Rust Plugins 2026: 10 Essential uMod Plugins for Your Server

Which uMod plugins does a new Rust server need, who maintains them today, and which command and permission start each one? The answers below come from each plugin's uMod data and its own .cs source file, checked on 4 November 2026.

Quick answer: The ten uMod plugins to start a Rust server with are Kits (/kit, admin permission kits.admin), Vanish (/vanish, vanish.allow), Copy Paste (/copy and /paste, copypaste.copy and copypaste.paste), Remover Tool (/remove), Sign Artist (/sil), Admin Hammer (/ah), Clans (/clan), Friends (/friend), Night Vision (/nv) and GUI Announcements (/announce). All ten are direct downloads on uMod. Put the .cs file in oxide/plugins, then give the permission to a group, for example oxide.grant group admin vanish.allow.

The 10 essential uMod plugins at a glance

Authors, versions and release dates are from uMod's plugin data on 4 November 2026; commands and permissions are from each plugin's source file.

By uMod's download counter, Vanish (548.9K), Kits (523.2K), Remover Tool (451.9K) and Copy Paste (438.5K) are the most downloaded of the ten. Friends and Night Vision have had no release since 2023, so test both after every Rust update before you open the server.

If you saw other names in older lists: uMod now lists Remover Tool under Tryhard (the file itself still credits "Reneb/Fuji/Arainrr/Tryhard"), Sign Artist under Whispers88, Friends under MrBlue and Night Vision under Clearshot. uMod has no plugin called just Notify (a search finds UI Notify and two Discord notifiers), so GUI Announcements takes the slot for timed server messages.

1. Kits (k1lly0u): starter and VIP kits

Kits gives players item sets they claim with /kit, which opens a menu by default ("Use the Kits UI menu": true). /kit <name> claims a kit straight away. Each kit can have a cooldown, a maximum number of uses, a purchase cost, a required permission, a minimum auth level and a CopyPaste file.

The admin subcommands all need kits.admin:

/kit list works for everyone: with kits.admin it lists every kit, without it only the kits that player can claim.

Kits checks only the permission, so even the server owner gets "You must either be a admin, or have the admin permission to use that command" until kits.admin is granted.

Make a starter kit and a VIP kit

1. Put the items you want in the kit in your own inventory.
2. Type /kit new, enter a name such as starter, set "Cooldown (seconds)" (3600 is one hour) and "Maximum Uses" (0 means no limit), click "Copy From Inventory" and then "Save Kit".
3. For a VIP kit, fill in the Permission field. The editor only accepts names that start with kits. and otherwise answers "Permissions must start with the 'kits.' prefix", so use kits.vip.
4. Create the group and grant the permission in the server console:

oxide.group add vip
oxide.grant group vip kits.vip
oxide.usergroup add 76561198123456789 vip

Players without kits.vip do not see that kit in the menu ("Show kits with permissions assigned to players without the permission" is false). How far to take paid VIP kits is in our Rust monetization guide.

The Kits config keys that matter

The config is oxide/config/Kits.json. This excerpt shows the defaults of Kits 4.4.10:

{
  "Kit chat command": "kit",
  "Currency used for purchase costs (Scrap, Economics, ServerRewards)": "Scrap",
  "Wipe player data when the server is wiped": false,
  "Use the Kits UI menu": true,
  "Only show/give players skins that they are allowed to use (requires PlayerDLCAPI)": true,
  "Show kits with permissions assigned to players without the permission": false,
  "Autokits ordered by priority": [
    "ExampleKitName",
    "OtherKitName"
  ],
  "Post wipe cooldowns (kit name | seconds)": {
    "ExampleKitName": 3600,
    "OtherKitName": 600
  }
}

What those keys do in the code:

• Autokits: on respawn, Kits walks down the list and gives the first kit the player can claim. It empties the player's inventory before it does. Names that match no kit are skipped, so replace the two example names with your own.
• Post wipe cooldowns: the timer starts when the new save was created. "vip": 7200 keeps the VIP kit locked for the first two hours of a wipe, and players see "This kit has a post-wipe cooldown of ... remaining".
• Wipes: cooldowns and uses carry over to a new map by default, because "Wipe player data when the server is wiped" is false. Set it to true, or run /kit reset after the wipe.
• Paid skins: with the skins option set to false, Kits warns at startup that "As of August 7th 2025, granting access to paid skins that users do not own is against Rust's Terms of Service and can result in your server being delisted or worse." The ownership check needs the separate PlayerDLCAPI plugin.

