Counter-Strike 2 Server Commands: RCON, Convars and Admin Plugins

Counter-Strike 2 has no built-in admin system — no op list, no admin menu, no SourceMod. Server control comes from RCON plus a large set of convars, and anything resembling a community admin experience is added by plugins. This guide covers RCON setup, every server command worth knowing, the convars that change how the game plays, and the plugin layer on top.

Defaults below are the engine defaults. The gamemode configs in game/csgo/cfg/ override many of them — competitive ships mp_roundtime 1.92, mp_freezetime 15 and mp_buytime 20.

1. How CS2 Admin Access Works

There is exactly one native way to prove you are the server operator: the RCON password.

RCON is all-or-nothing — anyone with the password can shut the server down, so it is not something to hand a moderator. The moment you have more than one admin you want the plugin layer in section 10.

CS2 splits console input two ways. Commands fire once and take arguments (kick, changelevel, mp_warmup_end). Convars hold a value (mp_roundtime, sv_alltalk); typing one with no argument prints it. A few things that look like commands are convars — mp_restartgame 1 schedules a restart a second out.

CS2 convars are booleans, not just 0/1

Many CS2 convars are typed as real booleans and print as true/false rather than 1/0 — mp_friendlyfire, mp_autoteambalance, sv_alltalk, mp_overtime_enable. They still accept 1 and 0, so old CS:GO configs keep working, but do not be surprised when the console answers false.

2. Set Up RCON

RCON is off until you give it a password. Put it in game/csgo/cfg/server.cfg, which the server executes on map load:

hostname "My CS2 Server"
rcon_password "USE_A_LONG_RANDOM_STRING"
sv_password ""
sv_lan 0
sv_logfile 1

To authenticate from your own client, enable the developer console in CS2's settings, then:

rcon_address 203.0.113.10:27015
rcon_password YOUR_PASSWORD
rcon status

Prefix each command with rcon afterwards. If rcon returns nothing while you are playing on the server, check rcon_connected_clients_allow — it gates in-game RCON specifically.

Never reuse a password here

rcon_password grants total control of the server process, and the RCON protocol is unencrypted. Use a long random string used nowhere else. sv_rcon_maxfailures and sv_rcon_banpenalty throttle brute force, but both are hidden convars in retail builds — firewall port 27015/tcp to your own address if you can.

Skip RCON entirely

The Console tab on your managed Counter-Strike 2 server is already attached to the server process — type commands there with no rcon prefix and no password on the wire. See Counter-Strike 2 configuration for where each config file lives.

3. Server & Player Management

Run these from the server console, your panel's Console tab, or prefixed with rcon from a game client.

Prefer kickid over kick. Name matching breaks the moment a name contains spaces, unicode, or a substring of another name, while kickid takes the unambiguous numeric userid printed by status. A kickid also applies a temporary ban lasting sv_kick_ban_duration minutes, default 15.

Every CS2 server needs a GSLT to appear in the server browser. Generate one for app ID 730 at steamcommunity.com/dev/managegameservers and pass it as +sv_setsteamaccount <TOKEN> on the command line.

4. Bans and the Ban List

The Source ban commands survived into CS2, gated behind sv_banid_enabled (default true).

Bans vanish on restart without writeid

banid and banip only hold the ban in memory. Run writeid (or writeip) afterwards to commit it to disk — this is the most common reason a banned player walks straight back in after a map change. These eight commands are also flagged development-only in the retail build, so they do not appear in console autocomplete. They still execute; you just have to type them in full and confirm with listid that the ban landed.

With no per-admin accountability and no usable ban reason field, most serious communities run a plugin ban system instead — see section 10.

5. Maps and Workshop Content

host_workshop_map re-downloads the map, so use it after the author publishes an update; ds_workshop_changelevel is the fast path once the file is on disk. Full setup is in How to add Steam Workshop maps for Counter-Strike 2.

6. Match & Gameplay Convars

The mp_ family is where you shape the match. Set them in server.cfg, or in a per-mode config so they survive a mode change.

Commands — not convars — that act on the match immediately:

mp_roundtime is minutes, and it is fractional

A mistake carried over from other Source games is mp_roundtime 115 expecting 115 seconds — CS2 clamps it to the maximum of 60 minutes. Competitive rounds are 1.92 minutes, which is 115 seconds. A two-minute round is mp_roundtime 2.

7. Server Behaviour Convars

sv_pure survived into CS2 — most of its helper convars did not

sv_pure, sv_pure_kick_clients and sv_pure_trace are all present in the retail CS2 build, so sv_pure 1 in a server.cfg is valid and still enforces file consistency. What Source 2 dropped is the rest of the CS:GO family — sv_pure_allow_loose_file_loads, sv_pure_allow_missing_files, sv_pure_consensus, sv_pure_retiretime and sv_consistency all error as unknown. A ported config keeps executing past an unknown command, so the failure is silent unless you read the log.

8. Bots

Bot management is native and needs no cheats.

With sv_cheats 1 you also get bot_kill, bot_place (spawn a bot where you are aiming), bot_stop 1, bot_freeze, bot_crouch and bot_mimic.

9. Cheat & Practice Commands

sv_cheats 1 must be set on the server, not your client, before any of these work. Cheats are visible to every connected player, so keep them in their own config and change the map to clear them rather than unsetting convars by hand.

