How to Install Pterodactyl Wings (Daemon)

What Are Pterodactyl Wings?

Wings is the server-side daemon that Pterodactyl uses to manage Docker containers on each node. When you install Pterodactyl Wings, the panel gains the ability to create, start, stop, and monitor game servers on that machine. Wings communicates with the panel over a secure token-based API, so you can run nodes across different data centers if you like.

Prerequisites

• A working Pterodactyl Panel (see our panel install guide)
• A separate VPS or dedicated server with Docker installed
• Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, or CentOS Stream 9
• Root access

Step 1: Install Docker

Wings requires Docker CE. Install it using the official convenience script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo bash
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

Verify with docker info. If Docker runs, you are ready to install Pterodactyl Wings.

Step 2: Create the Node in the Panel

Log in to your Pterodactyl Panel, navigate to Admin > Nodes, and click Create New. Fill in the FQDN, memory, disk, and select the location. After saving, open the Configuration tab and copy the auto-generated config.yml contents.

Step 3: Download and Configure Wings

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pterodactyl
sudo curl -L -o /usr/local/bin/wings   "https://github.com/pterodactyl/wings/releases/latest/download/wings_linux_amd64"
sudo chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/wings

Paste the copied config.yml into /etc/pterodactyl/config.yml.

Step 4: Create the Systemd Service

Create /etc/systemd/system/wings.service:

[Unit]
Description=Pterodactyl Wings Daemon
After=docker.service
Requires=docker.service

[Service]
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/etc/pterodactyl
LimitNOFILE=4096
PIDFile=/var/run/wings/daemon.pid
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/wings
Restart=on-failure
StartLimitInterval=180
StartLimitBurst=30
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now wings

Step 5: Verify the Connection

Back in the panel, the node status indicator should turn green within a minute. If it stays red, check the Wings log at /var/log/pterodactyl/wings.log and confirm the token in config.yml matches the panel.

Allocations and Ports

After you install Pterodactyl Wings, add port allocations under the node's Allocation tab. Each game server needs at least one port. For more details, see the port allocation guide.

See a professionally hosted server: Astroworld MC, IP play.astroworldmc.com, Java + Bedrock.

With Wings connected, you can now create servers, assign eggs, and manage resources from the Pterodactyl Panel.