Adding plugins

Plugins are the fastest way to bend a Paper, Spigot or Purpur server to your will — voice chat, vein-mining, world editing, custom maps. The Game Panel ships a built-in Modrinth browser, so most plugins are two clicks away. This guide covers every screen, every filter and the gotchas that bite first-timers.

Plugins vs mods — start here

Before you install anything, know which one you actually want:

• Plugins are server-side only. They run on Paper / Spigot / Purpur / Folia and require no client changes — vanilla players can join. JARs go in the /plugins folder.
• Mods are client & server. They run on Forge / NeoForge / Fabric / Quilt and every player must have the same mods installed. JARs go in the /mods folder.

If your server is Forge/Fabric, the Plugins tab won't help — you want the Modpacks tab or to drop mods into /mods manually. If your server is Paper, you're in the right place.

Opening the Plugins tab

Sign in to the Game Panel, open your server, and click Minecraft Plugins in the left sidebar. You'll see a grid of plugin cards with a row of filters above:

• Provider — Modrinth. The open-source plugin/mod marketplace.
• Per page — how many results to load at once. 12 is the default; 50 if you want to scroll less.
• Versions — filter by Minecraft version (e.g. 1.21.1). Leave on All Versions to browse everything.
• Loaders — filter by server type. Pick Paper if that's what you run. Filtering here saves you from finding a plugin that won't load.
• Sort — Relevance, Downloads, Follows, Newest, Recently updated. Sorting by Downloads is a decent quality proxy.
• Search — free text. Try worldedit, luckperms, essentialsx, discord.

Reading a plugin card

Each card gives you everything you need to judge a plugin at a glance:

• Icon & name — usually links to the Modrinth page.
• Author — By [name]. Recognisable maintainers like me4502, mysticdrew or kpids are a good signal.
• Short tagline — one-line description.
• Downloads () — cumulative downloads across all versions. 1M+ means battle-tested.
• Likes / follows — community endorsement.
• Last updated — if it's older than a year, it might not work on modern Paper builds. Look for "last week", "last month".

Installing a plugin

Click the install icon on a card. A modal slides in with the plugin's full details. Using VeinMiner as an example:

Install VeinMiner

  [icon]  VeinMiner
          Mine the whole vein on mining a single ore.
          Known feature by modpacks and pvp games like UHC (quick mine).
          48.5M downloads · Updated 4 days ago

VERSION
  [ Veinminer Paper - 2.8.2          v ]

  Select the version of the plugin you want to install.

                                  [ Cancel ]  [ Install Plugin ]

Reading the version dropdown

Each row in the dropdown follows the pattern [Plugin] [Loader] - [Version]. Veinminer Paper - 2.8.2 means "VeinMiner build 2.8.2 for the Paper loader." You'll also see entries like Bukkit, Spigot, Purpur, Folia, NeoForge, Fabric. Pick the row that matches what your server runs.

Picking the right version

• Newest release first. The dropdown defaults to the latest stable build — usually the right call.
• Check Minecraft compatibility. Modrinth shows the MC version each plugin build supports. A Paper 2.8.2 for MC 1.20 won't load on a 1.21 server.
• Avoid betas / release-candidates unless you're testing on a staging server. They can ship bugs that wipe data.

Hitting Install Plugin

Press Install Plugin. The modal closes and the panel:

1. Downloads the JAR from Modrinth's CDN.
2. Drops it into /plugins on your server.
3. Shows a quick toast notification confirming success.

The whole thing usually takes under 5 seconds — plugins are tiny compared to modpacks.

After installing

1. Open the dashboard.
2. Click Restart.
3. Watch the console for the plugin's load message:

[INFO] [VeinMiner] Loading VeinMiner v2.8.2
[INFO] [VeinMiner] Enabling VeinMiner v2.8.2
[INFO] [VeinMiner] VeinMiner has been enabled!
[INFO] Done (8.412s)! For help, type "help"

Most plugins create a folder under /plugins/<PluginName>/ with a config.yml on first run. Edit it via Files, save, then restart again to apply changes.

Permissions & commands

Almost every plugin ships with permission nodes — strings like veinminer.use — that decide who can do what. Vanilla operators bypass them; everyone else needs a permissions plugin.

The de-facto standard is LuckPerms. Install it the same way as anything else, then in the console:

lp creategroup veteran
lp group veteran permission set veinminer.use true
lp user Steve parent set veteran

Updating a plugin

1. Take a quick backup if the plugin manages player data (economy, claims, etc.).
2. Stop the server.
3. Open Files → /plugins → delete the old JAR. (Leaving two versions of the same plugin will crash startup.)
4. Go to Minecraft Plugins, find the plugin, hit install, pick the newer version.
5. Start the server.

Removing a plugin

1. Stop the server.
2. Open Files → /plugins.
3. Delete the plugin's JAR.
4. (Optional) Delete the matching /plugins/<PluginName>/ folder if you don't want to keep its config and data.
5. Start the server.

Installing a plugin manually

If the plugin lives on SpigotMC, Hangar, GitHub Releases, or a private build server, the browser won't show it. Grab the JAR from there and upload it yourself:

1. Download the correct JAR (read the page — match your loader and MC version).
2. Open Files → /plugins.
3. Click Upload and drop the JAR in. For files over 100 MB, use SFTP — see File manager & SFTP.
4. Restart the server.

Common issues

• Plugin doesn't load and the console says UnsupportedClassVersionError. The plugin was built for a newer Java than your server is running. Update your server version, or pick an older plugin build.
• Could not load 'plugins/X.jar' — incompatible. Wrong loader. The JAR is probably a Bukkit/Spigot build on a Paper-only API call, or vice versa. Reinstall the version that lists your loader explicitly.
• Two of the same plugin. If /plugins has both X-1.0.jar and X-2.0.jar, startup crashes. Delete the old one.
• "Missing dependency" on startup. The plugin needs another plugin installed (commonly Vault, ProtocolLib, PlaceholderAPI). Install the dependency and restart.
• Commands work but nothing happens for non-ops. You need a permissions plugin — see Permissions & commands.
• Plugin loads fine but eats CPU. Profile with /spark profiler. Heavy magic-block plugins (claims, anti-cheat, custom items) are the usual suspects.

Still stuck? Open a ticket with the last 200 lines of your console and we'll dig in.