After editing the file, run oxide.reload Kits. The kits themselves live in oxide/data/Kits/kits_data.json and player cooldowns and uses in oxide/data/Kits/player_data.json. Back up kits_data.json before you rebuild kits or move servers.

2. Vanish (Whispers88): invisible admin checks

/vanish switches invisibility on and off for players with vanish.allow. The other permissions:

• vanish.permanent: vanished on every connect; /vanish then only answers "You are in a permanent vanish mode".
• vanish.unlock: opens locked doors and boxes while vanished.
• vanish.damage: does nothing until you set "Use OnEntityTakeDamage hook" to true (default false); with the hook on, a vanished player deals damage only with this permission.
• vanish.invviewer: /inv or /invspy opens the inventory of the player you look at.
• vanish.teleport: teleports you to a map marker while vanished, once "Enable teleport to marker when vanished" is true.

One trap: two auto-vanish settings in oxide/config/Vanish.json mention "the vanish.use perm", but the plugin registers no vanish.use and checks vanish.allow. Moderator groups, logging and the other staff tools are in our Rust admin plugins guide.

3. Copy Paste (misticos): save and paste buildings

Each command checks its own permission. Players added with ownerid can use all of them without one, because Copy Paste also lets Oxide's admins (Rust owners) through.

Saved buildings go to oxide/data/copypaste/<name>.json, so you can move a build to another server by copying that file. If /copy answers "Couldn't ray something valid in front of you", look straight at a part of the building.

Copy options are radius (default 3), method (the default proximity takes everything within the radius, building only the building), deployables and inventories. Paste options include height, autoheight, blockcollision, stability, position, rotation, dlc and skins. For an arena:

/copy arena method building
/paste arena autoheight true
/undo

The paste defaults in oxide/config/CopyPaste.json ("Paste Options"):

Pasting runs in batches to limit lag. "Loop Execution" mode 1 is a timed delay, which the config labels "safest", with 0.075 seconds between batches and 5 entities per paste batch (copy batches are 100). Mode 2 works per frame; the config itself warns that mode 3 causes lag. The sum for a 1,000 entity base: 1,000 / 5 = 200 batches, and 200 × 0.075 s = 15 seconds of delay alone before the last piece is placed.

Copy Paste also works with Kits: a kit can point to a CopyPaste file, and Kits pastes it with "Parameters used when pasting a building via CopyPaste" (default deployables true inventories true).

4. Remover Tool (Tryhard): undo building mistakes

/remove turns the remover on for players with removertool.normal; then hit what you want gone. By default normal mode stays on for 60 seconds (/remove 300 for the 300 second maximum), has a 60 second cooldown and a limit of 50 objects, with price and refund on. To decide who may remove what, it reads entity owners, Clans and Friends ("Use Entity Owners", "Use Clans" and "Use Friends" are true), not teams or tool cupboards; the config marks "Use Tool Cupboards" as "Strongly unrecommended". Staff use /remove admin with removertool.admin.

5. Sign Artist (Whispers88): images on signs

Stand close to a sign ("Maximum distance from the sign": 3) and type /sil <url> to load an image (needs signartist.url), or /silt <message> for text (needs signartist.text). Images are limited to 1 MB by default and there is no cooldown ("Time in seconds between download requests (0 to disable)": 0), so set one on a busy public server. It can log sign changes to a file, the console or a Discord webhook.

6. Admin Hammer (mvrb): who owns this base

/ah turns it on for players with adminhammer.allow; then right-click an entity while holding a hammer to see its owner and the players authorized on it. In version 1.13.1 code lock codes also show in chat, so give it only to staff you trust with every code. Its last release was on 10 November 2025, so test it after every Rust update.

7. Clans (k1lly0u): clans and alliances

Clans is a universal plugin with no permission: any player can type /clan create <tag> "description". Defaults: 8 members, 2 moderators, alliances on with up to 2 allied clans, and tags of 2 to 5 characters, which show in chat only with the BetterChat plugin. /c <message> is clan chat and /a <message> ally chat. Clan purging is on: clans that have not been online for 14 days are removed.

8. Friends (MrBlue): friend lists for other plugins

/friend add <player name or id>, /friend remove <player name or id> and /friend list manage a list of up to 30 friends ("Maximum number of friends (0 to disable)"). With "Use permission system" false, everyone can use it; set it to true and players need friends.use. Friends does not block friendly fire or share doors on its own. It is a friend list and API that other plugins read, such as Remover Tool, so install it when one of your plugins asks for it.

