Wings Overview

Understanding the Wings server control daemon and its architecture

What is Wings?

Wings is Pterodactyl’s server control daemon written in Go. It runs on each game server node and is responsible for:

• Managing Docker containers for game servers
• Handling server power actions (start, stop, restart)
• Processing file operations via SFTP
• Streaming console output via WebSockets
• Monitoring server resource usage
• Executing server installations and transfers
• Managing backups and restores

Architecture

Wings operates as a standalone daemon that communicates with the Pterodactyl Panel through a REST API. Each node in your infrastructure runs its own Wings instance.

┌─────────────────┐
│ Pterodactyl     │
│ Panel (PHP)     │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ HTTPS API
         │
    ┌────┴────────────────┐
    │                     │
┌───▼────┐           ┌────▼───┐
│ Wings  │           │ Wings  │
│ Node 1 │           │ Node 2 │
└───┬────┘           └────┬───┘
    │                     │
┌───▼────────┐     ┌──────▼────┐
│  Docker    │     │  Docker   │
│ Containers │     │ Containers│
└────────────┘     └───────────┘

How Wings Works

Container Management

Wings uses Docker to isolate each game server in its own container. This provides:

• Resource limits: Memory, CPU, and disk quotas per server
• Security isolation: Servers cannot interfere with each other
• Clean environment: Each server gets a fresh filesystem
• Easy cleanup: Removing a server is as simple as deleting a container

Panel Communication

Wings exposes a REST API that the Panel uses to manage servers. Key endpoints include:

Server Details

# Panel requests server configuration from Wings
GET /api/servers/{uuid}

Relevant Panel API routes for Wings communication:

• POST /api/remote/sftp/auth - SFTP authentication (routes/api-remote.php:7)
• GET /api/remote/servers - List all servers on node (routes/api-remote.php:9)
• GET /api/remote/servers/{uuid} - Get server details (routes/api-remote.php:14)
• GET /api/remote/servers/{uuid}/install - Get installation script (routes/api-remote.php:15)
• POST /api/remote/activity - Submit activity logs (routes/api-remote.php:11)

Server Configuration

When Wings needs server configuration, the Panel responds with a structure from ServerConfigurationStructureService (app/Services/Servers/ServerConfigurationStructureService.php:23):

{
  "uuid": "server-uuid",
  "meta": {
    "name": "My Game Server",
    "description": "Server description"
  },
  "suspended": false,
  "environment": {
    "SERVER_MEMORY": "2048",
    "SERVER_PORT": "25565"
  },
  "invocation": "java -Xms128M -Xmx{{SERVER_MEMORY}}M -jar server.jar",
  "build": {
    "memory_limit": 2048,
    "swap": 0,
    "cpu_limit": 200,
    "disk_space": 10240
  },
  "allocations": {
    "default": {
      "ip": "0.0.0.0",
      "port": 25565
    }
  }
}

SFTP Authentication

Wings handles SFTP authentication by calling the Panel’s authentication endpoint (app/Http/Controllers/Api/Remote/SftpAuthenticationController.php:34):

1. User connects via SFTP with format: username.serverid@host
2. Wings sends credentials to Panel at POST /api/remote/sftp/auth
3. Panel validates credentials (password or public key)
4. Panel returns user permissions if valid
5. Wings grants or denies SFTP access

Activity Logging

Wings sends server activity events to the Panel for centralized logging (app/Http/Controllers/Api/Remote/ActivityProcessingController.php:18):

{
  "data": [
    {
      "server": "server-uuid",
      "user": "user-uuid",
      "event": "server:console.command",
      "metadata": {"command": "say Hello"},
      "ip": "192.168.1.100",
      "timestamp": "2026-03-04T12:00:00Z"
    }
  ]
}

System Requirements

• Operating System: Linux (Ubuntu 20.04+ or Debian 10+ recommended)
• Docker: Version 20.10.0 or newer
• Architecture: x86_64 (AMD64) or ARM64
• RAM: Minimum 1GB for Wings itself (plus server requirements)
• Disk Space: SSD recommended for optimal performance

Key Features

Performance

• Written in Go for high performance and low memory usage
• Efficient Docker container management
• Concurrent handling of multiple servers
• Minimal overhead on host system

Security

• TLS/SSL encryption for all Panel communication
• Token-based authentication
• Isolated containers prevent server-to-server interference
• SFTP access control via Panel permissions

Reliability

• Automatic server state recovery after Wings restart
• Graceful handling of crashed containers
• Health checks and monitoring
• Comprehensive logging

Next Steps

Installation

Install Wings on your node

Configuration

Configure Wings settings

Docker Management

Learn about container management

Networking

Configure networking and ports