Exile Server Manager (ESM)

Note: This repo was renamed from esm_bot to exile_server_manager on 12026-05-17. GitHub redirects old links, but please update bookmarks and remotes when you get a chance.

ESM connects Discord communities to their Exile (Arma 3) servers. Players manage territories, check server status, and receive XM8 notifications even when they’re not in-game. Server owners use Discord and a web dashboard to configure commands, mods, rewards, and notifications, and to monitor their servers.

Using ESM

To install ESM on your server, follow the Getting Started guide. This repo is the source code.

Links

• Website
• Getting Started
• Discord
• Invite ESM to your server

Suggestions

ESM is built for the Exile community, and most features started as community suggestions. Share yours in the #suggestions channel on our Discord.

How ESM works

The pieces

How they fit together

The service is the Discord-facing process. It receives slash commands and events from Discord, talks to Arma 3 servers over an encrypted TCP connection, and persists state to PostgreSQL.

The arma component lives on the Arma 3 server. The Rust extension handles the TCP connection back to the service and Exile database operations, while the SQF mod provides the in-game functions players trigger.

The website is the configuration and management surface for server owners and players. It talks to the service over local HTTP, and uses Discord OAuth for user login.

The core library is shared Ruby code (models, business logic, helpers) loaded directly from core/ by both the service and the website at boot.

   Discord  ◄──────►  service  ◄──HTTP──►  website  ◄──HTTPS──  Browser
                         │
                         │ encrypted TCP
                         ▼
                        arma  (Rust extension + SQF mod)
                         │
                         ▼
                  Arma 3 server + Exile MySQL

Where the code lives

.
├── service/   # Discord bot (Ruby)
├── core/      # Shared Ruby library
├── website/   # Rails dashboard (Ruby + Hotwire + Vite)
└── arma/      # Rust extension + Arma 3 SQF mod

Developing ESM

Versions

Workspace setup

Recommended: Nix

The repo ships a unified Nix dev shell that provides Ruby, Rust, Node, database clients, and the Arma build helpers (sqfvm, armake2) for every subdirectory. From the repo root:

direnv allow   # first time only
nix develop    # or just cd into a subdir; its .envrc delegates here

Manual setup

• Docker and Docker Compose (the root docker-compose.yml provides the shared Postgres, MySQL/Exile, Redis, and NATS services on the esm network)
• PostgreSQL 15+, Redis, and a NATS broker running locally or reachable (the root compose covers all three if you’d rather not run them yourself)
• asdf with the ruby and nodejs plugins, or system Ruby 3.3 and Node 18+
• Rust toolchain via rustup, plus the Windows cross-compile targets:

  rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu i686-pc-windows-gnu
  

• SteamCMD (arma uses it to fetch the Arma 3 dedicated server)
• sqfvm and armake2 on your PATH (or build from source)

Credentials

Register a Discord app at https://discord.com/developers/applications:

• Bot tab: add the bot and copy the Bot Token.
• OAuth2 → General: copy the Client ID and Client Secret.
• OAuth2 → Redirects: add http://localhost:3000/users/auth/discord/callback.

Register a Steam Web API key at https://steamcommunity.com/dev.

Copy the config templates, then fill in the values from above:

cp service/config/settings.example.yml service/config/settings.local.yml
cp website/config/settings.yml         website/config/settings.local.yml

First-time bootstrap

Drop Exile’s @Exile/addons contents into arma/tools/server/@exile/addons/.

cp arma/config.example.yml arma/config.yml    # fill in build paths + DB

bin/setup        # Ruby side: bundles, migrates, seeds the shared Postgres DB
arma/bin/setup   # Arma side: starts MySQL, imports Exile schema, builds extension

Working in each component

service/ (Discord bot)

Receives Discord slash commands and events, dispatches to Arma servers over an encrypted TCP connection, and persists state to the shared Postgres database.

Core systems

• Commands: modular system with argument parsing, permission handling, and validation
• Connection: TCP-based encrypted transport to Arma 3 servers, with promise-based request/response handling and automatic reconnection
• Database: PostgreSQL via Active Record (schema lives in core/)
• Events: Discord events and Arma 3 events flow through a unified handler pipeline

Start it:

docker compose up -d   # postgres, redis, nats (root compose; the Nix shell auto-starts these)
cd service
bin/dev

core/ (shared Ruby library)

Shared models, business logic, helpers, locales, migrations, and seeds used by both the service and the website.

Changes here affect both apps, so run both RSpec suites before you commit.

website/ (Rails dashboard)

The Rails 8 app at esmbot.com.

Features

• Server management: configure server settings, mods, rewards, and gambling parameters
• Command configuration: enable/disable commands, set cooldowns, manage permissions
• Notification system: custom Discord notifications with dynamic variables
• XM8 routing: route in-game notifications to specific Discord channels
• Account management: link Steam/Discord accounts, create aliases, set defaults

Core systems

• Authentication: Discord OAuth via Devise
• Authorization: role-based access control for communities and servers
• View layer: SLIM templates with Bootstrap 5.3
• Interactivity: Stimulus controllers, Turbo Frames, and Turbo Streams
• Asset pipeline: Vite

Start it:

Authed views (profile, communities, etc.) call into the service, so start the bot too if you want to log in.

cd website
bin/assets &     # vite dev server (background)
bin/dev          # rails server

arma/ (Rust extension + SQF mod)

The Rust extension is loaded by the dedicated server and handles TCP communication with the service plus Exile database operations. The SQF mod provides the in-game functions and event hooks the extension dispatches to.

Builds run on Linux. Linux x64/x32 and Windows x64 are supported targets; Windows x32 still needs an actual Windows host (cross-compile from Linux is in flux).

Source layout:

arma/
├── src/build/   # Build system
├── src/@esm/    # Arma 3 server mod (SQF + config)
└── src/esm/     # Rust extension

Start it:

cd arma
bin/dev    # runs cargo tests, then builds + starts the dedicated server

Common commands

License

ESM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.