Guide 2

Install the theme

The dry run prints the whole plan and writes nothing. The real run backs up every file it touches, then prints the command that puts the panel back.

Install it

  1. Enter the package

    Unpack the download on the server and change into it. The installer lives at install_script/install.sh, next to the Product folder it copies from.

    shell
    cd /path/to/nectraui-package

  2. Read the plan with a dry run

    Run this first. It writes nothing at all.

    shell
    bash install_script/install.sh --dry-run

    On a clean panel the plan looks like this:

    dry run, abridged
    [nectra] package      nectra-panel-theme 1.0.0
[nectra] target       /var/www/pterodactyl
[nectra] upstream     pterodactyl 1.15.1
[nectra] install      489 new file(s)
[nectra] overwrite    36 stock file(s)
[nectra] skip         5 identical file(s)
[nectra] orphans      17 stale bundle file(s)
[nectra] migrations   19 shipped
[nectra] dry run, nothing was changed

    489 files are new. 36 are stock Pterodactyl files the theme replaces. 5 already match, so they are skipped. 17 stale bundle files from the panel's old frontend are cleaned out, and 19 migrations are waiting to run. Nothing here should surprise you before you commit to it.

  3. Run it for real

    shell
    bash install_script/install.sh

    The run puts the panel into maintenance mode, writes a backup of every file it is about to touch, copies the payload file by file, runs the migrations, clears the caches, restarts the queue workers, and brings the panel back up. New files are given the owner your panel already uses, so there is no chown to do afterwards. The last thing it prints is the rollback command.

  4. Look at it

    Sign in as an administrator. The theme is live on the client area straight away, and the admin sidebar has a new NECTRAUI group with Theme Settings in it, at /admin/settings/theme.

The Pterodactyl client area immediately after installing NectraUI, with the stock panel name, no logo, no background and one server row
The client area the moment the run finishes. Defaults everywhere, nothing configured yet.
The Pterodactyl admin overview with a NECTRAUI group in the sidebar holding Theme Settings
The admin area picks up a NECTRAUI group. Theme Settings is the theme manager.

That first screenshot is the honest starting point. Guide 4 turns it into the demo, setting by setting.

What it will not do to your panel

  • No frontend build and no dependency install. The bundle ships compiled, and no PHP dependency file changes, so no dependency manager ever runs.
  • No new environment variable, so your environment file is never opened.
  • Your environment file, storage/, bootstrap/cache/, public/.htaccess and existing migrations are refused outright. A manifest that points at one of them stops the run before a byte is written.
  • Files you changed yourself are reported and left alone unless you pass --overwrite-modified. Files that already match are skipped, so a second run is a quiet no op.

Panel somewhere other than the default

Point the installer at it. Both the dry run and the real run take the same flag.

shell
bash install_script/install.sh --panel-dir /srv/pterodactyl

Staying up to date

The admin overview grows a NectraUI box that tells you whether the theme and every installed addon are current. It reads https://nectraui.com/versions.json once an hour, sends nothing about your panel, and can be switched off in Theme Settings. Updating is the same two commands: dry run, then run.

Rolling back

There is no uninstall script. The backup tarball is the way back, and the exact commands are printed at the end of every run, so keep that output. The tarball restores every file that was overwritten and the list beside it names every file that was added. Migrations are not rolled back by that procedure. The package README spells the whole thing out.

NextInstall an addon