9. Night Vision (Clearshot): a VIP perk

/nightvision <0-24> or /nv locks the time of day that one player sees; without a number it uses 12 (noon). It needs nightvision.allowed, and nightvision.auto turns it back on when that player reconnects. Other players still see the real time.

10. GUI Announcements (JoeSheep): wipe reminders and rules

/announce <message> shows a banner across the top of every player's screen (needs GUIAnnouncements.announce); /announce toplayer <player> <message> and /announce togroup <group> <message> narrow it down. Every automatic message is off by default. For wipe reminders and rules, set "Public Automatic Timed Announcements" to enabled, fill its "Announcement List" and keep or change "Show Every (HH:MM:SS)" (00:30:00). "Public Restart Announcements" and "Private Welcome Announcements" work the same way.

Install the plugins and grant the permissions

Download the .cs file from the plugin's uMod page and put it in oxide/plugins/. Oxide's plugin watcher is on by default ("PluginWatchers" in oxide/oxide.config.json), so a new or changed file loads without a restart. Each plugin writes its settings to oxide/config/<PluginName>.json; after an edit, reload it by name:

oxide.reload Kits
oxide.reload CopyPaste

Every plan of our Rust hosting supports Oxide/uMod, and you do not need an SFTP client for this: open oxide/plugins/ in the panel's file manager, upload the .cs file and run oxide.reload from the Console tab. SFTP works too if you prefer it.

A permission exists only once its plugin is loaded, so install first and grant second. Oxide puts every player in the default group and players added with ownerid in the admin group when they connect. A starting set, run in the server console or over RCON:

oxide.grant group admin kits.admin
oxide.grant group admin vanish.allow
oxide.grant group admin copypaste.copy
oxide.grant group admin copypaste.paste
oxide.grant group admin copypaste.undo
oxide.grant group default removertool.normal

o.grant is the short form, so o.grant group admin vanish.allow does the same. Give moderators their own group instead of ownerid (admin plugins guide); VIP groups are in the Oxide permissions guide and the upload walkthrough in the uMod install guide.

FAQ

What do the Kits, Vanish and CopyPaste plugins do?

Kits hands out item sets with /kit, with cooldowns, use limits, costs, VIP permissions and autokits on respawn. Vanish makes an admin invisible to players and NPCs with /vanish, so you can check a report without being seen. Copy Paste saves a building to oxide/data/copypaste/ with /copy and places it again with /paste, which is how admins put up arenas, spawn areas and prefab bases. The permissions to start with are kits.admin, vanish.allow, copypaste.copy and copypaste.paste.

What are the best uMod plugins for a new Rust server?

Start with Kits for a starter kit, Remover Tool so builders can fix mistakes, and Clans if you run team play; for staff, add Vanish and Admin Hammer. Copy Paste, Sign Artist, Night Vision and GUI Announcements follow, depending on whether you build events, sell VIP perks or want timed messages.

Why does /kit say "You must either be a admin, or have the admin permission"?

Kits looks only at the kits.admin permission, not at ownerid. Run oxide.grant group admin kits.admin (or oxide.grant user <SteamID64> kits.admin), and /kit new opens the editor.

Do Kits cooldowns reset after a wipe?

Not by default. "Wipe player data when the server is wiped" is false, so cooldowns and use counts carry over to the new map. Set it to true or run /kit reset after the wipe. A post-wipe cooldown is something else: it locks a kit for a set number of seconds after the new save was created.

Are Rust server mods the same as uMod plugins?

For a Rust server, "mods" usually means Oxide/uMod plugins: C# files in oxide/plugins that Oxide compiles and runs on the server. Oxide lists the server as Modded by default ("Modded": true in oxide/oxide.config.json). Carbon is another framework; see Carbon vs Oxide before you mix the two.

Where does Copy Paste save buildings?

In oxide/data/copypaste/<name>.json, one file per /copy. /copylist shows the names in game, and copying a file to another server's oxide/data/copypaste/ folder makes it available there for /paste.

Sources

All opened on 4 November 2026:

• uMod plugin data (author, version, release date, downloads): Rust Kits, Vanish, Copy Paste, Remover Tool, Sign Artist, Admin Hammer, Clans, Friends, Night Vision, GUI Announcements and the uMod search for "notify"
• Plugin source files: Kits.cs, Vanish.cs, CopyPaste.cs, RemoverTool.cs, SignArtist.cs, AdminHammer.cs, Clans.cs, Friends.cs, NightVision.cs, GUIAnnouncements.cs
• Oxide.Rust: RustCore.cs, RustHooks.cs, Player.cs
• Oxide.Core: OxideConfig.cs, Permission.cs