How to Install Carbon on a Rust Server

Carbon is a modding framework for Rust dedicated servers and a drop-in alternative to Oxide. It is built on Harmony, loads its hooks dynamically so only the hooks your plugins actually use are active, and supports hot reload so plugin changes can be picked up without a full restart. Crucially, it is compatible with Oxide plugins, so the existing library of .cs plugins you already know continues to work. If you want better performance and faster iteration while keeping access to the wider plugin ecosystem, Carbon is worth a look. This guide walks through installing it cleanly.

Carbon vs Oxide

Both Carbon and Oxide do the same core job: they let you run plugins on a Rust server. The differences are practical rather than dramatic.

• Compatibility: Carbon runs standard Oxide .cs plugins without modification, using the same plugin layout you are used to.
• Performance: Carbon loads hooks dynamically, so unused hooks are not called. On busy servers running many plugins, that can reduce overhead.
• Hot reload: Carbon reloads changed plugins on the fly, which speeds up development and config tweaks.

The important rule: you run one or the other, not both. Oxide and Carbon are competing loaders that patch the same game assemblies, and installing them side by side will cause conflicts. Pick one per server.

What you need

Before you start you need a working Rust dedicated server that already boots cleanly on the public release branch. Carbon's production builds are designed for the public release branch of Rust, so make sure your server matches.

Back up first. Take a copy of your server directory, and in particular your existing oxide/ folder if you have one, before changing anything. If a switch does not go to plan you want a clean state to return to.

Installing Carbon

Carbon is distributed as an archive from the official source. Download the current build from the Carbon GitHub releases page (the production_build release on github.com/CarbonCommunity/Carbon), choosing the Linux or Windows build to match your server. The production build tracks the public release branch of Rust.

Once you have the archive, the install is deliberately simple:

• Stop the server.
• Unzip the archive into the root of your Rust Dedicated Server, so its files sit alongside RustDedicated.
• Start the server again.

Extracting at the root adds a carbon/ directory and a small loader that hooks into the server at launch. On Linux the package includes a start helper so Carbon is injected when the server process starts; on Windows there is an equivalent launch script. The structure you end up with looks like this:

RustDedicated
carbon/
  plugins/
  configs/
  data/
  logs/Copy

When the server boots, the loader brings Carbon up before the game finishes loading, and Carbon then loads any plugins it finds.

Adding plugins

Drop your plugin files into carbon/plugins. Standard Oxide .cs plugins are compatible and will compile and load automatically, so you can use the same plugins you would on an Oxide server.

• Configs: plugin configuration files live under carbon/configs.
• Data: persistent plugin data lives under carbon/data.

If you are coming from Oxide, Carbon makes the move easy: on its first boot it copies your existing Oxide plugins, configs, data and Harmony patches across into the Carbon directories, so you usually do not have to move files by hand.

Check it worked

There are two quick ways to confirm Carbon is running. First, watch the server console on boot. Carbon prints a banner as it loads, so a clean startup with that banner means the loader is active. Second, run the version command in the server console:

c.versionCopy

That returns the installed Carbon version. If you get a version back and your plugins are listed as loaded, the install is good.

Common issues

• Branch mismatch: if the server fails to load Carbon after a Rust update, your build and your Rust branch are probably out of step. Use the production build for the public release branch, and update Carbon after a Rust patch.
• Leftover Oxide install: running Carbon on top of an active Oxide install causes conflicts because both patch the same assemblies. Decide on one loader and remove the other rather than layering them.
• Plugin compatibility: the large majority of Oxide plugins work as-is, but a small number that depend on Oxide internals can misbehave. Check the server console for compile or load errors and update or replace any plugin that fails.

Doing it on Zeros Host

Our Rust hosting supports both Carbon and Oxide, and you can switch frameworks from the control panel rather than uploading and unpacking archives by hand. That makes it straightforward to try Carbon, compare it against Oxide and move back if you prefer. Plugins, configs and data are all managed through the panel's file browser.

See our Rust hosting and pricing to get started.

For more on plugins and getting a Rust server running, read our guides on installing Oxide plugins and how to host a Rust server.