How To Install Carbon On Your Rust Server

Carbon is a modern, highly optimized alternative to the traditional Oxide modding framework. It is designed to be significantly faster, features a built-in user interface for admins (accessible in-game via the /cpanel command), and is fully backwards-compatible with almost all existing Oxide plugins!

Note: Carbon and Oxide cannot run at the same time. You must choose one or the other. If you prefer to stick with the classic framework, you can read our guide on installing Oxide instead.

Step 1: Enable Carbon

You can easily switch your server to the Carbon framework directly from your MintServers panel.

1. Log into your MintServers game panel and select your Rust server.
2. Navigate to the Game Settings tab on the left-hand sidebar.
3. Find the Modding Framework option and change it to Carbon.
4. You may need to select the specific Carbon branch that matches your server. For standard servers, always select Production. (Only use Staging or Aux if you are explicitly running a test-branch server).
5. Ensure the Regen Server option is disabled so your map is not wiped.
6. Go to the Settings tab and click Reinstall Server to apply the Carbon files.

Step 2: Verify Your Installation

After the server finishes reinstalling and boots back up, it is a good idea to ensure Carbon is running properly.

1. Navigate to the Console tab on your panel.
2. Type the command c.version and press Enter.
3. The console will reply with the currently installed Carbon version number, confirming it is active!

Step 3: Managing Carbon Plugins

Since Carbon is fully compatible with Oxide plugins, you download the exact same .cs files you normally would, but they go into a slightly different folder structure.

• Plugin Installation: Navigate to your Files tab and place your downloaded plugin files into the /carbon/plugins/ directory.
• Plugin Configuration: Once a plugin loads for the first time, its settings file will be generated inside the /carbon/configs/ directory. You can edit your .json files here to customize how the plugins behave.