Configure P2P

Last updated on October 19, 2026

Introduction

This article shows the P2P-specific backend setup required before Matchmaking can create a player-hosted game session. Use this page only after you have chosen P2P as the hosting model in Matchmaking.

For the complete Matchmaking setup path, including rulesets, match pools, and game-code integration, see Introduction to Matchmaking.

Prerequisites

Before configuring P2P, make sure you have:

• An AGS game namespace.
• Access to the Admin Portal for the game namespace where you will configure Session.
• TURN server regions available for your environment. For additional regions, contact AccelByte or submit a ticket from the TURN server configuration page.
• To follow the AGS CLI steps, you must have installed the AGS CLI and signed in with an account that has access to these features. See Install and sign in. The examples use a Bash shell.

Create a P2P session template

Admin Portal

Follow the steps in Configure session templates to create a Session V2 game session template.

When creating the template, set Session Type to P2P.

AGS CLI

1. Create a JSON file with the template's settings. Any file name works. This example uses p2p-template.json:

   {
     "name": "<YourTemplateName>",
     "type": "P2P",
     "joinability": "INVITE_ONLY",
     "minPlayers": 2,
     "maxPlayers": 4,
     "inviteTimeout": 60,
     "inactiveTimeout": 60,
     "partyCodeLength": 4
   }

   • name: replace <YourTemplateName> with a unique name for the template.
   • type: keep P2P. This is the Session Type in the Admin Portal.
   • joinability: one of OPEN, CLOSED, INVITE_ONLY, FRIENDS_OF_MEMBERS, FRIENDS_OF_LEADER, or FRIENDS_OF_FRIENDS.
   • minPlayers and maxPlayers: the player limits for the session.
   • inviteTimeout and inactiveTimeout: timeouts in seconds. 60 is the Admin Portal default.
   • partyCodeLength: the length of the generated join code. The Admin Portal sends 4. If you leave this field out, AGS uses 6.

   For the other settings in Create, configure, and edit session templates, run ags session templates create --skeleton to see every field.

2. Create the template. Replace <YourNamespace> with your game namespace:

   ags session templates create --namespace <YourNamespace> --json @p2p-template.json

Expected result: the session template appears in the Session templates list and can be selected by a match pool.

How P2P Host Selection Works

After Matchmaking creates a game session from the P2P session template:

1. Lobby sends a game session invitation to each matched member.
2. Each member joins the game session.
3. The first member that joins becomes the game session leader and P2P host.
4. Other members read the game session leader ID and start as clients targeting that host.
5. The networking library performs signaling through Lobby, ICE candidate exchange, STUN checks, and TURN relay fallback when a direct connection is not available.

info

The game session leader is the host for the P2P session. If your game needs host migration or recovery when the host leaves during gameplay, design that behavior in your game layer and test it explicitly.

Continue Setup

After creating the P2P session template:

1. Configure your match ruleset.
2. Configure your match pool and select the P2P session template.
3. Set up P2P transport for your engine:
   • Set up P2P transport using OSS
   • Set up P2P transport using Unity SDK
4. Follow the shared Matchmaking game-code guide:
   • Integrate matchmaking (Unreal)
   • Integrate matchmaking (Unity)