Set up Minecraft server permissions with LuckPerms

Every command in Minecraft and in plugins checks a permission node, a name like essentials.home or minecraft.command.gamemode. A player who has the node can use the command.

Instead of giving nodes to people one by one, you give them to groups, and put people in groups. Groups can inherit from each other, so an admin automatically has everything a moderator has.

Node names follow a pattern, so most of them can be guessed once you know where a command comes from:

Commands of the game itself use minecraft.command. followed by the name of the command. Plugins put their own name in front and list their nodes on their plugin page. With EssentialsX installed, its own version of commands such as kick and ban takes over, and then the node starting with essentials. is the one that counts.

1. Open the Plugins tab, search the catalog for LuckPerms and install it.
2. Restart the server.
3. In the Console, type lp info. If LuckPerms answers, it is running.

Commands typed in the console need no slash. In the game they do, and only players with permission for LuckPerms, or ops, can use them.

Every player is in the group default from the start. We add two more above it.

lp creategroup moderator
lp creategroup admin
lp group moderator parent add default
lp group admin parent add moderator
lp group moderator setweight 50
lp group admin setweight 100

The parent add lines set up the inheritance: a moderator has everything a default player has, and an admin has everything a moderator has. The weight decides which group wins when two disagree, and which prefix shows when a player is in several groups.

Give each group only what it needs. Some typical choices, assuming EssentialsX is installed:

lp group default permission set essentials.home true
lp group default permission set essentials.sethome true
lp group default permission set essentials.spawn true
lp group moderator permission set essentials.mute true
lp group moderator permission set essentials.kick true
lp group moderator permission set essentials.tempban true
lp group admin permission set essentials.gamemode true
lp group admin permission set minecraft.command.time true

To find the node for a command, check the plugin's page, or switch on lp verbose on in the console and run the command in game: LuckPerms prints every node it checks.

Avoid *, the node that gives everything. It includes commands you have never heard of, such as ones that stop the server.

• permission unset removes a node you set earlier, as if it was never there: lp group default permission unset essentials.home.
• permission set with false blocks a node, even when the group would inherit it from a parent: lp group moderator permission set essentials.fly false.
• Many plugins give some nodes to every player by default. To take one of those away from everyone, set it to false in the group default.

If one group of a player says true and another says false, LuckPerms follows the group with the highest weight, which is why the weights you set earlier matter.

A node can count in one place only. Add a context at the end of the command:

lp group default permission set essentials.fly true world=creative
lp group moderator permission set essentials.vanish true server=survival

The first line gives everyone /fly, but only in the world called creative. The second only works on the server that calls itself survival, which you set with the server option in the LuckPerms config file. That one is for networks where several servers share one LuckPerms database.

lp user Sam parent add moderator
lp user Alex parent set admin

parent add puts Sam in moderator while keeping his other groups. parent set replaces all groups of Alex with admin only; since admin inherits the rest, that is the tidy choice for a single rank.

For a VIP rank that lasts a month, or flying for one event, add a time to the command. LuckPerms removes it by itself when the time is up.

lp user Sam parent addtemp vip 30d
lp user Sam permission settemp essentials.fly true 2h

Create the group vip first, like the other groups. Times are a number with m for minutes, h for hours, d for days or w for weeks, such as 90m, 12h or 2w.

Typing nodes gets slow. Run lp editor and LuckPerms gives you a link to a web page with all groups and users. Change things there with checkboxes, click save, and the page gives you one command to paste back into the console to apply it.

lp group admin meta setprefix 100 "&c[Admin] "
lp group moderator meta setprefix 50 "&9[Mod] "

LuckPerms stores the prefix, but it does not change the chat itself. A chat plugin shows it, for example EssentialsX Chat together with Vault. Install those and the prefixes appear in front of names.

A track is a ladder of groups. With one, you can move people up and down with one command.

lp createtrack staff
lp track staff append default
lp track staff append moderator
lp track staff append admin
lp user Sam promote staff

A setup many SMP servers start from, with EssentialsX and CoreProtect installed:

Each group inherits from the one above it in the table, so a moderator also has everything a helper has. Create the helper group like the others, let it inherit from default, let moderator inherit from helper with lp group moderator parent add helper, and put it on the track with lp track staff insert helper 2.

Want a rank that keeps its items on death? Keep inventory and game rules shows how with one node.

• Fabric, Forge and NeoForge: LuckPerms has its own version for each, with the same commands. It can only limit mods that ask for permissions; a mod that only looks at op levels still needs op.
• Velocity: the proxy of a server network runs its own LuckPerms for proxy commands. For ranks that are the same on every server, all copies of LuckPerms use one shared database such as MySQL or MariaDB, chosen with storage-method in the config.

On a single server none of this is needed: LuckPerms keeps its data in a database file in plugins/LuckPerms, which is part of every backup. Build a Minecraft server network explains the proxy itself.