The all-in-one manager for ARK dedicated servers on Windows — install & update Workshop mods, launch & supervise your servers, and edit every last server setting. One small native app.
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v2 is a ground-up C++20 rewrite of the original AutoIt application (2017–2026): a tiny native binary, a fully testable core, and a hardened self-updater.
- Automated map backups. The world file, player profiles and tribes of a
server go into one timestamped ZIP archive
(
<server>_<map>_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.zip, ZIP64 when it gets big) underShooterGame\Saved\Backupsor a folder of your choice, with a configurable rotation (default: the newest 10 are kept). Backups run every n hours (e.g. every 2 h) while AMU is open, before every mod update (on by default), and on Backup now. A running server is told tosaveworldfirst and AMU waits for the fresh save. - Backup messages for your players. Like the shutdown warnings: any
number of RCON broadcasts with their own minute marks (
{min}). Default: Map backup in 1 minute, then Map backup now. Remove every row for a silent backup. - Automation tab. Everything AMU does on its own for a server lives on one tab: start with AMU, auto-restart on crash, shutdown warnings, scheduled update checks and map backups.
- Review round: two servers scheduled for the same minute both run (queued),
a mod's load order can be changed with Up / Down, rolling backups of
GameUserSettings.ini/Game.inibefore every AMU write (AMU-Backups, 10 kept), and a dozen smaller fixes.
- Shutdown warnings are back - and dynamic. Before a server is stopped
for a mod update, AMU broadcasts your messages via RCON: any number of
steps, each with its own minute mark and text (
{min}= minutes left), each one switchable. Default: 20 / 15 / 10 / 5 / 1 minutes. Remove every row to stop without a warning. - Scheduled update checks. Any number of schedules (time of day, weekdays, one server or all): at that time AMU runs the same check as Check for updates and, if something is outdated, the full flow with your warnings. AMU has to be running at that time.
- The mod list shows Workshop previews, names and Released / Updated /
Installed dates - also for mods that only ever lived in
ActiveMods=. - Smarter Mods-tab actions: Install missing (N), Check for updates, Install / Reinstall per selection, and proper confirm dialogs.
- Configurator: server-then-gameplay category order with rows grouped by ini file, an Only set filter, collapsible categories, defaults and examples prefilled on click, scrollable family editors.
- Start / Stop / Restart follow the live server state.
- Setting definitions checked against the official wiki (
MultiHome,ModIDS,CustomLiveTuningUrl).
- 🧩 Mod install & update — drives
steamcmd.exewith live per-mod progress, unpacks ARK's.zarchives, writes the.moddescriptors, and keepsActiveModsinGameUserSettings.iniin sync. Names, preview images and release/update dates come straight from the Steam Workshop (cached locally underlib/cache/previews), and the buttons follow the state of your mod list - Install missing, Check for updates, Reinstall. - 🚀 Server launcher & supervisor — AMU builds the server command line
itself (no start scripts): start/stop/restart from the UI, graceful RCON
shutdown (
saveworld→ confirmed fresh save →DoExit), crash detection with auto-restart & backoff, adoption of already-running servers, live status in the sidebar. - 📡 Update orchestration — configurable countdown broadcasts to your
players (any number of steps,
{min}templating), scheduled update checks, a map backup before the install, all-or-nothing mod swap, and the server only restarts if it was running before. - 🗜️ Map backups — timestamped ZIP archives of the world, profiles and tribes: every n hours, before every update and on demand, with rotation and RCON messages for your players.
- ⚙️ Full server configurator — ~370 settings for ASE and ASA from
the community wiki, searchable, categorized and collapsible, with an
Only set filter, typed editors, tooltips, click-to-edit defaults, and raw
editors for the array-style setting families
(
OverrideNamedEngramEntries,PerLevelStatsMultiplier[i], …) that normal INI tools cannot touch. Unrelated lines, comments and encoding are preserved byte-for-byte. - 🔄 Hardened self-updater — updates ship as GitHub Releases with a
SHA-256 manifest; the standalone
amu_updater.exeverifies every file before swapping, with automatic rollback. AMU even bootstraps a missing SteamCMD by itself. - 🔐 DPAPI credential store — Steam login data is encrypted per Windows user; nothing is ever stored in plain text.
