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Your First Server

Create

From the Dashboard, click New server (or Create server, if this is your first one). The Create server dialog asks for:

  • Name: up to 32 characters.
  • Install root: where the server’s files go. It defaults to C:\PalCommandServers, and you can pick a different folder with the Browse button beside the field, or type a path directly. Each server gets its own full install under this root; Palworld’s dedicated server can’t share one install directory between servers. Once you’ve chosen a root, a line under the field shows roughly how much the download needs, how much free space is on that drive, and how much RAM this machine has. That readout is informational only, it never blocks Create. If the drive genuinely doesn’t have enough room, Create refuses with the actual free-space number rather than letting a multi-gigabyte download fail partway through.
  • Max players: 1 to 32, prefilled at 32.
  • Public lobby: a switch, off by default. Off keeps the server direct-connect only.
  • Advanced (collapsed by default): Game port, Query port, and REST port. Leave these blank and PalCommand assigns them automatically, avoiding collisions with your other managed servers. The placeholder text in each field reads “Auto” until you set one explicitly.

Click Create. The dialog closes right away. PalCommand doesn’t make you sit through the install in a modal. Your new card appears on the Dashboard immediately.

Watching it install

PalCommand downloads SteamCMD itself the first time it’s needed. It isn’t bundled with the app, and it’s used to fetch the Palworld dedicated server files (several gigabytes). While that’s running, the new card’s status pill reads Installing, amber, with a pulsing dot, and a progress bar appears beneath it. Once SteamCMD reports real numbers you’ll see the stage it’s on (downloading, verifying, and so on) with a live megabyte count and percentage; if a moment goes by with nothing to report, the bar shows an indeterminate shimmer with the caption “Installing: this can take a few minutes; Steam sometimes goes quiet” instead of going blank, so a quiet stretch doesn’t read as frozen.

If something goes wrong partway through, a dropped connection for example, the card moves to Broken with a plain-language explanation of what happened (a raw technical detail sits below it, in case you need it for support), and an Install button to retry. If you’d rather abandon the attempt entirely, Delete on the card’s menu also cancels an in-flight install; your original choice of install root and settings are simply discarded, nothing is left half-installed.

Once the install completes, the pill turns gray and reads Stopped. That’s your cue it’s ready.

First start

Click Start on the card, or open the server (click the card, or its Open button) and click Start in the hero’s action bar. The pill cycles amber (Starting) and then green (Running) once the Palworld process is up and listening.

Connecting

Open the server’s page and look at the hero’s meta row for the address chip, a copyable ip:port value (or a bare :port when PalCommand can’t work out an address to pair with it). Click it to copy, then use it as the direct-connect address in the Palworld client. If you turned Public lobby on, players can also find the server through Palworld’s in-game community server browser once it’s running.

What’s next

From here, the server’s tabs cover everything: Console for the live log and broadcasts, Players for who’s connected, Settings for PalWorldSettings.ini values, Backups, Schedule, Network, and Mods. See Managing Multiple Servers for a tour of all of them.