How Project Zomboid mods work on Spawnly
Project Zomboid doesn't have an in-app Workshop browser on the Mods tab, but its dedicated server software has Steam Workshop downloading built directly into it — the server itself can fetch Workshop items once you tell it which ones to load. That happens through your server's Spawnly.ini file, edited via the File Manager.
Find the Workshop ID and the mod ID
Every Steam Workshop mod page has a numeric Workshop ID in its URL (the number after ?id=). That's different from the mod's internal mod ID, which is what Project Zomboid actually uses to enable the mod once it's downloaded — check the mod's Workshop page or its included files for that ID.
Edit Spawnly.ini
Your server generates Spawnly.ini automatically the first time it boots. It lives outside the main server folder, so look for it under a folder named Zomboid_Data in the File Manager rather than in the root file listing.
- Open the File Manager (Files tab) and navigate to
Zomboid_Data/Server/Spawnly.ini. - Add the Workshop ID to the
WorkshopItems=line. - Add the matching internal mod ID to the
Mods=line, in the same order as its Workshop ID above. - Save the file.
- Restart the server.
WorkshopItems=1234567890;2345678901
Mods=ExampleMod;AnotherModKeep the two lists in matching order — the first ID in WorkshopItems= should correspond to the first mod ID in Mods=, and so on. A mismatched or missing entry is a common reason a mod shows as downloaded but never actually loads.
Good to know
Spawnly.ini also holds the rest of your server's basic settings, like Public= and MaxPlayers= — mods just live in the same file. Because Workshop items download through Project Zomboid's own server software rather than through Spawnly, the first restart after adding new items can take a bit longer while the server fetches them from Steam.
Next steps
See Getting Started with Project Zomboid on Spawnly for the rest of your Spawnly.ini settings, and set up Managing Backups & Restoring Your Server before adding a large mod list.