zChat

Format your chat. Keep it clean.

Give every rank its own chat style, stop the words you don't want, and keep spam in check. zChat does the chat basics every server needs, in one small plugin built to run on every single message without costing you a thing.

Read the docs · Chat formats · Report a bug

Why server owners pick it

• A format for every rank. VIP, Staff, Admin, or any rank you add, each with its own style. Players get the highest rank they have, and everyone else gets your default.
• No lag, even in busy chat. Formats and the filter are prepared once when the config loads, the cheapest checks run first, and each message is drawn once, not once for every player who sees it.
• A filter that's hard to dodge. It catches s p a c e d words, b4dw0rd, baaadword and bädword, but leaves innocent words like class alone.
• Players can't break your chat. What players type is always shown as plain text, so nobody can sneak in colours, fake links or hover text, unless you give them the colour permission.
• Works with what you have. Ranks are picked by permission, so any permissions plugin works, like LuckPerms. PlaceholderAPI placeholders work in your formats when it's installed.
• Every change applies on reload, even turning commands on or off. No restarts.
• Paper and Folia. One jar runs on Paper, Purpur and Folia.

What you get

Chat formats per rank

formatting:
  groups:
    vip:
      weight: 10
      permission: "zchat.group.vip"
      format: "<gold>[VIP] <player></gold> <dark_gray>»</dark_gray> <white><message></white>"

Full MiniMessage, so you can use colours, gradients, hover text and links. Use <player>, <displayname>, <message> and any PlaceholderAPI placeholder.

A chat filter Block or censor the words and patterns you list, however they're spelled. Staff can bypass it.

Anti-spam A cooldown between messages, three seconds by default, and anti-repeat, which stops the same message being sent again and again.

Mentions Write a player's name in chat, with or without @, and it's highlighted and they hear a ping. Operators can @everyone, or anyone you give the permission.

Private messages /msg and /reply, with /socialspy so staff can see them.

Moderation commands

• /mutechat (or /mc): mute chat for everyone except staff.
• /clearchat (or /cc): wipe chat from every player's screen.
• /togglechat (or /tc): lets any player hide chat for themselves.

Every feature and command can be turned off, renamed, given its own permission and reworded.

Up and running in a minute

1. Drop the jar in plugins/ and start the server.
2. Style your ranks in plugins/zChat/config.yml and add your filter words.
3. Give your ranks their zchat.group.<rank> permission and your staff the moderation permissions.

Full setup, every setting and every permission: docs.xenastudios.co/zchat

Requires Paper 1.21.11 or newer (or Purpur or Folia) and Java 21 or newer. PlaceholderAPI is optional.

Coming from zChat 2? Replace the jar and restart. Your config is carried forward, and the old file is kept as config.yml.bak-v1. The zchat.group.* permissions no longer go to operators by default, so give your ranks theirs. A zChat 1.x config can't be carried forward; zChat keeps it as config.yml.old and writes a fresh one.

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Made by Xena Studios · Open source under GPL-3.0-only · Source