RustWarden

A professional-grade RCON administration client for Rust Console Edition servers, written in Go with minimal external dependencies.

Built from the ground up with a custom WebSocket implementation — no Gorilla WebSockets, no bloat.

Features

Core functionality:

• Connect to Rust Console Edition servers via WebRcon protocol
• Interactive command line interface with raw terminal mode
• One-shot mode for automated scripts (-cmd flag)
• Config file support (config.txt) for persistent server settings

Resilience:

• Auto-reconnect with exponential backoff (1s → 30s cap)
• Command queueing during disconnection — queued commands execute on reconnection
• Countdown timer displayed during reconnect attempts
• Graceful shutdown on Ctrl+C or disconnect

User experience:

• Interruption-safe input — server events don't destroy your typed commands
• Raw terminal mode with live redraw (backspace, prompt preservation)
• Quiet mode (-quiet) to suppress server events, show only command responses
• Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, macOS

Extensible architecture:

• Custom WebSocket transport layer — no Gorilla, full control over frame handling
• RCON protocol layer with response routing by identifier
• Event broadcasting for unsolicited server messages (chat, player joins, etc.)

Requirements

• Go 1.21 or later
• A Rust Console Edition server with WebRcon enabled

Installation

Clone and build:

git clone https://github.com/lee8oi/rustwarden.git
cd rustwarden
go mod init rustwarden
go mod tidy
go build -o rustwarden.exe .        # Windows
go build -o rustwarden              # Linux/macOS

Usage

Command-line flags

Flag	Required	Description
-host	Yes	Server IP address or hostname
-port	Yes	RCON port (typically 28016)
-password	Yes	Server RCON password
-cmd	No	Send a single command and exit (one-shot mode)
-quiet	No	Suppress server events, show only command responses

Examples

Basic connection:

./rustwarden.exe -host 192.168.1.100 -port 28016 -password secret

One-shot command (automated):

./rustwarden.exe -host 192.168.1.100 -port 28016 -password secret -cmd "status"

Quiet mode (minimal output):

./rustwarden.exe -host 192.168.1.100 -port 28016 -password secret -quiet

Configuration file (optional)

Create config.txt in the working directory:

# Server configuration
host=192.168.1.100
port=28016
password=secret

Lines starting with # are comments. Flags override config values if both are provided.

Behavior

During disconnection:

> say hello
[queued #42] say hello

[status] Connection lost.
[status] Retrying in 1s...
[status] Retrying in 2s...
[status] Connecting...
[status] Reconnected!

[queued #42] Hello world

Server events (non-quiet mode):

> status
Online players: 12

[event] PlayerName: hi there
> kick PlayerName

[status] Connection lost.
[status] Retrying in 1s...

Quiet mode (events suppressed):

> status
Online players: 12

[status] Connection lost.
[status] Retrying in 1s...

Architecture

Three-layer design:

1. Transport (ws.go) — Pure stdlib WebSocket implementation. Handles handshakes, frame masking/unmasking, fragmentation reassembly, control frames. Dependencies: net, crypto/rand, crypto/sha1, encoding/binary, bufio.

2. Protocol (rcon.go) — RCON command/response layer. Manages command identifiers, routes responses to pending requests, handles unsolicited messages, manages reconnect logic with exponential backoff.

3. Application (main.go) — CLI interface. Parses flags/config, handles raw terminal input via golang.org/x/term, manages user interaction, displays status and events.

Limitations

• Plain WebSocket only — Rust Console Edition servers do not support wss:// (secure WebSocket). Traffic including passwords travels unencrypted. For secure connections, use SSH tunneling or a VPN.
• Single server session — Connects to one server at a time. Multi-server support planned.

Planned features

• Command history (arrow up/down to recall previous commands)
• Tab completion for common Rust admin commands
• Scripted command execution from files
• Scheduled commands (e.g., periodic save or restart warnings)
• Session logging to file
• Colored output for events, commands, errors

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Submit issues and pull requests.

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

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Note: Rust Console Edition WebRcon uses plain WebSocket only. Facepunch has not implemented WSS support. See Facepunch/webrcon#39.