Settings and licensing

Settings & Licensing

App Settings

Settings, in the sidebar, has three tabs: General (the game, console display preferences such as virtualize mode for large logs and hiding RCON messages), Integrations (AI provider and API key, and the local automation API), and Changelog.

Licensing

Coalstack uses a bring-your-own-key model for AI features and a one-time license key for everything else. The free tier includes server management, console streaming, manual and automated backups (with one extra backup destination), the Marketplace, and the Auto Debugger. Coalstack Plus adds mod compatibility checks, the modpack installer, more backup destinations, scheduled restarts and announcements, config and plugin generation, and the AI Log Analyzer, scheduled commands, Docker support, fleet automations, and more. The web relay (Conduit) is a separate optional subscription. Bedrock servers are on the same plans as Java servers. The Pricing page has the exact list.

You can log in through the app with email and password, or through the coalstack.net website in your browser. The website login supports Google OAuth, which an embedded webview can't handle. When you log in on the website, it sends your license key back to the desktop app via a coalstack:// deep link, so the license applies automatically without a manual copy and paste.

The license is validated against the server on launch and roughly every 24 hours thereafter. If validation fails (you're offline or the server is unreachable), the app falls back to the last known good result within a grace period, so a temporary internet outage doesn't immediately lock you out of paid features.

Updates

Coalstack checks for updates once per launch. If one is available, a message appears at the bottom of the window with release notes and a download button. The update is downloaded and applied by the app, so you don't need to re-run the installer. On Linux, only the AppImage updates itself; the .deb and .rpm update through your package manager.

Tray Icon & Background Operation

Coalstack can keep running in the background after you close the window. The system tray icon (in the Windows taskbar notification area) gives you a menu with "Show Coalstack" and "Quit." Left-clicking the tray icon restores the window.

When you close the window while a server is running, the window hides to the tray instead of quitting. The server keeps running. When you try to quit the app entirely (via the tray menu's Quit or Alt+F4 on the main window), Coalstack shows a confirmation dialog and, if you confirm, gracefully stops every running server before exiting. There's an 8-second timeout on the stop-all step so that a stuck Java process can't prevent the app from closing.