The Atlas Daemon

The Atlas Daemon (atlasd) is a lightweight agent that runs on your game servers. It connects your servers to the Atlas platform, enabling real-time monitoring, console access, and automation.

What It Does

The daemon sits between your game server and the Atlas cloud platform:

  • Process Management — Starts, stops, and restarts your game server
  • Telemetry Collection — Monitors CPU, RAM, disk, and network usage
  • Log Streaming — Sends console output to your dashboard in real-time
  • Issue Detection — Alerts you to problems like crashes, OOM events, or lag
  • Command Execution — Lets you send commands to your server from anywhere
  • File Operations — Browse and edit server files through the dashboard
  • Pipeline Automation — Runs automated scripts for updates and deployments

How It Connects

The daemon maintains a persistent WebSocket connection to Atlas. This means:

  • No need to open inbound ports on your firewall
  • Real-time updates without polling
  • Automatic reconnection if the connection drops
  • Secure, encrypted communication

Requirements

  • Linux server (Alpine, Ubuntu, Debian, or RHEL)
  • Network access to api.atlas.dev (port 443)
  • Pterodactyl with Wings (recommended), or standalone

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://get.atlas.dev/daemon | ATLAS_TOKEN=your_token bash

This one-liner downloads and installs the daemon, then connects it to your account. See the Installation Guide for more options.

Configuration

The daemon is configured via environment variables:

VariableDescription
ATLAS_ENROLLMENT_TOKENYour one-time enrollment token
ATLAS_DATA_ROOTPath to your server files
ATLASD_LOGGING_LEVELLog verbosity (debug, info, warn, error)

Most configuration is handled automatically through your Atlas dashboard.

Security

The daemon is designed with security in mind:

  • Encrypted Connection — All communication is over WSS (WebSocket Secure)
  • API Key Auth — Uses a unique API key for authentication
  • Chrooted File Operations — File access is restricted to your server's directory
  • Command Validation — Console commands can be restricted via allowlist/denylist

Credentials are stored in /etc/atlasd/auth.json with restricted permissions.

Troubleshooting

If your server isn't showing up in the dashboard:

  1. Check the daemon is running: systemctl status atlasd
  2. Check the logs: journalctl -u atlasd
  3. Verify network access: curl -I https://api.atlas.dev