Mods & Plugins

A template that configures a Mod Manager or a Plugin Manager gives the server that tab; a template that configures neither has no such tab. Which one you get depends on the template, not on the game, and a template may configure both. The Mod Manager covers mods, datapacks and modpacks (mods.manage); the Plugin Manager covers plugins (plugins.manage).

Prerequisites

• A template with one of the two managers — otherwise the tab is not shown.
• mods.manage or plugins.manage for installing, updating, and removing.
• A restart after every install, update, or removal.

Provider API keys

The managers search third-party providers. Modrinth and CurseForge each need an API key, and a provider without one is hidden from the Provider list. If every provider the template offers needs a key that is not configured, the tab shows No providers available — ask an administrator to add it under Admin → System → Mod Manager API Keys.

Install a mod or datapack

1. Open the Mod Manager tab and its Browse sub-tab.
2. Type in the search box. Results update as you type; Enter or Search restarts the search at page 1.
3. Narrow the results with Provider, Mod loader, Content type, Sort by, Category, and the game version box.
4. Pick a result, choose a release in Select version, then select Install.
5. Restart the server, then read the console for load errors.

Filter behaviour:

• Mod loader starts on Any loader; the options are Forge, NeoForge, Fabric and Quilt, and the filter appears only for Minecraft providers.
• Content type offers only what the template enables: Mods, Datapacks, Modpacks.
• Sort by — Default order, Downloads, Followers, Newest, Recently updated, Relevance. Default order means relevance while searching and downloads while browsing.
• Category appears only for Modrinth, the only provider that publishes its categories.
• The game version box starts empty and shows Any version (server: X) as a placeholder — no version filter is applied until you type one. Modrinth suggests versions as you type.

The Installed sub-tab lists every file the manager tracks, with Has Updates, Tracked and Untracked filters and name/size/date sorting.

Install a modpack

1. Open the Mod Manager and select the Install pack sub-tab. It only exists when the template enables the Modpacks content type.
2. Choose Modpack archive — .zip, .mrpack, .mr, .tar, .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.xz, .txz, .tar.bz2, .tbz2 — or paste a direct http or https link in Or install from a URL. The backend also extracts .tar.zst and .tzst, which the file picker does not list.
3. Optionally set Install into to a subdirectory. Leave it empty to install into the server root, which is what most packs expect.
4. Select Install modpack. The install runs on the node, so you can leave the tab; the phases are Extracting archive, Downloading mods, Applying overrides and Finishing up, with a file count at each.
5. Restart to load the pack, then read the console for errors.

The finished panel reports Pack format, Mods downloaded and Overrides applied, plus Skipped entries when anything was left out. Warnings mean an individual file could not be fetched — the rest of the pack still installs, and you can add that file by hand later.

For Modrinth and CurseForge packs the manager reads the pack manifest:

• files are downloaded from the provider instead of being re-uploaded;
• client-only files are skipped — env.server = "unsupported" entries and anything under client-overrides/ never reach the server;
• the pack’s overrides/ are merged into the install directory, after the manifest files, so the author’s configs win;
• the manifest and pack scaffolding are removed from the server directory afterwards.

Caution

A modpack overwrites the configs it ships. Back up first (backups) if the server already has a working setup.

The pack’s mods appear in Installed, so Check Updates covers them.

Install a plugin

1. Open the Plugin Manager tab and its Browse sub-tab.
2. Search, optionally filtering by game version (Any game version, or Server version (X) for the detected version) and by provider.
3. Sort with Trending, Popular, Top rated, Recently updated or Newest.
4. Pick the plugin and its Version, select Install, then restart the server.

Keep mods and plugins up to date

1. Open the manager’s Installed sub-tab.
2. Select Check Updates. Anything with a newer release is flagged, and the tab badge and the Has Updates filter show the count.
3. Select the items to update, or leave the selection empty to update everything that has an update, then select Update. The confirmation warns that an update can break compatibility — back up first (backups).
4. Restart the server.

A mod the panel did not install shows as untracked: it has no version metadata, so you update it by hand through Files.

Remove a mod or plugin

In the Installed sub-tab, tick the files (or use Select all) and select Remove, then confirm. Restart the server. Leftover configs in config/ or plugins/ are harmless but can confuse a replacement.

Rules for a stable server

1. Match versions. A mod built for a different game version is the top cause of boot failures. The manager filters versions for you; manual uploads through Files do not.
2. Add one at a time, so a crash has one suspect instead of ten.

Related

• Console — load errors after an install
• Backups — back up before changing mods
• Files — edit configs the managers do not cover