Adding a single plugin (Spigot/Paper)

Install EssentialsX, WorldEdit, LuckPerms, etc. straight from the dashboard.

#From the dashboard

Server → Mods & Plugins → search for the plugin name → Install. We download the JAR, drop it into /data/plugins, and the next server restart picks it up.

The search covers the plugins people actually install. If the one you want is not in it, upload the JAR yourself: Files → /data/plugins → upload, then restart. Both routes end in the same place and the server does not care which one you used.

#Plugins need a Bukkit-family server

Plugins are not mods. They run on Bukkit and its descendants, which means Paper, Spigot and Purpur, and they work without players installing anything. Mods run on Forge, NeoForge, Fabric or Quilt, and every player needs the same mod list locally.

We default to Paper for vanilla Minecraft Java plans, so the large majority of Spigot and Paper plugins work without further setup. On a modded pack, plugins will not load at all: the loader has no plugin system to load them with. Hybrid servers like Mohist and Arclight do run both, in the same sense that a car towing a caravan is still a car. Check the pack's notes and expect breakage.

#Restart, do not reload

Plugins load at server start. Many offer /reload or a plugin-specific reload command, and it will usually appear to work.

Restart anyway. /reload leaves listeners registered against classes that no longer exist, and the resulting problems surface hours later as errors that make no sense next to the change that caused them. A restart takes fifteen seconds and removes an entire category of mystery.

#Permissions, once you have more than two plugins

Out of the box most plugin commands are op-only. That is fine until you want moderators who can mute but not stop the server, or a donor rank that can use /hat and nothing else.

The answer is almost always LuckPerms. Install it from the same page, then manage groups from the console or the LuckPerms web editor, which gives you a link and applies changes when you paste it back. Individual plugins declare their own permission nodes and LuckPerms grants them, so one plugin ends up governing everything else.

A minimal setup that covers most servers:

• A default group with the harmless commands.
• A moderator group inheriting default, plus kick, mute and teleport nodes.
• An admin group inheriting moderator, plus configuration commands.

Give people the lowest group that lets them do their job. The person who needs /ban rarely also needs /stop.

#Configuring a plugin

First start writes the plugin's config into /data/plugins/PluginName/, usually config.yml. Edit it from Files, then restart.

Two things save time here. YAML is whitespace-sensitive, so a tab where spaces belong will stop the plugin loading and produce a stack trace that looks far worse than the problem is. And a plugin that fails to read its config sometimes carries on with defaults rather than shutting down, which is how servers end up running settings nobody chose.

#Uninstall

Same page → Installed tab → × next to the plugin. Restart the server to unload it fully.

Removing the JAR does not remove the plugin's data. Its config directory stays in /data/plugins/, which is helpful when you are reinstalling and unhelpful when you are trying to start clean. Delete the directory too if you want a genuinely fresh start.

#When a plugin will not load

The console names the failure, and that line is worth more than any guess:

• Unsupported API version: the plugin targets a different Minecraft version. Get a build for the version you run.
• Unknown dependency: the plugin needs another plugin, most often Vault or an economy plugin. Install the dependency and restart.
• A stack trace on startup: usually a malformed config or a genuine incompatibility. Remove the plugin, confirm the server starts clean, and work from there.

If you installed several plugins at once and the server now will not start, remove all of them and add them back one at a time. It is slower than it sounds and much faster than the alternative.

Written and maintained by the Hostd engineering team. Last updated 2026-08-05. Notice a mistake? Tell us.