Dialogs+

Build fully custom in-game menus using Minecraft's native Dialog system. No resource packs, no client mods, zero installs required for your players.

Dialogs+ lets you create interactive menus, sub-menus, and forms entirely through simple YAML config files, or build them in-game with the built-in editor. It is powered by the vanilla Dialog UI introduced in Minecraft 1.21.6 (Paper API since 1.21.7). Every player who joins your server sees these menus with nothing extra installed, because it's all built on top of what Paper already ships.

Features

YAML menus: one file per menu, loaded from plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/
In-game editor (/dialogsplus edit): create, edit, preview and delete menus, components and actions without touching YAML
Multiple input types: text fields, toggles, number sliders, and single-choice options
Chainable actions per button: run a command (as the player or as console), send a message, close the dialog, or jump to a sub-menu, all in sequence
{input} substitution: feed a player's typed input straight into a command, e.g. a teleport-request button that runs /tpa {target}
Permission-gated buttons and menus: hide specific buttons from players who don't have the right permission, or lock a whole menu
Item preview icons: show an item (or a specific player's head, or the clicking player's own head) alongside a button
Instant link and command-suggestion buttons: OPEN_URL and SUGGEST_COMMAND actions fire natively when used on their own
PlaceholderAPI support: use placeholders in titles, body text, button labels and tooltips (optional)
Import and export: share individual menus as .yml files
Custom commands: map any command (e.g. /menu) straight to a menu in config.yml
Live reload: update your menus with /dialogsplus reload, no restart needed

Requirements

Paper 1.21.11+ (or a Paper fork built on it)
Java 25
(Optional) PlaceholderAPI, if you want placeholders in titles, body text and tooltips

Why so few versions? If I find a big bug, I will probably delete the old version containing it, so people can't download it and run into problems that have already been fixed.

Quick start

Drop the jar into your plugins/ folder and start the server.
Run /dialogsplus edit and click + New menu, or add your own .yml file to plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/.
Open your menu with /dialogs <menu-id>.

Example menu (plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/main.yml):

id: main
title: "Main Menu"
body:
  - "Welcome! Choose an option below."
components:
  - id: homes
    label: "Homes"
    icon: GRASS_BLOCK
    type: BUTTON
    actions:
      - type: CLOSE
      - type: RUN_COMMAND
        command: "homes"

Commands

Command	Description
`/dialogs <menu-id>`	Opens the given menu for the player running it
`/dialogsplus reload`	Reloads all menu files from disk
`/dialogsplus export <menu-id>`	Copies a menu file into `plugins/DialogsPlus/exports/`
`/dialogsplus import <file>`	Copies a file from `plugins/DialogsPlus/imports/` into `menus/` and reloads
`/dialogsplus edit`	Opens the in-game menu editor (players only)
`/dialogsplus edit <menu-id>`	Opens the editor directly on one menu

Plus any custom commands you've mapped in config.yml (see Command mapping).

Permissions

Permission	Description
`dialogsplus.edit`	Use the in-game editor (default: op)

Reload, export and import use the reload permission set in config.yml.

Warning: treat dialogsplus.edit like console access. Anyone who has it can create RUN_COMMAND_AS_CONSOLE actions. Give it to trusted admins only.

First run

On first startup, Dialogs+ creates:

plugins/DialogsPlus/
    menus/                  <- put your menu .yml files here
    exports/                <- menus you've exported land here
    imports/                <- drop a menu file here before importing it
    backups/                <- created by the editor
    config.yml              <- plugin settings, command mapping, messages
    README.txt              <- the readme, auto-copied here once

The menus folder starts empty. Create your first menu in-game with /dialogsplus edit, or add menu files by hand and run /dialogsplus reload.

Note: README.txt is only copied on first run. After updating the plugin, delete plugins/DialogsPlus/README.txt and restart to get the newest copy.

In-game editor

Run /dialogsplus edit to open the editor. It is built from the same native Dialog system as your menus, so it needs no extra mods, ports or web server.