- 🗃️ Servers, mods, settings and logs live in a local SQLite database.
| Mods | Server & launch options |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Configurator | Live update run |
 |
 |
Two layers, cleanly separated so the entire core is testable without a GUI:
┌─────────────────────────────┐
│ amu.exe (Sciter.JS shell) │ HTML/CSS/JS UI, packed into the exe
├─────────────────────────────┤
│ amucore (static lib, C++20)│ everything below is unit-tested
└─────────────────────────────┘
amucore module |
Purpose |
|---|---|
db |
SQLite data layer (prepared statements only) |
serverconfig |
GameUserSettings.ini / Game.ini access incl. the raw rewriter for array-setting families |
launchspec |
Pure ASE/ASA command-line builder |
supervisor |
Process lifecycle: start, graceful RCON stop, crash auto-restart |
orchestrator |
The mod-update pipeline (SteamCMD → unpack → install → restart) |
warnplan |
Pre-shutdown warning plan: storage format, defaults, countdown steps |
schedule |
Scheduled update checks and backup intervals: due-time logic |
worldbackup |
Map backups: archive naming, include rules, rotation, the ZIP writer (zlib, ZIP64) |
backup |
The backup runner: player messages, saveworld, archive, rotation |
steamcmd_parser |
SteamCMD stdout → typed progress events |
zunpack |
ARK/Valve .z decompressor |
mod_writer |
.mod descriptor generator |
workshop |
Workshop page scraping (name, preview, posted/updated dates) |
rcon |
Minimal Source-RCON client |
credstore |
DPAPI encrypt/decrypt |
updatecheck |
Manifest + SHA-256 self-update client |
Plus cpp/updater — the standalone amu_updater.exe that
applies verified updates while the app is closed.
Requirements: CMake ≥ 3.21, Ninja, MSVC with C++20
(Visual Studio 2022 “Desktop development with C++” workload).
All dependencies are fetched automatically via CMake FetchContent
(SQLite, zlib, doctest, Sciter.JS SDK) — no manual setup.
cd cpp
cmake --preset default
cmake --build --preset defaultThe binaries land in cpp/build/ — amu.exe runs directly from there
(a loose ui/ folder next to the exe overrides the packed-in UI for fast
HTML iteration).
ctest --test-dir build --output-on-failure
# or directly: build/tests/amu_tests.exeEach GitHub Release
is the update channel — the app checks
releases/latest/download/version.txt and offers one-click updates:
- The install is just three files:
amu.exe(UI packed in),sciter.dll,lib/amu_updater.exe. manifest.txtlists every file with its SHA-256 — the updater verifies everything before touching your install, and rolls back on any failure.steamcmd.exeships as an extra asset; AMU downloads it automatically when missing.amu-cpp-<version>.zipis attached for manual installs.
Maintainers: publish.ps1 builds the whole asset set and prints the
matching gh release create command.
- Sciter.JS — the embedded HTML/CSS/JS UI engine (free tier)
- Valve SteamCMD — Workshop downloads (Valve's software, not part of this project)
- SQLite (public domain) • zlib (zlib license) • doctest (MIT)
- ARK server setting documentation based on the ARK Community Wiki
Licensed under the MIT License — free to use, modify and redistribute, commercially or not. One condition is not optional: the copyright notice
Copyright (c) 2026 oNdsen
must remain in all copies and substantial portions of the software, including forks and derived projects (that is the retention clause of the MIT license itself). Removing the notice is a license violation.
© 2026 oNdsen — made with 🦖 for the ARK community
⭐ If AMU saves you time, a star keeps the dinos fed.