gamedig

node-GameDig - Game Server Query Library

node-GameDig is a game server query Node.js module (as well as a command line executable), capable of querying for the status of nearly any game or voice server.

If a server makes its status publicly available, GameDig can fetch it for you.

Support is available on the Discord for questions, or GitHub for bugs.

Are you updating from v4 to v5? Many game ids have changed.
Make sure to check if your game's ID is in the id migration document and don't forget to check the changelog file.

Games List

node-GameDig can query over 320 games + a few services!
See the GAMES_LIST.md file for the currently supported titles, not yet supported titles and notes about some of them.

Usage from Node.js

Install using your favorite package manager: npm install gamedig, then use!
Tip: Do you want to try and use the latest features? Install GameDig from this repository via npm i git+https://github.com/gamedig/node-gamedig!

import { GameDig } from 'gamedig';
// Or if you're using CommonJS:
// const { GameDig } = require('gamedig'); 

GameDig.query({
    type: 'minecraft',
    host: 'mc.hypixel.net'
}).then((state) => {
    console.log(state);
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log(`Server is offline, error: ${error}`);
});

Confused on how this works, or you want to see more? Checkout the examples folder!

Required Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	One of the game type IDs listed in the games list. Or you can use protocol-[name] to select a specific protocol. Protocols are listed here.
host	string	Hostname or IP of the game server.

Optional Fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
address	string	undefined	Override the IP address of the server skipping DNS resolution. When set, host will not be resolved, instead address will be connected to. However, some protocols still use host for other reasons e.g. as part of the query.
port	number	Game port	Connection port or query port for the game server. Some games utilize a separate "query" port. If specifying the game port does not seem to work as expected, passing in this query port may work instead.
maxRetries	number	1	Number of retries to query server in case of failure. Note that this amount multiplies with the number of attempts.
socketTimeout	number	2000	Milliseconds to wait for a single packet. Beware that increasing this will cause many queries to take longer even if the server is online.
attemptTimeout	number	10000	Milliseconds allowed for an entire query attempt (including socketTimeout, beware that if this value is smaller (or even equal) to the socket one, the query will always fail).
givenPortOnly	boolean	false	Only attempt to query server on given port. It will ignore the game's default port.
ipFamily	number	0	IP family/version returned when looking up hostnames via DNS, can be 0 (IPv4 and IPv6), 4 (IPv4 only) or 6 (IPv6 only).
debug	boolean	false	Enables massive amounts of debug logging to stdout.
requestRules	boolean	false	Valve games only. Additional 'rules' may be fetched into the raw key.
requestPlayers	boolean	true	Valve games only. Disable this if you don't want to fetch players data.
requestRulesRequired	boolean	false	Valve games only. requestRules is always required to have a response or the query will timeout.
requestPlayersRequired	boolean	false	Valve games only. Querying players is always required to have a response or the query will timeout. Some games may not provide a players response.
stripColors	boolean	true	Enables stripping colors for protocols: unreal2, savage2, quake3, nadeo, gamespy2, doom3, armagetron.
portCache	boolean	true	After you queried a server, the second time you query that exact server (identified by specified ip and port), first add an attempt to query with the last successful port.
noBreadthOrder	boolean	false	Enable the behaviour of retrying an attempt X times followed by the next attempt X times, otherwise try attempt A, then B, then A, then B until reaching the X retry count of each.
checkOldIDs	boolean	false	Also checks the old ids amongst the current ones.

Query Response

The returned state object will contain the following keys:

Key	Type	Default	Description
name	string	An empty string	Server name.
map	string	An empty string	Server map.
password	boolean	false	If a password is required.
numplayers	number	0	Number of players connected.
maxplayers	number	0	Maximum number of connected players.
players	array of objects	[]	Note that this could be of a different length compared to numplayers.
players.name	string	An empty string	If the player's name is unknown, the string will be empty.
players.raw	object	{}	Additional information about the player if available.
bots	array of objects	[]	Same schema as players.
connect	string	'${ip}:${port}'	This will typically include the game's IP:PORT. The port will reflect the server's game port, even if your request specified the game's query port in the request. For some entries, this may be a server ID or connection URL if the previous isn't applicable.
ping	number	0	Round trip time to the server (in milliseconds). Note that this is not the RTT of an ICMP echo, as ICMP packets are often blocked by NATs and node has poor support for raw sockets. This value is derived from the RTT of one of the query packets, which is usually quite accurate, but may add a bit due to server lag.
queryPort	number	0	Indicates on which port the query was done on, if this is not applicable its the default value.
version	string	An empty string	Game version that is running on the server.
raw	object	{}	Contains all information received from the server in a disorganized format.

Note that raw (or unstable) objects contents MAY change on a per-protocol basis between GameDig patch releases (although not typical).

Usage from Command Line

Want to integrate server queries from a batch script or other programming language? You'll still need npm to install gamedig:

npm install gamedig -g

After installing gamedig globally, you can call gamedig via the command line:

gamedig --type minecraft mc.example.com:11234
# Alternatively, if you don't want to install gamedig globally, you can run it with npx:
npx gamedig --type minecraft mc.example.com:11234

The output of the command will be in JSON format.
Additional advanced parameters can be passed in as well:

• --debug: Print debugging information, useful when stating an issue.
• --pretty: Outputs the JSON format nicely.
• --requestRules: Request Valve games rules.
• --givenPortOnly: Run the query with the specified port only (if any).
• --socketTimeout N: Specifies socket timeout (where N is a number, e.g. 5000).
• ... and the rest in the same format.

Using with other runtimes

While we still expect to be some minor issues with these, the library works, if any problems arises please open an issue, and we'll look into it.

• Deno: Minimum supported deno version is 1.39.2 and the --allow-net permission is required.
• Bun: Minimum supported version is 1.1.21.

Common Issues

Firewalls block incoming UDP

(replit / docker / some VPS providers)

Most game query protocols require a UDP request and response. This means that in some environments, gamedig may not be able to receive the response required due to environmental restrictions.

Some examples include:

• Docker containers
  • You may need to run the container in --network host mode so that gamedig can bind a UDP listen port.
  • Alternatively, you can forward a single UDP port to your container, and force gamedig to listen on that port using the instructions in the section down below.
• replit
  • Most online IDEs run in an isolated container, which will never receive UDP responses from outside networks.
• Various VPS / server providers
  • Even if your server provider doesn't explicitly block incoming UDP packets, some server hosts block other server hosts from connecting to them for DDOS-mitigation and anti-botting purposes.

Gamedig doesn't work in the browser

Gamedig cannot operate within a browser. This means you cannot package it as part of your webpack / browserify / rollup / parcel package.
Even if you were able to get it packaged into a bundle, unfortunately no browsers support the UDP protocols required to query server status from most game servers.
As an alternative, we'd recommend using gamedig on your server-side, then expose your own API to your webapp's frontend displaying the status information. If your application is thin (with no constant server component), you may wish to investigate a server-less lambda provider.

Specifying a listen UDP port override

In some very rare scenarios, you may need to bind / listen on a fixed local UDP port. The is usually not needed except behind some extremely strict firewalls, or within a docker container (where you only wish to forward a single UDP port).
To use a fixed listen udp port, construct a new Gamedig object like this:

const gamedig = new GameDig({
    listenUdpPort: 13337
});
gamedig.query(...)