SFTP with an SSH Key

New to SFTP? Read FTP-Client first — it shows how to connect with a password.

Step 1 — Create an SSH key

You do this once on your PC. Open a terminal (Windows: PowerShell, macOS and Linux: Terminal) and run:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Press Enter to keep the suggested location. You can set a passphrase; a script that runs on its own usually needs a key without one.

This creates two files in the folder .ssh in your user folder:

File	What it is
`id_ed25519.pub`	The public key. You add it to the panel in the next step.
`id_ed25519`	The private key. It stays on your PC. Never share it — it works like a password.

In the panel, click your account icon at the top right and then the tab SSH Keys.
Show your public key in the terminal and copy the whole line:

Get-Content $HOME\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Open your Gameserver in the panel again (My Servers → your Gameserver → PANEL) and click the tab Settings. The values are in the box SFTP Details.

Field	Example	What you need it for
Server Address	`sftp://nodeX.mygameplatform.com:12345`	Host (`nodeX.mygameplatform.com`) and port (`12345`)
Username	`yourname.1a2b3c4d`	Your SFTP username for this Gameserver

Replace port, username and host with your values from Step 3:

sftp -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -P 12345 yourname.1a2b3c4d@nodeX.mygameplatform.com

In PowerShell on Windows, write $HOME\.ssh\id_ed25519 instead of ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.

The first time, sftp asks whether you trust the server. Type yes. You are now in the files of your Gameserver — no password needed.

Programs like WinSCP or FileZilla work too: select the private key file id_ed25519 instead of entering a password.

A typical script for a new version of a mod or plugin does five things:

Step	How
1. Build	Build the new files on your PC.
2. Back up	Download the files you are about to replace (`get`), or rename them on the server (`rename MyPlugin.dll MyPlugin.dll.bak`).
3. Upload	Upload the new files (`put`).
4. Restart	Restart the Gameserver with the User API (scope `servers:control`).
5. Check	Read the console with the User API (scope `servers:console`, or `servers:console-stream` live) and look for load errors.

To roll back, upload the old files again or rename them back.

Steps 2 and 3 as an SFTP batch file, for example deploy.txt:

cd plugins
get MyPlugin.dll backup/MyPlugin.dll
put build/MyPlugin.dll MyPlugin.dll

Run it with:

sftp -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -P 12345 -b deploy.txt yourname.1a2b3c4d@nodeX.mygameplatform.com

Replace plugins, MyPlugin.dll, build and backup with your own folders and files. The folder backup must exist on your PC.

SFTP: many games write log files into a folder such as logs. Download them with get.
User API: servers:console reads the newest console lines, servers:console-stream shows the console live.

You can also let the panel create backups on a schedule — see Schedules and Backups.

AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can write and run such a deploy script for you. Give them:

the SFTP details (host, port, username) and the path to your private key,
an API token with the scopes servers:read, servers:control and servers:console (optional: servers:console-stream, servers:command).

Anyone with your private key can change the files of your Gameservers. Never share it, post it on Discord or commit it to Git.
If your key may have leaked, delete it in the panel under SSH Keys right away and create a new one.

31 October 2026