Installing workshop addons and gamemodes on your Garry's Mod server

The power of Garry's Mod lies in the thousands of workshop addons: from complete gamemodes like DarkRP and TTT to individual weapons, vehicles and maps. In this article you'll learn how to install addons on your MC-Node server and set up a gamemode via the panel.

Step 1: Create a Workshop Collection

The easiest way to manage addons on your server is via a Steam Workshop Collection: one collection that your server loads automatically.

1. Open the Garry's Mod Steam Workshop in your browser or Steam client.
2. Click Collections and then Create Collection.
3. Give the collection a name and add the addons you want to use on your server.
4. Publish the collection and note down the ID: that's the string of digits at the end of the collection URL.

Step 2: Link the collection to your server

1. Log in to panel.mc-node.net and open your Garry's Mod server.
2. Go to the Startup tab.
3. Enter the collection ID in the workshop collection field.
4. Restart your server via the Restart button on the Console tab.

During startup, the server now automatically downloads all addons from your collection. Want to add or remove addons later? Just adjust your collection and restart the server — that's all there is to it.

Step 3: Set up a gamemode

By default your server runs in sandbox. If you want to run a different gamemode like DarkRP or TTT, you also set that via the panel:

1. Add the gamemode addon to your workshop collection (or upload the files manually via the Files tab to the garrysmod/gamemodes folder).
2. Go to the Startup tab and enter the name in the gamemode field, for example darkrp, terrortown (TTT) or sandbox.
3. Optionally also set a suitable starting map via the map field.
4. Restart the server.

Tips for managing addons

• Start small. Garry's Mod is light on resources, but every addon costs memory and startup time. Add addons step by step, so that if problems arise you immediately know which addon is the culprit.
• Check the console. You can see error messages during startup live on the Console tab in the panel.
• CS:S content is no longer a worry. Since July 2025, most CS:S and HL2 content is included with the game for free, so players have far fewer issues with missing textures on maps that use this content.

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