From the menu list you can:

Create a new menu ("+ New menu": an ID and a title; it starts with one Close button, because a dialog needs at least one button)
Open any menu to edit it
Delete a menu (with confirmation)

Inside a menu you can edit:

Settings: title, external title, permission, can-close-with-escape
Body text: one line per message
Components: add, edit, reorder (Move up / Move down) and delete, for all 5 types (BUTTON, TEXT_INPUT, BOOLEAN_INPUT, NUMBER_INPUT, SINGLE_OPTION_INPUT)
Actions on buttons: add, edit, reorder and delete, for all 7 action types
Preview: opens the real menu. Its buttons really run their actions!

Every change is saved to the menu's YAML file immediately. There is no separate "apply" step and you don't need to run /dialogsplus reload.

Backups and things to know:

Saving rewrites the whole YAML file, so comments in your file are lost. The first time the editor saves a menu, your original file is copied to plugins/DialogsPlus/backups/<id>.original.yml
Deleting a menu keeps a copy in backups/<id>.deleted.yml
Don't run /dialogsplus reload while someone is in the middle of editing. Reload replaces the loaded menus, and the open editor would then save stale data.
Not editable in-game yet: renaming a menu ID, changing a component's type (delete and re-add it instead), and the commands: section of config.yml.

Command mapping

You can map any custom command straight to a menu, so players don't need to know a menu's id at all. Set this in plugins/DialogsPlus/config.yml:

commands:
  main: "/menu"
  tpa-menu: "/teleport"

Typing /menu then behaves exactly like /dialogs main.

Important: changes to the commands section require a full server restart to take effect, unlike menu .yml files, which /dialogsplus reload picks up live.

Configuration reference

Menu files

Each .yml file in plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/ is loaded as one menu on startup or on /dialogsplus reload. The menu's id field is what you reference it by (e.g. in /dialogs <id> or an OPEN_MENU action). Menus created in the editor are saved as menus/<id>.yml.

Menu-level fields

id: main                      # required. Unique id, used in /dialogs <id>
title: "Main Menu"            # required. Shown at the top of the dialog
external-title: "Server Menu" # optional. Used if this menu is opened as a
                              #   button/link from elsewhere
can-close-with-escape: true   # optional, default true
permission: "dialogsplus.staff" # optional. Whole menu is locked unless
                              #   the player has this permission
body:                         # optional. Lines of plain text
  - "Welcome!"
  - "Choose an option below."
components:                   # required. See Components below
  - ...

A menu needs at least one BUTTON component, otherwise it can't be opened.

Components

Each entry in components is either a BUTTON or an input field.

BUTTON

- id: homes                 # required, unique within this menu
  label: "Homes"            # required. Text shown on the button
  tooltip: "View your homes" # optional. Hover text
  icon: GRASS_BLOCK         # optional. See Icons below
  permission: "homes.use"   # optional. Button is hidden if the player
                            #   lacks this permission
  type: BUTTON
  actions:                  # required. Run in order, see Actions below
    - ...

TEXT_INPUT

- id: target
  label: "Player Name"
  type: TEXT_INPUT

BOOLEAN_INPUT

- id: confirm
  label: "I agree"
  type: BOOLEAN_INPUT

NUMBER_INPUT

- id: amount
  label: "Amount"
  type: NUMBER_INPUT
  min: 0
  max: 100
  step: 1        # optional
  initial: 0     # optional

SINGLE_OPTION_INPUT

- id: choice
  label: "Pick one"
  type: SINGLE_OPTION_INPUT
  options:
    - "Option A"
    - "Option B"

Note: component ids may use letters, numbers, - and _ (max 64 characters).

Icons

icon: GRASS_BLOCK              # any vanilla Material name
icon: player_head:Notch        # a specific player's head by name
icon: "player_head:{self}"     # the CLICKING player's own head (dynamic)

Permissions (menus)

Two levels of permission gating are supported:

Per-menu: set permission: at the top level of a menu .yml file to lock the whole menu. A player without it gets the no-permission message from config.yml instead of the dialog opening.
Per-button: set permission: on a BUTTON component to hide just that button from players who lack it. The rest of the menu still opens normally.

