Pterodactyl Panel

A free, open-source game server management panel.

Accessing the Panel

The panel is available at: http://<server-ip>

Create Your First Admin User

Before using the panel, you must create an administrative account:

cd /var/www/pterodactyl
php artisan p:user:make

Backup Your Encryption Key

Your application key (APP_KEY) is required to access encrypted user data.

Retrieve it:

grep APP_KEY /var/www/pterodactyl/.env

Back this up securely. If lost, data associated with encrypted values (API keys, OAuth tokens, etc.) becomes unrecoverable.

Configure Email Delivery

Email is required for password resets and account verification.

Run the mail configuration wizard:

php artisan p:environment:mail

Ensure SMTP connections are allowed for this server (ask for enabling SMTP access).

Maintenance Mode Commands

Use maintenance mode during upgrades or configuration changes.

Enable:

php artisan down

Disable:

php artisan up

Activating Wings (If Installed)

If wings.service is failing to start, it will typically activate successfully once it has been fully configured.

Use the generated token (Panel → Admin → Nodes → Select Node → Configuration → Auto-Deploy → Generate Token) to configure Wings:

Once configuration is done, restart Wings:

sudo systemctl restart wings

Important Files & Directories

  • Panel application files: /var/www/pterodactyl
  • Environment configuration: /var/www/pterodactyl/.env
  • Nginx configuration: /etc/nginx/sites-available/pterodactyl.conf
  • Credentials file: /root/.cloudzy-creds
  • Wings configuration (if installed): /etc/pterodactyl/

Application Details