Watchtower
What's happening on your Minecraft server — and what to do next.
Modrinth · Releases · Wiki · Changelog · Issues
Watchtower is a local ops dashboard for Minecraft servers. It watches the server while it runs — live performance, issues, crashes, mods, backups, logs, and the rest of day-to-day ops — and turns that into plain next steps.
Use it when something's wrong, and when everything's fine and you just want a clear picture of health, trends, and what needs attention next. It stays on your machine. No cloud account. No telemetry service.
Works on: Linux dedicated servers · NeoForge 1.21.x · Java 21
What you get
- Overview — a clear "how's my server?" page: health grade, live vitals, what needs attention, and restart advice (Safe / Caution / Wait). It does not restart the server for you.
- Live — TPS, lag, players, memory, CPU, and host charts while you watch.
- Issues & Crashes — a fix inbox that stays useful without running giant reports every day. Pick a row, see what to do next.
- Mods — inventory with optional Modrinth update / conflict hints. Watchtower never downloads mod jars for you.
- Spark — when lag needs proof, read Spark profiles in plain steps (needs Spark installed). The deep Spark workspace is still alpha.
- Backups — see if backups look fresh. Point it at a local backup folder (best path). Panel / cloud tracking exists but is alpha — don't fully trust it yet.
- Support pack — build a zip (logs, crashes, Spark, extras) from the side rail to send to a helper or mod author.
- CLI (optional) — if Minecraft won't stay up, the matching CLI jar can still build a local disaster-recovery bundle over SSH.
Everything important lives under your server's watchtower/ folder on disk.
Quick start
- Download GitHub Releases or Modrinth:
watchtower-neoforge-1.1.2+mc1.21.jar— required (the mod)watchtower-cli-1.1.2.jar— recommended (disaster recovery when the game won't boot)
- Put both files in your server's
mods/folder (replace older Watchtower jars). - Restart the server.
- Open
http://<server-ip>:8787in your browser. - Sign in with
watchtower/password, then change the password right away and finish first-time setup.
Security tip: Prefer opening the dashboard on the machine itself (or through an SSH tunnel). Don't leave port 8787 open to the whole internet.
More detail: Installation · Quick Start Checklist · Security
The CLI is not loaded as a Minecraft mod. Keep it in mods/ next to Watchtower, and run it with java -jar over SSH when you need it. Disaster recovery →
Where it's going
I keep shipping in small steps: clearer advice, better crash / mod help, then wider loader support later. The long-term goal stays the same — one place on the server for what's happening and what to do next.
Full plan: docs/ROADMAP.md (there's also a Roadmap page inside the dashboard).
Docs & help
- GitHub Wiki — main guide for server owners (same content is in the in-app Help Center)
- Changelog — what changed in each release
- Issues — bugs and ideas
Something still feels wrong after updating? Open an issue or send a Support pack — I'll take a look.
Contributing
Clone, build, and test notes: CONTRIBUTING.md
License
GPL-3.0-or-later — see LICENSE.