Cheat-gated convars worth knowing: sv_infinite_ammo (1 = no reloads, 2 = infinite reserve), sv_regeneration_force_on, bot_stop and mp_ignore_round_win_conditions. The rest of a practice setup is ordinary convars:

sv_cheats 1
sv_infinite_ammo 2
ammo_grenade_limit_total 5
mp_warmup_pausetimer 1
mp_buytime 60000
mp_buy_anywhere 1
mp_maxmoney 60000
mp_startmoney 60000
mp_limitteams 0
mp_autoteambalance 0
mp_freezetime 0
mp_roundtime 60
mp_roundtime_defuse 60
mp_ignore_round_win_conditions 1
sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_pipreview 1
sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_trailtime 8
sv_showimpacts 1
sv_showimpacts_time 10
mp_restartgame 1

Save that as game/csgo/cfg/practice.cfg and load it with exec practice. sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_pipreview is the picture-in-picture lineup preview and sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_trailtime (max 8) is how long the trail lingers.

10. The Plugin Layer

Everything above works on a stock server. For chat commands, an admin menu, per-person permissions and persistent bans with reasons, you need a three-layer plugin stack.

Metamod:Source is the loader. CS2 requires the 2.x development branch — the 1.12 stable release is Source 1 only and will not load. Copy addons/ into game/csgo/, then add one line to game/csgo/gameinfo.gi:

Game    csgo/addons/metamod

Restart and run meta list to confirm it loaded — worth repeating after every CS2 update, since game updates break Metamod regularly and a broken plugin usually means a server that will not boot.

CounterStrikeSharp is the framework almost everything is written against now. It runs on Metamod and lets plugins be written in C#. First-time installs need the with-runtime build, which bundles .NET; Linux hosts may also need libicu. Admins go in configs/admins.json:

{
  "YourName": {
    "identity": "76561197960287930",
    "flags": ["@css/generic", "@css/kick", "@css/ban", "@css/changemap"]
  }
}

CounterStrikeSharp is a framework, not an admin mod

Installing it does not give you !kick, !ban or !slay. Its own documentation is explicit that traditional admin commands are left to individual plugins — CounterStrikeSharp supplies the permission model and the API, and you add an admin plugin on top. This trips up everyone arriving from SourceMod, where the two were one package.

CS2Fixes is the other half of the ecosystem — a Metamod plugin independent of CounterStrikeSharp, originally built for zombie escape but widely used for its admin system. It ships the commands people expect: kick, ban, unban, mute, gag, slay, slap, noclip, give, health, money, revive, map, setnextmap, extend, who, status, getpos, setpos, spec, beacon, glow and the RTV set. Run them from chat with ! or /, or from console with a c_ prefix (c_noclip); admins go in addons/cs2fixes/configs/admins.cfg. Its targeting syntax is the fastest thing in this article: @all, @ct and @t for groups, $ for a SteamID64, & for an exact name, # for a userid from status.

11. FAQ

How do I become admin on my own CS2 server?

Set rcon_password in game/csgo/cfg/server.cfg, then run rcon_password YOUR_PASSWORD in your in-game console while connected. Every command in this guide then works prefixed with rcon. There is no native per-person admin list — for that you need Metamod:Source plus CounterStrikeSharp or CS2Fixes.

Why do my bans disappear after a restart?

banid and banip only write to memory. Run writeid and writeip afterwards to commit them to disk. Those commands are also hidden from autocomplete in the retail build, so a typo fails quietly — check with listid that the ban actually landed.

Why does sv_pure say unknown command?

It should not — sv_pure is still in the retail CS2 build, alongside sv_pure_kick_clients and sv_pure_trace. If you are seeing that error, check which line actually produced it. The CS:GO helper convars sv_pure_allow_loose_file_loads, sv_pure_allow_missing_files, sv_pure_consensus, sv_pure_retiretime and sv_consistency did not survive Source 2 and do error as unknown. When a config hits an unknown command the server prints an error and carries on with the rest of the file, so a ported server.cfg can look like it worked while quietly skipping lines.

Do CS2 admin commands need a slash?

Not in the server console or over RCON — type status, not /status. The ! and / prefixes belong to plugin chat commands. CS2Fixes accepts both in chat and uses c_ from console; CounterStrikeSharp plugins conventionally use css_.

How do I set up a practice server?

Put the practice convars in game/csgo/cfg/practice.cfg and run exec practice. You need sv_cheats 1 for noclip, sv_infinite_ammo and sv_rethrow_last_grenade, but the buy-anywhere, long-round and grenade-trail settings are ordinary convars — section 9 has a config to copy.

Why is my server not showing in the browser?

Almost always a missing or invalid Game Server Login Token — generate one for app ID 730 and pass it as +sv_setsteamaccount <TOKEN>. Also confirm sv_lan is 0, since a LAN server sends no heartbeat at all.

Can I run admin commands without any plugins?

Yes — sections 3 through 9 are entirely native. Plugins add per-person permissions, an in-game menu, gagging and muting, ban reasons and immunity. That is real quality-of-life, but none of it is required to run and moderate a server.

12. What to Read Next

• Getting started with your Counter-Strike 2 server — first boot, ports and connecting
• Counter-Strike 2 configuration — where each config file lives and what executes when
• How to add Steam Workshop maps for Counter-Strike 2 — Workshop IDs, collections and map groups

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