PlayOn

Quick start

Install PlayOn, pick a provider, add capacity if you need it, start a game, share the player link.

1. Install PlayOn

On the machine that will run the control plane (party box or a laptop), run the one-liner from Get PlayOn:

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://playon.games/install.ps1 | iex

Linux

curl -fsSL https://playon.games/install | bash

Always-on after reboot: set PLAYON_SERVICE=1 (see Get PlayOn). Home does not have to be the machine that runs heavy game servers — see step 4.

2. Create the Owner

Open the admin UI in a browser. The installer prints every working URL — start with http://playon.local, or the LAN IP fallback if discovery is blocked. After setup you can also link Discord under Settings → Panel URL for https://<your-handle>.playon.games (same LAN panel; not remote access). Create the Owner account once on a fresh install.

3. Configure an LLM provider

Go to Settings → In-app agents (LLM provider).

  1. Pick a provider (Venice, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Ollama, …).
  2. Paste your API key if the provider needs one.
  3. Confirm the model — see Getting started with AI for min and recommended ids.
  4. Save.

What to pick: Getting started with AI. Per-provider setup: LLM providers. Offline LAN with no cloud key: Ollama.

Skip this step if you only drive PlayOn from Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, or Hermes over MCP — see External agents (MCP).

4. (Optional) Add capacity — LAN spare or any cloud VPS

If this machine is weak, or you want overflow compute:

  1. Open Settings → Nodes.
  2. Choose whether Home itself hosts games (Local), or is control-plane-only.
  3. Add node — SSH into a spare PC on the LAN, or any VPS you already have. PlayOn installs the agent; for cloud it also sets up WireGuard so players still join via LAN addresses.

Details: Nodes (LAN + cloud).

5. Start a game (in-app chat)

In the admin chat, ask for what you want, for example:

Install Minecraft from the catalog and start a server for the LAN.

Agents install skills from the playon.games catalog, create the server on an eligible node, and publish the player panel. Confirm high-impact steps when the UI asks.

Already have an install on a node? Use the map pad → Scan → Manage, stop the old host service, then Start in PlayOn. Details: Nodes — Manage an existing install.

Containerized games (Minecraft and many others) need Docker on the node that runs them. Linux Add-node / service install can provision Engine for you; if a node reports no Docker, use Settings → Nodes → Install Docker. Details: Docker on nodes.

6. Share /play with players

Send friends the player panel URL — http://playon.local/play or https://<handle>.playon.games/play if you linked Discord (either works on the LAN). Join addresses for the game clients still use Home’s LAN IP. Details: For players.

Optional: create a LAN event on this site under LANs so guests can RSVP before they join.

Or use an external MCP agent

After PlayOn is installed and you have created the Owner, connect Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw, or Hermes and ask them to add nodes, install a game skill, and publish /play. Full setup: External agents (MCP).