Installing Skills Plugin

Requirements, step-by-step installation, first-startup file layout, and upgrade guidance for Skills Plugin.

Requirements

Requirement	Version
Minecraft	1.21+
Server software	Paper or Spigot
Java	21+

Vault is an optional soft-dependency. The plugin loads and runs without it; Vault is only needed if you want mob-kill economy rewards.

Installation

1. Download the JAR

   Go to the Releases page and download the latest skills-<version>-all.jar file.

2. Place the JAR in your plugins folder

   Copy the downloaded file into your server’s plugins/ directory.

   server/
   └── plugins/
       └── skills-0.4.21-all.jar
   
3. Restart the server

   Perform a full server restart (not a reload). Skills registers listeners and initialises its database on startup.

   # From the server console
   stop
   

   Then start the server again with your usual start script.

Optional: Vault setup

If you want mob-kill economy rewards, install Vault and a compatible economy plugin (such as EssentialsX Economy) before starting the server.

1. Download Vault

   Place Vault.jar in your plugins/ folder.

2. Download an economy plugin

   Install any Vault-compatible economy plugin (EssentialsX, CMI, etc.).

3. Restart the server

   Skills detects Vault automatically on startup. No extra configuration is required to enable the integration.

Economy rewards are enabled by default once Vault is detected. You can configure chunk-based reward limits and per-world caps in config.yml under the economy section.

What the first startup creates

After Skills loads for the first time, the following files and folders are created inside plugins/Skills/:

plugins/
└── Skills/
    ├── config.yml       # Main configuration file
    ├── skills.db        # SQLite database (player skill data)
    └── lang/
        ├── en.yml       # English message strings
        └── ja.yml       # Japanese message strings

File / folder	Purpose
config.yml	Database type, skill cap, combat, magic, economy, and all other settings
skills.db	SQLite database storing every player’s skill values and last-used timestamps
lang/en.yml	All English-language messages, fully editable
lang/ja.yml	All Japanese-language messages, fully editable

If you prefer MySQL over SQLite, change database.type to mysql in config.yml and fill in the connection details before starting the server for the first time.

Verify the plugin loaded

A successful startup prints the following line to the server console:

[Skills] Skills plugin enabled

You can also confirm the plugin is active by running /skills in-game. If you see your skill list, the plugin is working correctly.

Upgrading from an older version

1. Stop the server

   Always stop the server before replacing the JAR to prevent data corruption.

   stop
   
2. Replace the JAR

   Delete the old skills-*-all.jar from plugins/ and place the new one there.

3. Review the changelog

   Check the CHANGELOG for any breaking changes between versions — for example, v0.4.6 merged four production skills into two (Crafting and Cooking), which may affect existing player data or admin scripts.

4. Restart the server

   Start the server normally. Skills migrates data automatically where possible.

Do not run /reload or use a plugin manager’s hot-reload feature with Skills. Always do a full server restart to ensure listeners, schedulers, and the database connection are cleanly re-initialised.

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Quickstart

Learn how skills work and try your first combat skill, spell, and language command.

Configuration

Explore every setting in config.yml.