WatchPost

Security cameras and monitors for Paper servers — and nobody ever gets stuck in spectator mode.

Tested on Paper 1.21.11, 26.2 and 26.3. One file, no dependencies, no NMS.

Why this exists

Security Camera Plugin - CCTV is the reference plugin for this job — 197,532 downloads, 4.2 stars, 82 ratings. Its last release is from November 2024. We downloaded that release and started it ourselves on both current Paper versions. It fails to enable on both:

java.lang.NoSuchMethodError:
  'com.mojang.authlib.properties.PropertyMap com.mojang.authlib.GameProfile.getProperties()'
    at io.github.tanguygab.cctv.utils.Heads.createSkull(Heads.java:53)
    at io.github.tanguygab.cctv.CCTV.onEnable(CCTV.java:74)

It did not die in its camera logic. It died building a decorative player head through com.mojang.authlib — a Mojang-internal class that is not part of the Bukkit API and changes without notice.

WatchPost is built so that this failure mode cannot happen:

• no com.mojang.authlib, no NMS, no reflection into the server
• no player heads — menu icons are ordinary items, looked up by name at runtime with a fallback, so a renamed or removed material cannot stop the plugin
• no entities — CCTV spawns an armor stand and a creeper per camera. A WatchPost camera is a row in a file. Nothing to lag, leak or clean up.
• the server version string is never read or parsed

The guarantee no other camera plugin gives

Looking through a camera means being put into spectator mode somewhere else. The expensive failure is obvious once you have seen it: the server restarts while someone is watching, and that player logs back in as a spectator, inside a wall, with no idea where they came from.

WatchPost writes the way back to disk before it touches the player, and there is exactly one code path that reads it back:

what happens	what WatchPost does
player sneaks or types /watchpost leave	position, game mode, flight and night vision restored
the view times out	same
the player disconnects while watching	entry stays on disk, restored on next login
the server crashes or is killed	restored on next login
the plugin is reloaded or disabled	every open session is ended first
the camera's world is unloaded	session ends, player returns
someone else changes their game mode	WatchPost lets go instead of fighting for control
the return world no longer exists	player goes to the main spawn, with a warning in the console

Flight permission and flight state are part of that record, so a /fly granted by another plugin survives the camera. Fall distance is reset on return.

Features

• /watchpost camera create <name> — a camera at your eyes, aimed where you look
• Camera groups, and monitor blocks that open a group as a menu
• Right-click a monitor block, click a camera, look around; sneak to leave
• Mouse wheel switches to the next camera in the group
• Per-monitor access lists, or public monitors
• Optional night vision while watching (removed on exit — but only if WatchPost added it)
• Commands are blocked during the view, so nobody teleports out of a camera into a half-restored state
• Time limit per view (5 minutes by default, 0 disables it)
• A camera placed inside a solid block is reported immediately, instead of showing a black picture to the first viewer

Coming from CCTV?

/watchpost import

Reads plugins/CCTV/cameras.yml, cameragroups.yml and computers.yml, and never writes to them. Whatever cannot be taken over is named, not swallowed: missing worlds, cameras a group refers to that do not exist, entries that are not cameras at all, and the custom heads (skin) — WatchPost has no player heads, which is the whole reason it still starts.

Commands

command	what it does
/watchpost camera create|delete|list|enable|disable [name]	manage cameras
/watchpost group create|delete|add|remove|list [group] [camera]	manage groups
/watchpost monitor create <group> / delete	bind the block you are looking at
/watchpost view <name>, next, prev, leave	watch
/watchpost import	take over a CCTV installation
/watchpost reload	re-read config and data

Aliases: /cams, /cctv.

Permissions: watchpost.monitor.use (default true), watchpost.view, watchpost.camera.create, watchpost.camera.delete, watchpost.camera.list, watchpost.group.manage, watchpost.monitor.create, watchpost.admin (op).

What WatchPost does not do, and will not pretend to

• Spectator mode sees through walls. That is how Minecraft works, and every server-side camera plugin has it. Deciding who may place a camera is therefore a trust decision — watchpost.camera.create is op-only for a reason. There is no recording, no motion detection and no rendering of a camera picture onto a screen; those need a client mod or a resource pack.
• No camera heads or decorative models. See above: that is exactly what killed the plugin this one replaces.
• One monitor shows up to 54 cameras.

Development note

This plugin was developed with AI assistance (human-led: requirements, testing and release decisions by the maintainer). It is tested on live Paper servers before every release — the run for 0.1.0 asserted 44 runtime properties against the shipped classes on Paper 1.21.11, 26.2 and 26.3, alongside 15 other plugins, with zero errors.

MIT licensed.

---

Human-led development: a human maintainer directs, tests and takes responsibility for every release; AI is used as a development tool (disclosed per Modrinth policy). The icon is hand-made geometric artwork, not AI-generated.