Licensing

NitroCord is a commercial product sold by PingLess Studios. A valid license key is required to run the proxy at all — there is no free/community mode. This page covers everything you need to know as a buyer; the only configuration involved is pasting one line.

What the license does

	No key / invalid key	Licensed
Proxy startup	Refused — the server stops before binding	Starts normally
Attack prevention	Off	Fully active
/nitrocord admin command	Never reached	Works

Starting without a key (or with a key that cannot be verified and has no valid grace cache) prints the reason and exits before any player can connect:

License Not Found - set license-key in nitrocord.toml (get one at https://altis.host). The server will now stop.
NitroCord could not verify a license (no license key configured in nitrocord.toml). Shutting down.

A valid key unlocks the entire protection engine: the kernel firewall, attack mode, rate limiting, anti-bot verification, GeoIP and anti-VPN blocking, packet flood scoring and the exploit filters.

Buying a license

Licenses are issued through the Altis dashboard at https://altis.host. After purchase you receive a key in the format PL-XXXX-..., shown on your dashboard.

Treat your key like a password

Anyone holding your key can consume your activation seats. Do not commit nitrocord.toml to a public repository, do not paste the key in support chats, and contact Altis to have a leaked key reissued.

Activation

1. Open nitrocord.toml in your proxy run directory (generated on first start).

2. Paste the key:

   license-key = "PL-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX"

3. Start (or restart) the proxy. The license is read at startup; editing the key requires a restart to take effect.

Within a few seconds you should see the startup sequence:

License Found - verifying with the license server...
License Key Verified.

Once the proxy is bound and online, startup finishes with the pink/white Protection Enabled banner listing every protection active in your protection.toml, followed by the support line:

Protection Enabled
  ✔ Kernel Firewall (ipset + iptables)
  ✔ Connection & Ping Rate Limiting
  ✔ Reconnect Verification
  ... (every enabled protection is listed)

For support: contact pingless.org on Discord or an.average.being on BuiltByBit, or join the Discord server discord-studio.pingless.org

From then on the proxy re-validates your key every 6 hours in the background — you never have to touch it again.

Seats: one activation per server hostname

Each activation seat binds to the hostname of the machine the proxy runs on — not to an IP address, not to a hardware fingerprint.

• The number of seats is set by your purchase — check your key's seat count in the Altis dashboard.
• Starting the same key on a machine with a different hostname consumes a new seat.
• When all seats are used, extra servers are denied at startup and refuse to boot (see when a key is denied).

Changing the IP, moving datacenters or reinstalling the OS does not consume a new seat as long as the hostname stays the same.

Offline grace

Licensing hiccups should not take your network down — so after the first successful activation, the proxy keeps a signed validation cache on disk (nitrocord/license.cache).

• If the Altis license server is unreachable — maintenance, your firewall, a routing issue — protection simply keeps running on that cache (startup shows License Key Verified (offline grace)).
• Grace lasts up to 3 days, capped further by the offline allowance configured on your license, and never past the license's own expiry.
• As soon as the license server is reachable again, the background check refreshes the cache silently. No admin action, no restart.

The one case that stops the server

If the license server is unreachable and there is no valid grace cache on disk (for example a brand-new install that could never verify), the proxy cannot prove you paid and refuses to start. Once one online verification has succeeded, outages are covered by grace.

When a key is denied

If the license platform reports a problem — expired, revoked, suspended, or seat limit reached — behavior depends on when it happens:

• At startup: the proxy logs the denial reason and refuses to run.
• During a background re-check (already running): protection disables itself — all checks, the firewall and the MOTD cache turn off (players keep their vanilla Velocity behavior), a warning naming the reason is logged, then a reminder every 30 minutes. The stored offline cache is discarded, so the denial survives restarts until fixed.

Fix the cause in your Altis dashboard (renew, unsuspend, free a seat) or enter a different key and restart — protection comes back at the next successful check, no reinstall needed.

FAQ

I am moving to a new host. Do I need a new license? No. Move the jar, your configs and your key — but a machine with a different hostname binds a new seat. If your key has one seat, free the old activation in the Altis dashboard (or let support do it) before starting on the new host.

Can I run several proxies on one key? Only if your key has multiple seats. Every running NitroCord instance consumes one seat per machine hostname — a network of three proxies on three machines needs three seats.

Does activation need internet access? Once, briefly. The first activation must reach the Altis license platform; after that the offline grace cache covers outages of up to 3 days (or your license's configured allowance, whichever is shorter).

I edited the key but nothing changed. License keys are only read at startup. Restart the proxy after editing license-key; /nitrocord reload reloads protection settings but does not re-read the key.

What happens if I let the license expire? A running proxy disables protection and reminds you every 30 minutes (players keep their normal proxy behavior); at the next start the proxy refuses to run until you renew. Renew in the dashboard and the next start reactivates everything.

Where can I see my seats and activations? In the Altis dashboard at https://altis.host, next to your key.