Simple Minecraft plugin for Paper/Spigot that sends automatic messages to the server chat or action bar

Features

• All configuration is read from config.yml
• Chat or action bar: each message can be shown in chat (with prefix) or action bar (no prefix)
• Optional sound: each message can play a Minecraft sound when sent (or no sound if omitted or set to none)
• Configurable prefix for chat messages (prefix)
• Configurable interval in seconds (interval)
• skip-if-empty: optionally avoid sending broadcasts when there are 0 players online (skip-if-empty)
• Dynamic interval (custom-interval): broadcast interval can change based on online player count (threshold scaling)
• Sequential or random sending (random-send)
• Minecraft color codes supported using & (chat and action bar)
• Safe handling when the message list is empty
• reload command to reload configuration without restarting the server
• toggle command to pause or resume message broadcasting
• All plugin messages (reload, toggle, errors, usage) are configurable in config.yml, including the plugin name prefix

Commands & Permissions

Command	Aliases	Description
/simplebroadcast reload	/sb reload	Reloads the plugin configuration
/simplebroadcast toggle	/sb toggle	Pauses or resumes automatic message broadcasting

• reload: requires permission sb.reload (default: op)
• toggle: requires permission sb.toggle (default: op)
• Works in-game and from the server console

Requirements

• Java 21 (LTS).
• Paper or Spigot server on the latest supported version (tested with api-version: "1.21")
• Maven 3.6+ to build the project

Build

From the project root (simple-broadcast), run:

mvn clean package

The plugin JAR will be generated at:

target/SimpleBroadcast-1.1.2.jar

Installation

1. Copy the built JAR to your Paper/Spigot server plugins folder
2. Start or restart the server
3. The config.yml file will be created automatically in plugins/SimpleBroadcast/ if it does not exist

Configuration

Example configuration (defaults):

check-updates: true
prefix: "&e[!] &r"
interval: 60
skip-if-empty: true

custom-interval:
  enabled: false
  rules:
    - min-players: 10
      interval: 3600
    - min-players: 11
      interval: 1800
    - min-players: 16
      interval: 60

random-send: false

messages:
  - text: "&fThis is the &e&lfirst &fexample message"
    display: chat
    sound: "entity.experience_orb.pickup"
  - text: "&e&lAction bar example message"
    display: action-bar
    sound: none
  - text: "&fThis is the &e&lthird &fexample message"

plugin-messages:
  prefix: "&7[&6Broadcasts&7]"
  toggle-paused: "&eMessage broadcasting paused"
  toggle-resumed: "&aMessage broadcasting resumed"
  toggle-no-permission: "&cYou do not have permission to run this command. (sb.toggle)"
  reload-success: "&aConfiguration reloaded successfully"
  reload-no-permission: "&cYou do not have permission to run this command. (sb.reload)"
  usage: "&7Usage: &f/<command> <reload|toggle>"

• check-updates: If true, checks Modrinth for updates on startup and notifies console and operators
• prefix: Prefix added at the start of each chat message (ignored for action bar)
• interval: Default interval in seconds between each message
• skip-if-empty: If true, no broadcast is sent when there are 0 players online. When custom-interval is enabled, skip-if-empty is enforced unless you add a rule with min-players: 0.
• custom-interval: Dynamic interval based on online player count (threshold scaling). When enabled: true, rules are sorted by min-players ascending; the plugin uses the rule with the highest min-players that is ≤ current player count. If no rule matches, the default interval is used. You can define any number of rules. Example: with 12 players online and rules 10→3600, 11→1800, 16→60, the interval used is 1800 (11 matches; 16 does not). If you add a rule with min-players: 0, broadcasts can run with 0 players using that rule’s interval (skip-if-empty is not enforced).
• random-send: false = sequential; true = random, avoiding repeating the last message
• messages: List of messages. Each has text (required, supports & colors). Optional: display (chat or action-bar, default chat); sound (Minecraft sound key, or none / omit for no sound). Action bar messages do not show the prefix.
• plugin-messages: Messages shown for commands. <command> in usage is replaced with the command used (/simplebroadcast or /sb)

Internal behaviour

• The plugin schedules a repeating task using Bukkit's scheduler
• On enable (onEnable), it saves the default config, loads it, and starts the task
• On disable (onDisable), it cancels the task
• Each run of the task:
  • Reads the message list from the configuration
  • If it is empty, it does nothing and returns silently
  • Applies & color codes via ChatColor.translateAlternateColorCodes
  • If display is chat: broadcasts to the whole server with the configured prefix
  • If display is action-bar: sends to each online player's action bar (no prefix)
  • If the message has a sound set (and not none), plays that sound for all online players