GameNest

Host game servers for you and your friends — free, open source, and dead simple.

GameNest is a Windows desktop app that runs Minecraft (Java & Bedrock), Valheim, CS2, Rust, Palworld and more in one click. It solves the part everyone gets stuck on — "my friends can't connect" — with automatic UPnP port-forwarding and a built-in tunnel fallback for tricky routers/CGNAT, so you get a shareable address without touching your router settings.

Website: gamenest.cc

No paywalls. Unlimited servers, scheduled backups & restarts, off-site backups, and the mod manager are all free. A managed hosted version (so you don't have to keep your PC on) is coming later — self-hosting stays free forever.

What it is

GameNest runs each game server in its own Docker container, driven by a small Go engine daemon and a React control panel, wrapped in a native Tauri desktop window that auto-launches the engine. No terminal, no config files, no self-hosting knowledge required.

• One-click servers — pick a game, name it, go. 28 game templates.
• Friends can actually connect — direct via automatic UPnP when your router allows it, with a seamless fallback through GameNest's built-in tunnel when it doesn't (CGNAT, hotel Wi-Fi, stubborn ISPs). One copy-paste connect address.
• Backups & schedules — daily restart/backup times and off-site copies to a NAS, external drive, or synced cloud folder.
• Minecraft mod manager — paste Modrinth slugs; mods install automatically on next start.
• Friends, presence & levels (optional) — sign in with Discord or email to add friends, see who's online and what they're hosting, and level up as you host. Entirely optional: anonymous hosting stays the default, no account required.
• Runs locally & private — the engine binds to 127.0.0.1; your data stays on your machine.

Install

Download the latest one-click installer from the Releases page and run it. The app guides you through a one-time Docker setup on first launch.

The installer auto-updates from the public update feed on launch and from Settings → Check for updates.

Build from source

Prereqs: Go 1.25+, Node 20+. Docker Desktop is only needed once you actually run a game server.

# Engine — REST + WebSocket API on http://127.0.0.1:8723
go -C engine run ./cmd/engine

# UI — http://localhost:5173
npm --prefix ui install   # first run only
npm --prefix ui run dev

Desktop app (needs Rust + VS 2022 C++ Build Tools):

# Dev — hot-reload window + engine sidecar:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\desktop-dev.ps1
# Build the installer:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts\desktop-build.ps1

See docs/architecture.md for the design.

Repo layout

engine/      Go daemon — Docker control, REST + WebSocket API
ui/          React + Vite + Tailwind control panel
desktop/     Tauri v2 shell (Windows) — bundles + launches the engine
templates/   Game definitions (one YAML per game)
ee/          Reserved for future commercial features (separate license; empty today)
docs/        Design docs

Community & contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and new game templates are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. Questions and help: join the Discord (link coming with the public launch). Found a security issue? See SECURITY.md.

License

GameNest is open core:

• The application is licensed under the GNU AGPL v3.0 — see LICENSE. You can self-host, modify, and share it freely.
• The ee/ directory is reserved for future commercial features (the hosted/cloud and team tiers) under a separate license — it's empty today, and the desktop app is, and will remain, fully free and open source.

GameNest is a trademark of its authors; the AGPL/commercial licenses do not grant trademark rights.