node-GameDig - Game Server Query Library

node-GameDig is a game server query library, capable of querying for the status of nearly any game or voice server. If a server makes its status publically available, GameDig can fetch it for you.

GameDig is available as a node.js module, as well as a command line executable.

Support is available on the GameDig Discord (for questions), or GitHub Issues (for bugs).

Usage from Node.js

npm install gamedig

const Gamedig = require('gamedig');
Gamedig.query({
    type: 'minecraft',
    host: 'mc.example.com'
}).then((state) => {
    console.log(state);
}).catch((error) => {
    console.log("Server is offline");
});

Query Options

Typical

• type: string - One of the game IDs listed in the game list below
• host: string - Hostname or IP of the game server
• port: number (optional) - 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. (defaults to protocol default port)

Advanced

• maxAttempts: number - Number of attempts to query server in case of failure. (default 1)
• socketTimeout: number - Milliseconds to wait for a single packet. Beware that increasing this will cause many queries to take longer even if the server is online. (default 2000)
• attemptTimeout: number - Milliseconds allowed for an entire query attempt. This timeout is not commonly hit, as the socketTimeout typically fires first. (default 10000)
• givenPortOnly: boolean - Only attempt to query server on given port. (default false)
• ipFamily: number - IP family/version returned when looking up hostnames via DNS, can be 0 (IPv4 and IPv6), 4 (IPv4 only) or 6 (IPv6 only). (default 0)
• debug: boolean - Enables massive amounts of debug logging to stdout. (default false)
• requestRules: boolean - Valve games only. Additional 'rules' may be fetched into the raw field. (default false)

Return Value

The returned state object will contain the following keys:

• name: string - Server name
• map: string - Current server game map
• password: boolean - If a password is required
• maxplayers: number
• players: array of objects
  • name: string - If the player's name is unknown, the string will be empty.
  • raw: object - Additional information about the player if available (unstable)
    • The content of this field MAY change on a per-protocol basis between GameDig patch releases (although not typical).
• bots: array of objects - Same schema as players
• connect: string
  • 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 games, this may be a server ID or connection url if an IP:Port is not appropriate for end-users.
• ping: number
  • 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.
• raw: freeform object (unstable)
  • Contains all information received from the server in a disorganized format.
  • The content of this field MAY change on a per-protocol basis between GameDig patch releases (although not typical).

Games List

See the GAMES_LIST.md file for the currently supported games, not yet supported games and notes about some of them.

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 reponse 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(...)

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, --pretty, --socketTimeout 5000, --requestRules etc.