Minecraft server commands every admin needs

There are two places, and the only difference is the slash.

In the game, a slash opens the command line and Minecraft suggests every command and every part of it as you type. Press Tab to take the suggestion. It is the quickest way to find the exact spelling for your version.

In the lists below, <player> means you fill in a name and square brackets mean the part is optional.

How much an operator may do depends on their level. Level 4, the default, can use every command including stop. Whitelist and operator levels explained shows how to give a moderator a lower level.

Every Java command has a permission level from 0 to 4. An operator can use every command up to their own level, and the console counts as level 4. This table answers the question of why a moderator can kick but not stop the server.

Keep in mind that op gives the new operator the level set in op-permission-level, not the level of whoever typed it, so a level 3 moderator can make a level 4 operator. For anything finer, such as a helper who may mute but not ban, a permissions plugin is the way: permissions with LuckPerms sets that up command by command.

A reason is shown on the player's screen: kick Steve Spamming in chat. The same lists are in the Players tab of the panel if you prefer clicking.

Instead of a name you can use a target: @a is every player, @p the nearest player, @r a random player and @s yourself. @e means every entity, animals and dropped items included, so use it with care.

To make the difficulty or the default game mode stick after a restart, also set it in Settings under Server settings. The server reads those values every time it starts.

A selector can be narrowed with filters between square brackets, so a command hits exactly the players or mobs you mean. Several filters can be combined with a comma.

From the console a command runs at the world spawn, so a distance filter measures from there. To measure from a player instead, wrap the command in execute at:

execute at Steve run kill @e[type=minecraft:item,distance=..16]

That clears the dropped items in a radius of 16 blocks around Steve and leaves the rest of the world alone, which is a lot safer than a bare kill @e.

A world border goes well with pre-generating the land inside it, so nobody explores into terrain that still has to be made. See pre-generate your world. For a different seed, see change your server's seed.

These commands shape the world directly. They are what admins use to prepare a spawn, clear an area or find a structure for an event.

For bigger builds than the block limit allows, the WorldEdit plugin selects an area with a wand and can undo its changes, which the vanilla commands cannot. You add it like any other plugin; see install plugins on your server.

The Schedules tab runs any of these at set times, for example a say warning ten minutes before a nightly restart.

Leave reload alone on Paper and Purpur. It reloads plugins in a way many of them do not survive; restart the server instead. To reload only data packs, type minecraft:reload.

When the server feels slow, a few vanilla commands tell you whether it keeps up and what is holding it back.

On Paper and Purpur the profiler spark gives a fuller picture. Reduce lag on your server walks through what to look for in it.

Plugins add commands of their own, and many of the ones players ask for, such as homes and teleport requests, come from them. These only work when the server software or plugin in the second column is installed.

EssentialsX and CoreProtect are both in the plugin catalog of the panel. To put griefing right with CoreProtect, see stop griefing on your server.

Game rules switch parts of the game on and off, such as keeping your inventory after death, mobs breaking blocks, PvP or the day and night cycle. The World tab has a Game rules card that lists them with their current values, so you do not need to know their names. The server has to be running to see them, and a change applies to the overworld, the Nether and the End.

You can also type gamerule <rule> <value>. In the game, type /gamerule and a space and Minecraft suggests every rule your version knows.

Command blocks are off on a new server. Five steps switch them on:

1. Open Settings, go to Server settings and turn on Command blocks. In the file this is enable-command-block=true in server.properties.
2. Restart the server, because the setting is read at startup.
3. Make sure you are an operator of level 2 or higher, and switch to creative with gamemode creative <your name>.
4. Give yourself the block: give <your name> minecraft:command_block. It is not in the creative inventory.
5. Place it, right click it, and type the command. A slash in front is optional inside a command block.

Set a block to Repeat and Always Active for a command that should run every tick, and keep those light: a repeating command block that searches every entity costs tick time all day.

The official Bedrock server takes most of the same commands in its console: op, deop, kick, gamemode, difficulty, tp, time set, weather, give and stop work as above. A few things differ.

• The whitelist is called the allowlist: allowlist add Steve, allowlist remove Steve and allowlist list.
• There is no ban command. To keep someone out for good, turn the allowlist on and leave them off it.
• Game rules are written in lower case, such as gamerule keepinventory true.

On a crossplay server every Java command on this page works as well, Bedrock players included, because the server underneath is Java.