horizon/docs/owners.md

For server owners: server.properties to server.toml

You run a vanilla server today and edit server.properties. With horizon-server you edit one file, server.toml, instead. Before every start the server writes server.properties from it, so the game reads exactly what a vanilla server reads. This page maps one to the other. The full guide is hosting.md; the design is server.md, section 4.

Moving over

Run horizon-server init in your server folder, or horizon-server import server.properties. It reads the file with vanilla's own parser:

• keys that have a field below go into their section of server.toml;
• any other key that differs from vanilla's default goes into [properties];
• keys left at their defaults are dropped, so the file stays short;
• your original is kept as server.properties.imported.

The world folder, ops.json, whitelist.json, the ban lists and usercache.json keep vanilla's names and formats, so going back to a vanilla server works too.

Keys that have a field

server.properties	server.toml	Default
motd	[server] motd	"A Minecraft Server"
server-port	[server] port	25565
server-ip	[server] bind	"" (every address)
max-players	[server] max_players	20
online-mode	[server] online_mode	true
white-list	[server] whitelist	true
enforce-whitelist	[server] enforce_whitelist	false
view-distance	[server] view_distance	10
simulation-distance	[server] simulation_distance	10
level-name	[world] name	"world"
level-seed	[world] seed	"" (random on first start)
gamemode	[world] game_mode	"survival"
difficulty	[world] difficulty	"easy"
hardcore	[world] hardcore	false

Two details differ from vanilla's file: white-list becomes whitelist, and a seed may be a number or any text (vanilla hashes text), written as a string.

Every other key

Put any other vanilla key under [properties], spelled as vanilla spells it:

[properties]
spawn-protection = 16
resource-pack = "https://example.com/pack.zip"

A key that has a field above is an error under [properties]; set it in its section.

Settings that are not in server.properties

These belong to horizon-server, not to the game:

server.toml	Meaning
[engine] path, resources, restart_on_crash	Which game program and prepared files to run, and whether to restart it after a crash.
[backups] every, keep	Automatic backups ("6h", "0" turns them off) and how many to keep.
[updates] keep	Other releases kept besides the one in use and the one rollback goes to.
[panel] bind, allow_public	The web panel's address ("" turns it off) and whether it may listen on a public address.

What to know when you switch

• Edit server.toml, not server.properties. The latter is rewritten at every start.
• Mistakes stop the start. Unknown keys and values vanilla would refuse are errors, not ignored.
• In-game changes survive. When the game changes a setting itself (/whitelist on), the supervisor copies it back into server.toml after the game stops, and keeps your comments and order.
• Changes apply at the next restart. horizon-server config set KEY=VALUE edits the file without opening it; on a running server it applies difficulty, defaultgamemode and whitelist on|off live. There is no full live reload yet.

Planned: limiting a server to Horizon clients

The design (server-next.md, section 6) adds one more setting. It is not in server.toml yet.

[clients]
allow = "any"        # "any" (vanilla Java and Horizon) or "horizon" (Horizon clients only)

With "horizon" the server refuses a client that does not identify as Horizon. This is a convenience filter, not security: Horizon's client is open source, so a modified client can claim to be Horizon. The real gate stays online_mode, plus the whitelist and bans on top of it.