Environment Reference

Configure Nexus with the following environment variables. Defaults are provided for a standard Docker setup.

NexQuake is designed to be drop-in compatible with any protocol 15 (NetQuake) dedicated server binary. The bundled nqserver is the stock WinQuake engine with minimal patches. Put custom server binaries in SERVER_DIR; Nexus prepends that directory to PATH ahead of BIN_DIR.

Startup Options

Variable	Default	Description
HTTP_PORT	1337	Main HTTP and WebSocket listener port.
QUICKSTART	ffa	Quickstart catalog entries from CFG_DIR/game.json (for example ctf,arena or all). Invalid names are ignored. See Quickstart Catalog.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Logging verbosity. Accepts: error, warn, info, debug.
CONSOLE_TIMESTAMPS	1	Timestamps on operator console log lines. Accepts: 0, 1.
DEBUG_RELAY	0	Logs UDP relay traffic with source/destination, length, and byte preview. Accepts: 0, 1.
POOL_SIZE	1	Per-line servers.ini scaling cap for -port 0 startup entries (minimum 1). Controls the maximum backend servers in that entry's backend pool. 1 (the default) disables autoscaling and pool-style slist instance counts for those entries. Set higher (for example 10) to enable demand-driven scale-out.

Authentication

Variable	Default	Description
AUTH_ISSUER	empty	OIDC Issuer URL (e.g. https://accounts.google.com).
AUTH_AUDIENCE	empty	OIDC Audience (Client ID).
AUTH_JWT_HEADER	Authorization	HTTP header for OIDC JWT token.
AUTH_ADMIN_ID	empty	Optional comma-separated list of OIDC claim matchers (e.g. email:[email protected], group:admins) required for admin access. If left empty, any successfully verified JWT from AUTH_ISSUER + AUTH_AUDIENCE is treated as admin. Logs identify users by email, preferred_username, name, or sub.
AUTH_CLIENT_IP_HEADER	empty	HTTP header to trust for client IP resolution (e.g. CF-Connecting-IP, X-Forwarded-For, X-Real-IP). If unset or the header value is invalid, falls back to the direct connection IP.
AUTH_RCON_PASSWORD	empty	Legacy-style shared secret for in-game rcon_password.

Client-Side Options

Variable	Default	Description
CL_CONCURRENCY	16	Sets the number of game files to download simultaneously. Set 0 for unbounded (capped by queue size).
CL_SMENU	0	If 1, auto-opens the server search menu on client start up to make joining a server easier.
CL_ARGS	empty	Set launch arguments for client start up in shell-style strings (i.e. use single quotes for multiple args).
CL_URL_ARGS	1	If 1, lets players add extra client startup arguments in the URL after ?, separated by &. Set 0 to disable URL argument passthrough.

CL*ARGS Examples

Example: Always Disable Sound

CL_ARGS=-nosound
CL_URL_ARGS=0

Example: Name With Quotes (Safe Shell Form)

This works in bash because the whole value is single-quoted:

CL_ARGS='-nosound +name "Player1"'
CL_URL_ARGS=0

If you prefer double quotes around the whole value, escape the inner quotes:

CL_ARGS="-nosound +name \"Player1\""
CL_URL_ARGS=0

Example: Allow User Options

Enable URL arguments:

CL_ARGS='-nosound +skill 3 +name "BrowserPlayer"'
CL_URL_ARGS=1

Now a link can add extra startup arguments:

https://quake.example.com/?+exec&ctf.cfg&+name&TheShadow

Notes: - Use & between arguments. - If you need a space inside an argument, write it as %20 (for example Player%20One).

Paths

Variable	Default	Description
GAME_DIR	/app/game	Root directory for game data (id1, mods).
CFG_DIR	/app/etc	Default configuration directory (game.json, servers.ini, cfg templates).
CD_DIR	/app/cd	Root directory for CD audio tracks (.ogg/.mp3).
LOGS_DIR	/app/logs	Where Nexus and server logs are written.
BIN_DIR	/app/bin	Core runtime binaries and bundled assets (nexus, nqserver, nqwasm/).
SERVER_DIR	/app/server	Bind-mountable override directory for custom server binaries. Searched before BIN_DIR.
CLIENT_DIR	/app/bin/nqwasm	Location of WASM client assets (index.wasm, index.html).