What is Infrarust?

Infrarust is a reverse proxy for Minecraft Java Edition. It sits between your players and your Minecraft servers, routing connections based on the domain a player uses to connect.

You run one Infrarust instance on a single IP address. Players connect with different domains (e.g. survival.mc.example.com, creative.mc.example.com), and Infrarust forwards each connection to the right backend server. Your servers can run on different machines, different ports, or inside Docker containers.

Why use a reverse proxy?

Without a proxy, every Minecraft server needs its own public IP or a unique port. Players have to remember play.example.com:25566 for one server and play.example.com:25567 for another.

With Infrarust, all servers share a single address on port 25565. Players connect to survival.mc.example.com or creative.mc.example.com and Infrarust handles the rest. You get:

• One IP address for all your servers
• Domain-based routing with wildcard support (*.mc.example.com)
• Configuration changes without restarting the proxy
• Per-server proxy modes that control how traffic is handled
• A plugin system for authentication, queuing, and server wake-on-connect

Who is Infrarust for?

Infrarust is built for Minecraft server administrators who run multiple backend servers and want a single entry point for players. If you run a network with a hub, survival, creative, and minigames servers, Infrarust replaces the need for separate IPs or port numbers.

You should be comfortable with basic server administration: editing TOML config files, running Docker containers, or managing systemd services. You do not need to know Rust.

How it works

When a Minecraft client connects, it sends a handshake packet that includes the server address the player typed. Infrarust reads that address, looks it up in its domain index, and opens a connection to the matching backend server.

Each backend server is defined in a TOML file inside a servers/ directory:

domains = ["survival.mc.example.com"]
addresses = ["10.0.1.10:25565"]
proxy_mode = "passthrough"

Infrarust watches this directory for changes. Add, edit, or remove a server file and the routing table updates without a restart.

Proxy modes

Infrarust supports six proxy modes. Each mode controls how much the proxy inspects or modifies the traffic between client and server:

Mode	What it does
passthrough	Forwards raw bytes after the handshake. Default mode.
zerocopy	Uses Linux splice(2) for kernel-level forwarding. Linux only.
client_only	Handles Mojang authentication on the proxy side. Backend runs online_mode=false.
offline	No authentication. Transparent relay.
server_only	Authentication handled by the backend server.
full	Encryption on both the client and server sides.

You set the mode per server in its config file. Pick passthrough unless you need the proxy to handle authentication or packet inspection.

Key features

Domain routing matches players to servers by the hostname they connect with. Exact domains resolve through a hash map lookup. Wildcard patterns like *.mc.example.com are pre-compiled when the config loads.

Server discovery works through two providers. The file provider watches your servers/ directory for TOML config changes. The Docker provider reads container labels from the Docker socket and watches for container start/stop events.

Plugins extend the proxy without modifying its source. Built-in plugins handle Mojang authentication, player queuing when a server is full, and starting stopped servers when a player connects. You can write your own plugins against the infrarust-api crate.

Security includes per-IP rate limiting, a ban system with expiry and audit logging, IP allow/deny lists per server, and HAProxy proxy protocol support for preserving client IPs behind load balancers.

Telemetry exports traces and metrics via OpenTelemetry to any OTLP-compatible backend (Jaeger, Grafana Tempo, etc.).

Next steps

Ready to set up Infrarust? Head to the Quick Start guide to get a working proxy in a few minutes.