Advanced In the works Updated September 25, 2026

SourceMod on Team Fortress 2

What SourceMod and MetaMod:Source are, why TF2 server admins use them, and how they fit on a SLASHPLAY server: upload into tf/addons and restart.

Written by Jonathan, Co-founder of SLASHPLAY LinkedIn

FULL GUIDE IN THE WORKS

This covers a tool made by others, not part of SLASHPLAY itself. Here is how it works in words; a step-by-step guide with screenshots is on its way. Stuck? Ask us on Discord.

SourceMod is the admin and plugin platform most community TF2 servers run. It gives you in-game admin menus, admin roles tied to Steam IDs, voting, map rotation, chat commands like !kick, and thousands of community plugins for everything from stats to custom game modes. It runs on top of MetaMod:Source, a small loader that lets add-ons hook into the game server. Both are free, made by the AlliedModders community, not by Valve or SLASHPLAY.

How it fits on SLASHPLAY

There’s no one-click installer for TF2, but everything SourceMod needs lives in the tf/addons folder, and that folder is kept between runs. The general route:

  1. Download the Linux builds of MetaMod:Source and SourceMod from their official AlliedModders sites. Pick the current stable builds that support TF2.
  2. Upload their addons contents into tf/addons with the file manager. A .zip can be uploaded and unpacked with Extract here.
  3. Click Restart server on the General tab so TF2 loads them.
  4. Add yourself as an admin with your Steam ID in SourceMod’s admin config, inside tf/addons/sourcemod, and restart again.

Extra plugins (.smx files) go into SourceMod’s plugins folder inside tf/addons/sourcemod, followed by a restart.

What’s kept

Everything inside tf/addons is part of your save: MetaMod:Source, SourceMod, its plugins, its admin list and its data. It comes back after every stop and restore. Your tf/cfg/server.cfg and ban lists are kept too. Some plugins also write settings files elsewhere in tf/cfg; those aren’t in a kept folder, so check What’s kept between runs before you rely on changes there.

Good to know

  • SLASHPLAY doesn’t review or support third-party plugins. A broken or outdated one can stop the server from starting. If that happens, the crash box on the server page shows the last output, and deleting the plugin and restarting usually fixes it.
  • TF2 updates automatically on SLASHPLAY. After a big TF2 update, SourceMod and its plugins sometimes need an update of their own.
  • Uploaded files count toward your save’s storage, at 1 token per GB per month. SourceMod itself is small.

A full step-by-step guide is coming. Until then, the TF2 console commands cover what you can do without any add-ons.