What Is an "Egg," and Why Does It Matter?

If you've poked around the Startup tab or our Egg Changer feature, you've seen the word "egg" thrown around without much explanation. Here's what it actually means.

The Short Version

An egg is a template that tells the panel how to run a specific piece of server software: what Docker image to use, what the startup command looks like, which variables to expose (version, memory, RCON password, and so on), and how to install it fresh. Every game and application we offer — Paper, Forge, Rust, PalWorld, CS:GO, a Discord bot runtime — is backed by one of these templates.

Think of it as the recipe; your actual server is the dish made from it.

Why This Matters to You as a Customer

• It's why version dropdowns exist — the egg defines what versions/variables are exposed to you in the Startup tab. Different software has a different egg with different fields.
• It's what the Egg/Game Changer swaps — when you switch your Minecraft server from Paper to Forge, or change a Rust server's mod framework, you're really switching which egg is installed. See our egg changer guide for the actual steps.
• It's why some settings only appear on some products — a Minecraft egg exposes Minecraft-relevant variables (version, jar type); a Rust egg exposes Rust-relevant ones (framework, wipe settings). You'll never see an RCON password field on a Discord bot's egg, because it doesn't apply.
• It determines what's technically possible on a given server — you can only switch to another egg within the same underlying game family/nest your product supports (for example, our Source Engine products can switch between CS:GO, GMod, and TF2, since those all live under the same nest — but a Minecraft server can't become a Rust server without changing products entirely).

You Don't Need to Understand the Internals

In day-to-day use, the egg is invisible — you just see a working version selector and startup variables that make sense for whatever you're running. Where it's genuinely useful to understand is when troubleshooting: if a variable seems missing or a version dropdown looks wrong, "which egg is installed" is the first thing worth checking (and the first thing support will ask about).

This is also, functionally, what powers our one-click Game Changer — swapping to an entirely different game on the same server is really just installing a different egg on top of the existing service.