wtclaude
4e98ed6bd5
Overruled by the org lead: RCON is not used. Rust gets the same three-part shape UO has - a plugin inside the game that dials out, a sidecar that persists before it forwards, a module that talks only to the sidecar - and the plugin is a mod loaded by the server's mod framework, exposing data through hooks. The document had RCON as its premise, so the correction reaches further than the transport paragraph: - The reason Rust is a good second game changes. It was "its server speaks a protocol nobody has to write". It is now "its server is a BINARY" - the opposite of ServUO, which is source a shard owner compiles - so the way in is a published mod API and the shard-dials-out invariant has to survive that change of footing. It does, unchanged, which is a stronger result than the one the document originally claimed. - The announce leg sends a command down the socket the mod already holds, rather than calling rcon.say. - The provider refuses when no mod is connected, not when RCON is unreachable. - Two hooks answer questions UO had to work for: a wipe arrives as an event, and membership is real-time - so this module's Team provider is event-driven with a baseline on connect rather than sweep-driven. The provider contract does not change by a line, which is the part worth keeping: core never needed to know how the data arrives. The 2026-08-12 correction block stays and a second one is added beside it rather than editing the history out - this document's own convention, and the thing that makes it worth reading twice. It also records what the correction COSTS: this project no longer has a worked example of "a game that already speaks a remote-control protocol, so its sidecar is thin". Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>
Runic Gateway — Documentation
Central documentation for the Runic Gateway platform. The docs here were extracted from the two code repositories (with full commit history preserved) so they live in one place, independent of either codebase.
Layout
website/ docs from the website core (Node/Express + MariaDB + React/Vite)
modules/ docs for installable game modules — one directory per module id
link/ docs from the ServUO bridge (C# plugin + Rust sidecar + Node WS)
android/ docs from the native Android client (Kotlin + Jetpack Compose)
installer/ docs for the installer that deploys a shard's bridge components
ci/ cross-cutting CI/quality notes
Setting up a shard? installer/INSTALL.md is the operator guide, and
the installer is the supported path: one binary deploys the plugin overlay, installs the uo-link
sidecar as a service, and hands you the values the website needs.
website/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| BACKEND_DESIGN.md | API contract, DB schema, security model |
| HERO_EDITOR.md | Hero canvas editor feature spec |
| THEMING_AND_NAV.md | Admin-configurable theme, brand assets and navigation — build contract |
| MODULE_SYSTEM.md | Making the site game-agnostic: game logic becomes an installable module — design of record |
| MODULE_API.md | The module ↔ core contract: ctx, the register* calls, the client registry and the loader's obligations |
| WIKI_UPGRADE.md | Wiki subsystem upgrade notes |
| SHARD_VISIBILITY.md | Who sees which shard data — the admin-configurable audience framework |
| SPAWN_ATLAS.md | The bestiary / spawn atlas: what the shard contains, parsed from its own ServUO tree |
| CLILOCS.md | UO's id → name table: converting one from your client so items have names |
| UOFIDDLER.md | Operator runbook — step-by-step extraction from your own UO client (cliloc table, creature art) |
| MARKETPLACE.md | The player-vendor index: how it is gathered, what it costs, how to tune it |
| website-README.md | Snapshot of the website repo's README (setup/run reference) |
| PROJECT_TREE.md | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
modules/
Documentation for installable game modules aggregates here rather than in each module's repo (MODULE_SYSTEM.md §2.10). The website core knows nothing about any particular game; a module is what makes it a site for one.
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| uo/ | module-uo — the Ultima Online module: what it serves, what it owns, and what an operator needs |
| rust-dryrun.md | A written, deliberately unimplemented module-rust — the test that the module contract generalises past the game it was extracted from |
link/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| INTEGRATION.md | How the website integrates with the uo-link sidecar |
| PROTOCOL_2.md | Protocol 2.0 / 2.1 design |
| v3.md | Protocol 3.0 design — shard content/standings streams + the visibility framework |
| ADMIN_CONTROLS.md | Staff write-plane (kick/ban/broadcast, page queue) |
| SHARD_PREREQS.md | Shard-side prerequisites for the bridge |
| PLAN.md | uo-link build plan |
| RESEARCH.md | Research notes |
| link-README.md | Snapshot of the link repo's README |
| PROJECT_TREE.md | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
android/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| PLAN.md | Android client build plan / milestones |
| COVERAGE_PLAN.md | Test-coverage rollout plan |
| APP_LINKS.md | Android App Links / deep-link setup |
| theme-plan.md | Theming plan |
| TRUSTED_DEVICES_APP_HANDOFF.md | Trusted-devices app handoff notes |
| PROJECT_TREE.md | Auto-generated snapshot of the repo's tracked file layout |
installer/
| Doc | What it covers |
|---|---|
| INSTALL.md | Start here to set up a shard — the installer deploys the plugin overlay and the uo-link sidecar, registers the service, and connects it to the website. Appendix A is the same thing by hand, still supported |
| PLAN.md | Installer design of record — phases, locked decisions, the bundle/compat-matrix model |
Provenance
website/*was extracted fromRunicGateway/websiteviagit filter-repo.link/*was extracted fromRunicGateway/linkviagit filter-repo.
Commit history and authorship for each doc are preserved. The two source repos retain a short pointer to this repo in their own READMEs; the authoritative copy of each document now lives here.
License
Runic Gateway's documentation is free: licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later — see LICENSE.md.
Copyright (C) 2026 Runic Gateway
This documentation is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. You may redistribute and/or modify it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation,
either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
Contributions are welcome — please read CONTRIBUTING.md (note the AI-usage disclosure requirement) and our Code of Conduct.