Registries
Choosing a registry
How your servers find each other, and which of the three options fits your network.
To move a player, a server needs to know the other servers: their names,
groups and addresses. Link calls the place that keeps this list the
registry. You pick one with the backend key in link.json, and you can
change it later.
Compare
| Feature | Shared file static | Redis redis | Cloudflare http |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing to run yourself | Yes | No you run Redis | Yes free Worker |
| Servers join on their own | No edit every file | Yes | Yes |
| Matchmaking sees player counts | No takes turns | Yes | Yes |
| /players and /find across servers | Partly own server only | Yes | Yes |
| Offline servers drop out | No | Yes after 15s | Yes after 30s |
| Network secret shared for you | No copy it | Yes | Yes |
| Keeps working if it goes down | nothing to go down | Yes last known list | Yes last known list |
| Updates | on restart | every 3s | every 10s |
| Cost | free | your Redis | free up to about 10 servers |
Which one?
- Start with the shared file if you have a few servers that rarely change. There is nothing else to set up.
- Use Redis if you already run one, or your servers start and stop on their own.
- Use Cloudflare if you want servers to join by themselves but don’t want to run Redis.
When the registry is down
Each server keeps the last server list it received. If Redis or the Cloudflare
Worker stops answering, transfers to the servers in that list keep working.
Link logs the outage once, keeps retrying in the background, and logs again
when the registry is back. /link shows unreachable, using the last known list in the meantime.
A server that boots while the registry is down starts normally. Transfers turn on as soon as it reaches the registry for the first time.