Lightning ⚡

Lightning lets you customize messages across your server, including messages from plugins that were never designed to support MiniMessage. Add gradients, hex colors, reusable text components, interactive messages, and custom commands without modifying individual plugins.

Define reusable styles, create message actions, and build your own command workflows with simple YAML configuration.

Cook with Lightning.

Features

Universal MiniMessage Support

Use MiniMessage formatting in supported messages from virtually any plugin, including those limited to legacy color codes. Add gradients, hex colors, hover events, and click actions without editing each plugin individually.

Server-Wide Message Customization

Customize chat, action bars, titles, boss bars, tab lists, scoreboards, menus, items, holograms, dialogs, kick and ban screens, and server list messages.

Smart Tag Detection

Lightning processes messages containing supported tags while leaving ordinary text untouched. Commands such as /home <name> remain intact.

Sparks: Reusable Text Components

Create custom tags for prefixes, color schemes, formatted placeholders, dynamic values, rotating tips, and localized messages. Define them once and reuse them throughout your server.

Bolts: Message Actions

Go beyond formatting with tags that trigger actions, including action bar messages, titles, sounds, and message suppression.

Player Head Integration

Use the <face> tag to display a player's own head directly in supported text components. Requires Minecraft 1.21.9 or newer.

Rewires: Override Existing Messages

Restyle messages you cannot easily edit through a plugin's configuration, including vanilla server screens and hardcoded plugin messages where supported.

Custom Commands

Create your own commands using YAML. Configure arguments, tab completion, subcommands, cooldowns, execution limits, and configurable actions.

Built-In Configuration Tools

Trace messages back to their source, identify broken tags across plugin configurations, convert legacy & color codes to MiniMessage with automatic backups, and inspect how messages are processed.

Safe and Lightweight

Player-supplied text remains plain text rather than being interpreted as formatting instructions. Ordinary messages avoid unnecessary processing, and reusable results are cached to reduce overhead.

Requirements

• Paper or Folia 1.21 or newer
• Java 21
• PlaceholderAPI (optional)

Installation

1. Download the Lightning JAR.
2. Place it in your server's plugins/ folder.
3. Restart your server.

PacketEvents

Lightning requires PacketEvents for packet handling.

• PacketEvents already installed: Lightning uses the installed PacketEvents plugin.
• PacketEvents not installed: Lightning automatically downloads PacketEvents 2.14.0 on startup.

If PacketEvents is already installed, ensure its version supports your Minecraft server version.

Configuration Examples

MiniMessage in Any Plugin's Configuration

With Lightning installed, supported messages in other plugins' configurations can use MiniMessage formatting.

welcome: "<gradient:#FFE259:#FFA751>Welcome back, %player_name%!</gradient>"
home-set: "<actionbar><green>Home set.<sound:entity.player.levelup>"
balance: "<spark:prefix> You have <spark:balance>"

Reusable Sparks

Define reusable text components in plugins/Lightning/sparks/ and use them throughout your configurations.

balance: "<spark:prefix> You have <spark:balance>"

Custom Commands

Define your own commands, arguments, and actions through YAML configuration.

discord:
  description: Get the Discord link
  actions:
    - "<spark:prefix> Join us at discord.gg/example"

Commands

Command	Description
/lightning reload	Reload Lightning's configuration and resources.
/lightning parse [surface] <text>	Preview how text will be processed.
/lightning sparks	List available sparks.
/lightning inspect [chat|actionbar]	Trace messages back to their source.
/lightning check [plugin]	Find unsupported or incorrectly written tags.
/lightning convert <plugin>	Convert legacy & color codes to MiniMessage, creating a backup.
/lightning debug	Show why Lightning processes or skips messages in the console.

All commands require lightning.admin. You can also use /lt.

Documentation

Read the full guide at hub.denizenmc.com/docs/lightning.

Building

Run ./gradlew build. The compiled JAR will be available in build/libs/.

Dependencies are not shaded into the JAR. Paper's plugin loader handles PacketEvents at runtime.

Support

Need help, found a bug, or have a feature request?

• Documentation
• Support Discord
• Report a bug or request a feature

Want to help out? Read the contributing guide. If Lightning has made your server better, you can also support it on Ko-fi.

License

Lightning is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE for details.