Daemon CLI

Check Daemon status, control the service, and update it.

Run these commands with the installation account and privileges; diagnostics require the service account's permissions:

Here, gamex means the node executable. If it is not on PATH, run from the extracted directory and replace it with ./gamex on Linux/macOS or .\gamex.exe in Windows PowerShell. Linux system services may require sudo; do not use it for a macOS user service.

Purpose	Command
Check service and connection status	gamex daemon status
Check Docker connectivity	gamex daemon doctor
Start or stop the service	gamex daemon start / gamex daemon stop
Enable or disable automatic startup	gamex startup enable / gamex startup disable
Check the version and full usage	gamex version / gamex --help

For first installation, use the command generated by Panel; see Connect a node.

status returns JSON with service installation, running state, and automatic startup status. It also includes Daemon state when the local management endpoint is reachable. A running service does not establish Panel connectivity, and Docker availability does not establish game-service readiness.

For an installation with custom configuration, pass the same file:

gamex daemon status --config /path/to/config.yaml
gamex daemon doctor --config /path/to/config.yaml

doctor checks the Docker engine available under the current configuration. It does not install or repair Docker. See Troubleshooting for Workspace service and port issues.

Configuration and data locations

System	Default location
Linux	Configuration and identity: /etc/gamex-daemon/; state: /var/lib/gamex-daemon/
macOS	config.yaml, identity/, and state/ under ~/Library/Application Support/GameX/
Windows	config.yaml, identity\, and state\ under %ProgramData%\GameX\

The Panel connection address is panel_url in config.yaml. Back up configuration, identity, and state together. Use your actual paths for custom installations and back up the corresponding volume for container deployments.

Download a release

Choose a version matching Panel from Daemon releases, download the archive for your host's operating system and architecture, and extract it into a new directory. The examples below use 1.2.0.

For filenames, see Connect a node; the executable is in gamex-v1.2.0-PLATFORM-ARCH-unsigned/.

Optional: verify downloaded files

Download SHA256SUMS from the same release into the archive directory. Verify the archive before extracting it.

Linux / macOS

PLATFORM=linux
ARCH=amd64
ARCHIVE="gamex-v1.2.0-${PLATFORM}-${ARCH}-unsigned.tar.gz"
(
  set -e
  awk -v file="$ARCHIVE" '$2 == file { print }' SHA256SUMS > selected.sha256
  test "$(wc -l < selected.sha256)" -eq 1
  if command -v sha256sum >/dev/null; then
    sha256sum --check selected.sha256
  else
    shasum -a 256 --check selected.sha256
  fi
)

Set PLATFORM=darwin on macOS and ARCH=arm64 on ARM hosts.

Windows

Run in PowerShell:

$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$arch = 'amd64'
$archive = "gamex-v1.2.0-windows-$arch-unsigned.zip"
$lines = @(Get-Content SHA256SUMS | Where-Object { ($_ -split '\s+')[1] -eq $archive })
if ($lines.Count -ne 1) { throw 'Missing or duplicate checksum' }
$expected = ($lines[0] -split '\s+')[0]
if ($expected -notmatch '^[0-9a-fA-F]{64}$' -or (Get-FileHash $archive -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -ne $expected) {
  throw 'Checksum mismatch'
}

Change $arch to arm64 on ARM hosts.

Verify release provenance

Download the matching .sigstore.json bundle and install cosign. Run in the archive directory:

cosign verify-blob --bundle gamex-v1.2.0-linux-amd64-unsigned.tar.gz.sigstore.json --certificate-identity-regexp '^https://github\.com/gamex-sh/gamex-daemon/\.github/workflows/release\.yml@refs/heads/release/v1\.2\.0$' --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com gamex-v1.2.0-linux-amd64-unsigned.tar.gz

Replace the filenames with your package names; use a single line in PowerShell.

Update and uninstall

• Update: check compatibility and back up, download the target release, then run ./gamex daemon update using the new executable; configuration and identity are retained.
• Uninstall: run gamex daemon uninstall and confirm. It removes the service and executable, retaining configuration, identity, and state.
• Purge local data: add --purge when uninstalling to delete configuration, identity, and state.

Uninstalling retains Docker containers, images, volumes, and game server data; manage these separately.