip the prompts on a headless box, or toggle the interactive console, see the full CLI arguments reference.
Where your settings live
Endstone keeps every configuration file inside your server folder. By default that's ./bedrock_server next to where you ran endstone; with Docker it's the volume you mounted into the container. After the first launch, that folder holds everything: world data, plugins, logs, and the small set of files that control how the server behaves.
Common tasks
Basic configurations
The server.properties keys most operators change first - name, gamemode, and access.
Changing the world
Replace the auto-generated world with a save, Realm, or world you bring in.
Adding plugins
Drop Python or C++ plugins into your server to extend Endstone.
Adding packs
Install behavior and resource packs and enable them per world.
The two files you'll edit by hand
Most operators only touch these two:
server.properties- the main BDS config. Server name, port, game mode, difficulty, view distance. Changes here require a server restart.endstone.toml- Endstone-specific settings. Command logging, client-pack policy, plugin overrides.
Open them in any text editor, save, restart the server.
The files the server manages for you
Allowlist, bans, and operator levels also live as files on disk, but you should rarely edit them by hand. Use the in-game or console commands instead - they resolve XUIDs, reload the file in place, and keep the JSON well-formed:
| Task | Command | File it updates |
|---|---|---|
| Allow a player | allowlist add <gamertag> | allowlist.json |
| Promote to operator | op <gamertag> | permissions.json |
| Ban a player | ban <gamertag> [reason] | banned-players.json |
| Ban an IP | ban-ip <ip> [reason] | banned-ips.json |
If you do edit one of these files by hand, run the matching reload command (allowlist reload, permission reload) so the server picks up the change without a restart.
Everything else
World saves, behavior and resource packs, plugin data folders, the bStats metrics opt-out, log rotation - the full layout is documented in the configuration reference.