Set up ServerListPlus on Minecraft

ServerListPlus customizes how your server looks in the multiplayer server list: the description lines, the player count, the hover text, the icon and the version text. It can also change the entry per player, using their name or head. This guide installs it from GitHub on a Paper or Purpur server and edits the first description.

Checked against ServerListPlus 3.5.0, October 2026. That is the latest release on GitHub, from June 2023, and its notes list Minecraft 1.8.3 to 1.20.1+ for Bukkit-based servers. The project says it gets no new features and is only updated for bug fixes and compatibility.

Before you start

• You need a Paper or Purpur server, which show a Plugins tab.
• ServerListPlus is not on Modrinth or Hangar, and the CurseForge plugin listing is an old file from 2017. The project's README recommends its GitHub releases, which the Plugins tab can install with its GitHub button.
• 3.5.0 loaded and enabled on Paper 26.3 in our test, but once enabled every server-list ping logged an error there (see Common problems). We did not check from a game client whether the new description shows. Take a backup from the Backups tab first.
• On Paper the plugin does not need ProtocolLib, according to the 3.5.0 release notes.

Install ServerListPlus

1. Open your server and select Plugins, then press GitHub.
2. Type Minecrell/ServerListPlus and press Look up, then press Next.
3. On the Release step, pick the row named ServerListPlus 3.5.0, which shows the tag 3.5.0.
4. On the File step, pick ServerListPlus-3.5.0-Universal.jar.
5. On the Review step, press Install.
6. Open the Console tab and press Restart.

GitHub does not check uploads, so only install from a repository you trust. The wizard says the same on its Review step.

Turn it on

The plugin stays disabled until you enable it, so your server list does not change on install. Its config is plugins/ServerListPlus/ServerListPlus.yml. Edit it first:

1. Stop the server and open the file in the File Manager.

2. Find the --- !Status section. The Default part holds the main status. Change the Description list, keeping the indentation of the lines around it. A two-line example, in the format the project's wiki uses:

     Description:
     - |-
       &aMy Minecraft Server
       &7Survival, no resets

3. Press Save, start the server, then run slp enable in the Console tab (/slp enable in game).

4. Run slp reload after later edits.

The |- marks a multi-line block with no trailing newline, which the project recommends instead of \n. Color codes use &, such as &a for green. Minecraft 1.16 and newer also take &#rrggbb colors and %gradient#ffbe00#f4511e%text%gradient% gradients. The --- !Core section is not for editing.

Players, hover text and icons

Inside Default, Players has Max to change the displayed maximum (a list, or a range like 1000..10000), Hover for the text shown when a player hovers the count, and Slots. A Personalized section applies to players who have joined before and can use %player%. Placeholders include %online%, %max% and %random_player%.

For an icon, upload a PNG into plugins/ServerListPlus with Upload. The wiki says file names are relative to the plugin folder. List it in Default:

  Favicon:
    Files:
    - favicon1.png

Commands

• /slp shows the commands. Use /serverlistplus if another plugin owns /slp.
• /slp reload reloads the config, /slp save saves it, /slp enable and /slp disable switch the changes on and off.
• /slp clean <favicons/players/requests> empties a cache.
• serverlistplus.command allows read-only use, and serverlistplus.admin allows changes.

Common problems

• Nothing changed in the server list. Check you ran slp enable.
• The Console logs "Could not pass event StandardPaperServerListPingEventImpl to ServerListPlus". On Paper 26.3 with 3.5.0 enabled, each server-list ping logged this error with IllegalArgumentException: Name cannot be longer than 16 characters.
• The config lacks newer options. The 3.5.0 notes suggest running /slp save to regenerate the config with the newly supported options.
• A syntax error after editing. The file is YAML and needs UTF-8. How to find and fix YAML and JSON config errors shows how to spot the line.