PlaceholderAPI support

If PlaceholderAPI is installed, placeholders are replaced in:

Menu title and external-title
Body text lines
Button labels
Button tooltips

title: "Welcome, %player_name%"
body:
  - "Your balance: %vault_eco_balance%"

If PlaceholderAPI is not installed, these fields are shown as plain text with the placeholder syntax left in (nothing breaks, it just won't resolve).

Actions

Each button's actions list runs in order when the button is clicked.

Action	What it does
`RUN_COMMAND`	Runs a command as the clicking player
`RUN_COMMAND_AS_CONSOLE`	Runs a command as console
`CLOSE`	Closes the current dialog
`SEND_MESSAGE`	Sends a plain chat message
`OPEN_MENU`	Opens another menu by id (sub-menu navigation)
`OPEN_URL`	Opens a link
`SUGGEST_COMMAND`	Pre-fills the player's chat bar with a command

- type: RUN_COMMAND
  command: "homes"             # no leading slash

- type: RUN_COMMAND_AS_CONSOLE
  command: "give {player} diamond 1"

- type: CLOSE

- type: SEND_MESSAGE
  message: "Request sent!"

- type: OPEN_MENU
  target: tpa-menu

- type: OPEN_URL
  url: "https://example.com"

- type: SUGGEST_COMMAND
  command: "msg SomePlayer "

Note: OPEN_URL and SUGGEST_COMMAND only fire instantly if they are the only action on that button. If chained with other actions, the player instead gets a clickable chat message.

In the editor, a leading / on RUN_COMMAND / RUN_COMMAND_AS_CONSOLE is removed automatically, and OPEN_URL must start with http:// or https://.

{id} substitution

A RUN_COMMAND / RUN_COMMAND_AS_CONSOLE / SEND_MESSAGE / OPEN_URL / SUGGEST_COMMAND value can reference another component's input value in the same menu using {that-component-id}:

components:
  - id: target
    label: "Player Name"
    type: TEXT_INPUT

  - id: send
    label: "Send Request"
    type: BUTTON
    actions:
      - type: CLOSE
      - type: RUN_COMMAND
        command: "tpa {target}"

Import and export

Export a menu to share it with someone else or back it up:

/dialogsplus export <menu-id>
-> copies plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/<menu-id>.yml into
   plugins/DialogsPlus/exports/<menu-id>.yml

Import a menu someone shared with you:

Place their .yml file into plugins/DialogsPlus/imports/
Run /dialogsplus import <filename.yml>
It is copied into menus/ and the menus reload automatically

Full working example

plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/main.yml:

id: main
title: "Main Menu"
body:
  - "Welcome! Choose an option below."
components:
  - id: homes
    label: "Homes"
    icon: GRASS_BLOCK
    tooltip: "View your homes"
    type: BUTTON
    actions:
      - type: CLOSE
      - type: RUN_COMMAND
        command: "homes"

  - id: tpa
    label: "Teleport Request"
    type: BUTTON
    actions:
      - type: OPEN_MENU
        target: tpa-menu

plugins/DialogsPlus/menus/tpa-menu.yml:

id: tpa-menu
title: "Teleport Request"
components:
  - id: target
    label: "Player Name"
    type: TEXT_INPUT

  - id: send
    label: "Send Request"
    type: BUTTON
    actions:
      - type: CLOSE
      - type: RUN_COMMAND
        command: "tpa {target}"

  - id: back
    label: "Back"
    type: BUTTON
    actions:
      - type: OPEN_MENU
        target: main

Roadmap

Currently no ideas for the roadmap, but more stuff is coming soon

Dialogs+

Compatibility

Minecraft: Java Edition

Platforms

Links

Tags

Creators

Details

Dialogs+

Features

Requirements

Quick start

Commands

Permissions

First run

In-game editor

Command mapping

Configuration reference

Menu files

Menu-level fields

Components

BUTTON

TEXT_INPUT

BOOLEAN_INPUT

NUMBER_INPUT

SINGLE_OPTION_INPUT

Icons

Permissions (menus)

PlaceholderAPI support

Actions

{id} substitution

Import and export

Full working example

Roadmap