Set it up with AI

An AI assistant can take a lot of the pain out of setting up a server. It explains commands, writes config files and reads error messages at any hour. It can also be wrong with total confidence. With a few habits it is a real help, and this page covers those habits and gives you two prompts to copy.

The mods MixMods lists on this site are built with AI assistance and tested on our own servers before they are listed. How we work.

Chat assistants and agents

• A chat assistant, such as Claude or Grok in a browser or app: you paste a step or an error message, it explains and suggests the next command, and you run it yourself. Slower, but you see and type every command.
• An agent that runs commands on your machine, such as Claude Code: it types the commands for you and asks before each one. Faster, and easier to get wrong at speed.

With an agent: use a fresh box, take a snapshot first, approve one command at a time, and read each command before you approve it. Never switch on automatic approval on a box that players use.

What never goes into a chat

• Passwords, including the one sudo asks for.
• Private SSH keys. The file without .pub at the end never leaves your PC.
• Your RCON password, API keys, tokens, Discord webhook addresses and payment details.

Before you paste a log or a config file, look through it and replace anything like that with XXXX. Config files often hold them: an RCON line in a start script, a webhook address in a plugin's settings. An assistant never needs your password to help you. If one asks, it is wrong. If a person asks, walk away.

How to work with it

1. Ask before you run. "What does this change, and how do I undo it?"
2. One step at a time. Run it, look at the result, and paste back what you see, with secrets removed.
3. Trust the server's log, not the summary. After each step, look at what the server says. For Rust, "Server startup complete" in the log means the server finished starting; plugin load lines and errors are in the same log. systemctl status and journalctl show what the service did.
4. Firewall and SSH changes last, and carefully. Keep a second session open and know where your provider's web console is before you apply them.
5. Check what it names. When it gives you a setting, a version or a command you have not seen, ask how to check it on your own server, then check it.

What it is good at, and where it goes wrong

Good at:

• Writing and explaining shell commands, service files and config files.
• Reading error messages and long logs, and pointing at the line that matters.
• Adapting a guide like ours to your box: another user name, another folder, another port.

Goes wrong on:

• Game facts it has not checked: console setting names and defaults, a plugin's commands, how Rust behaves. It will produce a plausible name that does not exist.
• Versions and dates. Its knowledge stops at a cut-off date, so "the latest version" may be months old.
• Anything it cannot see. It knows nothing about your server until you show it.
• Sounding sure. A wrong answer reads exactly like a right one.

Two examples from our own AI-assisted work, both caught by looking at the result instead of trusting the change:

• An SSH setting file that looked right did nothing. SSH keeps the first value it reads, and a provider's file came first. Asking SSH what it was really using showed it (2026-09-06).
• A check that only asked whether the server process existed said a server was fine while it was restarting every nine minutes. The service's restart counter showed it (2026-09-24).

A prompt for a chat assistant

Paste this into Claude or Grok and fill in the three details at the end. It walks you through the setup guide one step at a time.

You are helping me set up a Rust dedicated server on a fresh Ubuntu server that I own, following this guide:
https://directory.mixapps.store/guides/rust-server-vps-setup

If you cannot open the page, say so and I will paste each section.

Walk me through it one step at a time. For each step:
- say in plain words what it does and why;
- give me the exact commands, and say where to run them (my PC or the server);
- tell me what I should see if it worked;
- then stop and wait until I paste the result.

Rules:
- Never ask me for a password, a private key, a token or my RCON password. Remind me to remove them from anything I paste.
- Before any firewall or SSH change, tell me how not to lock myself out.
- If you are not sure about a Rust setting, a version or a command, say so and tell me how to check it on my server instead of guessing.
- Judge each step by what my server prints, not by what you expect.

My details:
- Ubuntu version: [22.04 or 24.04]
- Mod framework: [Carbon, Oxide or none]
- My PC: [Windows, Mac or Linux]

Start with step 1.

A prompt for an agent

For an agent that can run commands on a box you own, such as Claude Code. Take a snapshot of the box first.

You are setting up a Rust dedicated server on a fresh Ubuntu server that I own, following this guide:
https://directory.mixapps.store/guides/rust-server-vps-setup

Ground rules:
- I have taken a snapshot of this server. Confirm that with me before you run anything.
- Work through the guide one step at a time. Before each command, tell me in one line what it does, and wait for my approval. Do not chain unrelated commands together.
- Never print, copy or store passwords, private keys, tokens or the RCON password. Create the RCON password on the server exactly as the guide does, and never display it.
- Do not change SSH or firewall settings until I confirm that I have a second session open and my provider's web console ready.
- After each step, check the result on the server (service status, the server log) and show me the lines that prove it worked.
- Stop and ask if a command fails, if anything differs from the guide, or if you are unsure of a Rust setting or version. Say how you would check it rather than guessing.
- Do not install anything the guide does not list without asking me first.

My details:
- Ubuntu version: [22.04 or 24.04]
- Mod framework: [Carbon, Oxide or none]
- Server name for the server list: [name]

Start with the section "Before you start".

The same care for plugins

An AI can also read a plugin's source code before you install it, and a second one can check the first. Our checking guide has a prompt for that: how to check a mod before you run it.