Up and running in minutes
Follow these steps to get ControlArk fully configured on your Discord server — from adding the bot to automating your first shop delivery.
Add the Bot to Your Server
Invite ControlArk to your Discord server with the correct permissions.
- Join the ControlArk Discord and open a ticket in the support channel to request a bot invite link.
- Select the Discord server you want to add ControlArk to and authorise the requested permissions.
- Once the bot joins, all slash commands are immediately available to server administrators.
Required permissions: Send Messages, Embed Links, Use Application Commands, Read Message History, Create Public Threads, Send Messages in Threads, Manage Messages, Attach Files, and Manage Channels (for setting up log forums). The bot also needs to be able to DM members for shop order notifications.
Connect Your Nitrado Account
ControlArk accesses your ARK servers through a Nitrado Long-Life Token — no FTP clients or manual file downloads required.
- Go to server.nitrado.net and navigate to Developer Portal → Long Life Tokens.
- Create a new token and enable the
serviceanduser_infoscopes. No other scopes are needed. - Copy the token — you will only see it once at creation time.
- In Discord, run
/configurateand select Connections. - Click Add and paste your token when the bot prompts you.
- ControlArk will verify the token and automatically detect all ARK game services on your Nitrado account.
Never share your token. It grants full API access to your Nitrado services. You can revoke it from the Nitrado Developer Portal at any time. If your servers are on a different Nitrado account than the one you logged into, connect that account's token instead. Up to 3 Nitrado connections are supported per Discord server.
Configure Features
Run /configurate to open the main configuration menu and enable the features your server needs.
Every feature is configured through Discord slash commands — no config files, no restarts. The /configurate menu has 12 sections. Enable only the ones you need.
Select a parent Discord category and the bot creates forum channels for each ARK server, automatically streaming chat, kills, tribe events, admin commands, and join/leave logs into separate threads.
Enable any of the 6 detection systems — alt accounts, admin command monitoring, explorer notes, illegal player names, name spoofing, and chat keyword filter. Each gets its own alert channel.
Set stat thresholds for wild creature species via /track dinosaur — alerts fire when a qualifying dino is spotted. Use /track player to monitor specific players across all servers.
Pick a Discord channel and select up to 30 servers. The bot posts a live, auto-refreshing list showing every online player across your cluster — updated every 5 minutes.
Set dedicated Discord channels to receive a log of every admin command, player ban, and server management action taken through the bot. Useful for audit trails.
Grant specific Discord users access to individual bot feature groups — bans, player lookup, server management, shop, and more — without giving them Discord Administrator.
Set Up the Ingame Shop
Enable the shop, designate a delivery server, build your packs on the dashboard, and credits will flow automatically.
Run /configurate and select Ingame Shop. Enable it, then choose a dedicated PVE server to act as the delivery server. This server is used solely for item delivery rooms — it should not have active player progress as it gets restored after each delivery cycle.
In the same menu, configure how often orders are assigned rooms (default: every 10 minutes) and how often items are physically delivered (default: every 3 hours). These can be adjusted at any time.
Log in at controlark.net → your server → Shop → Packs. Click New Pack and use the pack builder to add items, set quantities, quality tiers, blueprint variants, creatures (with gender and stats), costumes, and credit pricing. Organise packs into categories for your public store.
Use /credits give @user <amount> to give players credits to spend in the shop. Credits are also awarded automatically via the playtime reward system. Players can check their balance with /credits balance and view their history with /credits history.
Once a player places an order, a delivery room is automatically assigned and they receive a Discord DM with the room number and PIN code. Items are then placed directly into the room vault on the delivery schedule — no admin involvement needed at any step.
Stuck or have questions?
Join the Discord — we're active and happy to help with any part of the setup.