Granting Admin Privileges on a Sons of the Forest Server

Running a dedicated Sons of the Forest server is fun until two cannibals double-team your base and you realize regular players cannot fix the situation. That is where admin access steps in. With the right setup, you can spawn items, modify companion behavior, tweak movement speed, and generally bend the rules of survival when needed. Doing so takes a bit of file editing plus a chat command in-game, and most server owners never find clear instructions for it. This HolyHosting guide walks you through the entire process.

What Admin Access Unlocks

Becoming an admin on a Sons of the Forest server adds a long list of tools that base players cannot touch. Spawn any item, refill health on demand, alter the world state, instantly remove enemies, or change how Kelvin and Virginia behave. For anyone hosting a SOTF server, this layer is essential for testing, moderation, and recovering sessions when things break. The sections below cover both the file edit that grants you the role and the in-game command that turns the panel on.

Adding Accounts to the Whitelist

The whole process happens through the file manager on your server panel. You drop SteamIDs into a single text file, save it, then restart the server. Activating the in-game panel is a separate step, covered further down. Start with the listing below.

1. Open your HolyHosting server panel and open the FTP / file manager from your panel menu.

1. Enter your panel password and press Login.

1. From the directory list, open the sotf server folder.

1. Inside, find ownerswhitelist.txt and hit Edit on the right side of the row.

1. Paste your SteamID on a new line, then click Save at the top. You can grab this ID from SteamID IO or by opening Account Details on Steam.

1. Repeat for every admin you want to add, then go back to the main panel and Restart the server.

Turning On the In-Game Panel

Once the server boots up and recognizes your account as an admin, you still need to flip the panel on from inside the game. This uses a chat command plus a hotkey. Every command available is listed inside the panel itself, but the next section highlights the ones worth knowing first.

1. Join your server, then press Enter to open the chat box.

1. Type cheatstick and send it.

1. Press F1 to bring up the admin overlay.

1. Type any command into the field at the top of the screen.

1. A confirmation message appears in the bottom-left corner when the command succeeds.

Commands Worth Knowing

Sons of the Forest exposes a long list of admin commands, and most of them are self-explanatory once you read the name. Useful staples include spawning items, toggling god mode, controlling weather, freezing time, and adjusting companion AI. Open the panel and scroll through the list to see exactly what your version of the game supports, since the available commands can shift between patches.

Common Problems

If the admin panel refuses to open, the most likely cause is skipping the cheatstick chat command. Press Enter to open chat, send the word, and only then hit F1. If nothing happens after that, the SteamID inside ownerswhitelist.txt is probably wrong.

When cheatstick is rejected entirely, the file is the culprit. Pull your SteamID from your Steam Account Details page, paste it into ownerswhitelist.txt, save, and restart the server. Keep in mind that the value the file wants is not your SteamID64 or any of the other formats Steam exposes, so double-check before assuming the server is broken.

Related Reading

• Sons of the Forest server hosting options
• Release details and overview of Sons of the Forest
• How the AI system works in Sons of the Forest
• Sons of the Forest compared with The Forest
• More Sons of the Forest guides on the HolyHosting blog