On disk Files

On-disk Files

Where Watchtower saves things on your server. Most files live in <server>/watchtower/. You rarely need to edit them by hand — use the dashboard and Settings instead.

---

Quick reference

Path	In plain English
watchtower/watchtower.conf	Schedule, backups, warnings — edit via Settings
config/watchtower-server.toml	Dashboard port, chart speed — needs restart
watchtower/watchtower-facts-*.json	Health report data for the dashboard
watchtower/watchtower-brief-*.txt	Human-readable report summary
watchtower/live-history.json	Live chart history (seconds)
watchtower/performance-rollups.json	Minute-by-minute history for Insights
watchtower/dashboard-auth.json	Login accounts (hashed) — use Settings → Security
watchtower/DR-README.txt	Emergency recovery command — updated each report

---

watchtower/ folder layout

watchtower/
  dashboard-auth.json       # Login + 2FA (do not edit by hand)
  watchtower.conf           # Settings file
  snapshot.json             # Quick TPS/lag snapshot
  live-history.json         # Live chart data
  performance-rollups.json  # Insights history
  watchtower-brief-*.txt    # Report summaries
  watchtower-facts-*.json   # Report data for dashboard
  ops-cache.json            # Background scan cache
  DR-README.txt             # Recovery instructions
  .watchtower-state.json    # Internal state (acks, cursors)

---

What not to delete casually

File	If deleted
dashboard-auth.json	Default login recreated on next start
.watchtower-state.json	Loses crash review marks, incremental progress
live-history.json	Live charts start empty (rebuild over time)
watchtower-facts-*.json	That report disappears from dashboard history

---

Technical details

dashboard-auth.json

Username, bcrypt password hash, TOTP secrets (encrypted), recovery codes.

snapshot.json

Lightweight TPS/MSPT snapshot every ~60s (sampleIntervalSeconds in TOML).

live-history.json

One sample per second with tiered retention; flushed per liveFlushIntervalSeconds.

.watchtower-state.json

Last report time for incremental scans, acknowledged crashes, ignored client mods, trend samples for /watchtower status.

config/watchtower-server.toml

NeoForge mod config — restart required. See Configuration.

---

See also

• Configuration
• Health Reports
• Security and Access