GameSmith

Cross-platform game server management tool written in Rust. Inspired by WindowsGSM, but designed to be modular, extensible, and platform-agnostic.

Manage dedicated game servers — install, start, stop, monitor, update, back up — from a web interface, REST API, or Discord. No RDP or VNC required.

Features

• Plugin-based game support — onboard any game as a plugin via a GitHub repository URL. Plugins are isolated, versioned, and upgradable independently.
• Server lifecycle management — install, start, stop, restart, delete, and import existing server instances.
• Process monitoring & crash recovery — detect abnormal exits, auto-restart with configurable retries and backoff.
• System resource monitoring — track per-process memory usage with tiered alerts (warn → alert) and user-defined automated actions.
• Cron-like job scheduling — automate restarts, updates, and other recurring tasks with cron syntax.
• Backup & restore — manual and scheduled backups with configurable retention, supporting local disk and S3.
• SteamCMD integration — install and update dedicated game servers through Steam.
• Discord integration — manage servers via commands, relay chat, and receive crash/status alerts.
• Notifications — configurable alerts across Discord, email, and extensible third-party channels.
• Real-time dashboard — live server statuses, historical uptime, crash/restart events, and key metrics.
• Multi-user & RBAC — role-based access control (admin, operator, guest), session management, and audit logging.
• Documented REST API — interactive OpenAPI/Swagger UI for programmatic access and integrations.

Architecture

GameSmith is built with Rust and the Loco framework:

Component	Technology
Framework	Loco
Web	Axum
ORM / Database	Sea-ORM (SQLite, PostgreSQL)
Templating	Tera + Fluent (i18n)
Async runtime	Tokio

Project Structure

src/
  controllers/     # HTTP route handlers
  models/          # domain entities and ORM mappings
  mailers/         # email templates and delivery
  tasks/           # background jobs and scheduled work
  views/           # response templates
  workers/         # async background workers
  initializers/    # app setup (view engine, middleware, etc.)
  app.rs           # application configuration and routing
  lib.rs           # library root
  bin/main.rs      # CLI entry point

tests/
  requests/        # integration tests for HTTP endpoints
  models/          # model unit tests with snapshots
  tasks/           # task tests
  workers/         # worker tests

config/            # environment-specific configuration (development.yaml, test.yaml)
migration/         # database migrations (Sea-ORM)
assets/
  views/           # template files
  i18n/            # localization resources
  static/          # static assets

Quick Start

make dev

Boots the server, runs pending migrations, and starts listening on http://localhost:5150. No external CLI tool required.

# Desktop mode (tray icon + auto-open browser)
make dev-desktop

# Production (SQLite + background workers)
make release
./target/release/game-smith start

Installation

Linux (.deb — Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives)

Download the latest .deb from the releases page and install it:

sudo dpkg -i game-smith_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -f   # resolves any missing dependencies

This installs:

• /usr/bin/game-smith — the server binary
• /usr/share/applications/game-smith.desktop — app launcher entry
• /usr/share/icons/hicolor/*/apps/game-smith.png — application icons

After installation the Game Smith icon appears in your application launcher under Utilities. Clicking it starts the server; a tray icon appears in your system tray with options to open the dashboard or quit.

Linux (Fedora / Bazzite / rpm-ostree)

Install the .rpm package. The change takes effect after a reboot (or immediately with --apply-live):

rpm-ostree install game-smith-0.5.0-1.x86_64.rpm
# Optional: apply without rebooting
rpm-ostree install --apply-live game-smith-0.5.0-1.x86_64.rpm

This installs:

• /usr/bin/game-smith — the server binary
• /usr/share/applications/game-smith.desktop — app launcher entry
• /usr/share/icons/hicolor/*/apps/game-smith.png — application icons

Linux (AppImage — any distro, no install)

The .AppImage is self-contained. Download it, mark it executable, and run it:

chmod +x game-smith_0.5.0_x86_64.AppImage
./game-smith_0.5.0_x86_64.AppImage start

To integrate with your desktop launcher:

mkdir -p ~/Applications
mv game-smith_0.4.0_x86_64.AppImage ~/Applications/game-smith.AppImage
# The tray icon and desktop entry are handled by the app itself

Uninstalling

Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo dpkg -r game-smith

Fedora / Bazzite (rpm-ostree):

rpm-ostree uninstall game-smith

AppImage:

rm ~/Applications/game-smith.AppImage

Development

Setup

Run the setup script to check and install missing system dependencies:

make setup

Detects your OS/distro and installs GTK3, libappindicator, and xdotool (required for the desktop feature). Creates .cargo/config.local.toml with the necessary library paths.

On unsupported distributions, you'll need to install these manually.

Local build configuration goes in .cargo/config.local.toml (gitignored). Never commit machine-specific paths to .cargo/config.toml.

Running tests

make test

Quality gates

make qa    # runs fmt-check, lint, and test

Available targets

Run make help for a full list of available targets including migrations, builds, and cleanup.

Configuration

Environment-specific configuration lives under config/. Key sections include database connection, server port, mailer, and authentication settings. Copy config/development.yaml and adjust for your environment.

Contributing

Open issues and feature proposals are tracked on GitHub. See the issues tab for the current roadmap.

License

See LICENSE.