You become an admin on your Valheim server by adding your 17 digit SteamID64 to the adminlist.txt file, which unlocks admin commands like kick, ban, and save.
What admin gives you
Admins can moderate and manage the server from inside the game. That includes kicking and banning troublemakers, saving the world on demand, and, once you turn them on, the developer commands used for testing and event building. Regular players cannot do any of this, so the first thing most owners do is make themselves admin.
Find your SteamID64
Valheim identifies admins by SteamID64, a 17 digit number that starts with 7656119. It is not your display name.
- Copy the full URL of your Steam profile.
- Go to a lookup site such as steamid.io and paste it in.
- Copy the value labelled steamID64 (the long number).
Add yourself to adminlist.txt
- Open the Files tab in the panel and find your save and config folder. The file adminlist.txt sits next to bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt, usually inside a .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim folder. It is created automatically the first time the server starts, so if you do not see it yet, start the server once and refresh.
- Open adminlist.txt, or create it if it is missing.
- Paste your SteamID64 on its own line. Add more admins by putting each ID on a new line.
- Save the file.
- Restart the server from the Console tab so it reads the change.
Use your admin powers in game
Once you are listed and have rejoined:
- Press F5 to open the console.
- Type help and press Enter to see the commands available to you.
Useful admin commands include kick [name], ban [name], unban [name], banned to list current bans, save to force a world save, and ping. To use the creative and testing commands (spawning, flying, and so on) type devcommands first, which only works because you are an admin on the server.
Manage the admin list
- Add a friend by putting their SteamID64 on a new line and restarting.
- Remove someone by deleting their line and restarting.
- bannedlist.txt holds banned SteamID64s, and permittedlist.txt acts as an allow list if you choose to run the server that way.
Take a snapshot on the Backups tab before big config changes so you can roll back if something goes wrong.
Still stuck? Jump into our Discord at discord.gg/GuavaHost and the team will help you out.