Adding playit.gg Public Access to Your Factorio Server

Overview

Adding playit.gg tunnels to your Factorio server so friends can connect without installing Tailscale.

Before You Begin

Prerequisites

• Factorio Kubernetes Server completed (core server running via Tailscale)

Why playit.gg

playit.gg¹ provides free tunnels for UDP-based game servers (Factorio uses UDP on port 34197)². Friends can connect without installing Tailscale - just give them the public address.

Create playit.gg Account

1. Go to playit.gg and create an account
2. Navigate to Agents → Add Agent
3. Copy the secret key (you'll need this for the Kubernetes secret)

Configure playit.gg

Secret

k8s/apps/factorio/secret.sops.yaml (before encryption):

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
    name: playit-secret
    namespace: factorio
type: Opaque
stringData:
    secret-key: <your-secret-key>

Encrypt:

sops --encrypt --in-place k8s/apps/factorio/secret.sops.yaml

HelmRelease (Sidecar)

The Helm chart (v2.5.2) doesn't support additionalContainers, so we use HelmRelease postRenderers to inject the sidecar.

Add postRenderers to k8s/apps/factorio/helmrelease.yaml under the spec: section:

spec:
    # ... existing chart, install, upgrade, values sections ...
    postRenderers:
        - kustomize:
              patches:
                  - target:
                        kind: Deployment
                        name: factorio-factorio-server-charts
                    patch: |
                        - op: add
                          path: /spec/template/spec/containers/-
                          value:
                            name: playit-agent
                            image: ghcr.io/playit-cloud/playit-agent:1.0.5
                            args:
                              - "--socket-path"
                              - "/tmp/playitd.sock"
                            env:
                              - name: SECRET_KEY
                                valueFrom:
                                  secretKeyRef:
                                    name: playit-secret
                                    key: secret-key

Kustomization (Update)

Add the secret to k8s/apps/factorio/kustomization.yaml:

---
apiVersion: kustomize.config.k8s.io/v1beta1
kind: Kustomization
resources:
    - namespace.yaml
    - pvc.yaml
    - secret.sops.yaml
    - helmrelease.yaml

Deploy playit.gg

Commit Changes

cd ~/homelab
git add k8s/apps/factorio/
git commit -m "feat(factorio): add playit.gg for public access"
git push

Reconcile Flux

flux reconcile source git flux-system && flux reconcile kustomization sync

Verify playit.gg

Agent Status

After the pod restarts with the sidecar (2/2 containers), verify the agent is connected:

kubectl get pods -n factorio
kubectl logs -n factorio -l app=factorio-factorio-server-charts -c playit-agent

You should see "tunnel running" - the agent authenticates automatically using the SECRET_KEY (no claim URL needed).

Tunnel Configuration

1. Go to your agent page in playit.gg (same page where you got the secret key)
2. Add new tunnel:
   • Protocol: UDP
   • Local Address: 127.0.0.1
   • Local Port: 31497 (internal container port, not 34197)
3. Save and note your public address (format: xx.ip.gl.ply.gg:xxxxx)

Public Access

Give friends your playit.gg address. They connect directly in Factorio - no Tailscale needed.

Next Steps

For importing existing world saves into your server:

See: Factorio Import Existing Save

Resources