Minecraft Server Management Protocol Legacy Support

Adds a Minecraft Server Management Protocol endpoint to server software that does not provide Mojang's native implementation.

The Minecraft Server Management Protocol is the newer management API for Minecraft servers. It exposes server information and management actions through JSON-RPC over WebSocket, instead of relying on older mechanisms such as server-list ping or RCON. This plugin brings that protocol shape to older server versions and proxy environments so external tools can speak one management protocol across mixed infrastructure.

What it provides

• A WebSocket endpoint for Minecraft Server Management Protocol clients.
• JSON-RPC request and response handling compatible with the protocol model documented on the Minecraft Wiki.
• Discovery through rpc.discover, so clients can inspect which methods are available.
• Server/proxy status support, including online player list and version information.
• Management operations for Bukkit-based servers, including players, allowlist, bans, operators, selected server settings, gamerules, save, stop, and system messages.
• Proxy management operations for Velocity and BungeeCord, including players, kick, status, stop, and system messages.
• Authentication by shared secret, with browser-origin checks for WebSocket subprotocol authentication.
• Optional TLS using a PKCS12 keystore.

Reference: https://minecraft.wiki/w/Minecraft_Server_Management_Protocol

Platform Status

Platform	Status
Spigot / Paper	Main supported runtime. Built against the Spigot 1.8.8 API for legacy compatibility.
Velocity	Proxy runtime support for discovery, players, kick, proxy status, proxy stop, system messages, and proxy/player notifications.
BungeeCord	Proxy runtime support for discovery, players, kick, proxy status, proxy stop, system messages, and proxy/player notifications.

For legacy SpaceChunks usage, install the Spigot/Paper build on the backend server when you need live server status and online player counts from old Minecraft versions.

Supported Methods

Method group	Spigot / Paper	Velocity	BungeeCord
rpc.discover	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:players	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:players/kick	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:server/status	yes	yes, proxy status	yes, proxy status
minecraft:server/stop	yes	yes, stops proxy	yes, stops proxy
minecraft:server/system_message	yes	yes, proxy players	yes, proxy players
minecraft:server/save	yes	no	no
minecraft:allowlist/*	yes	no	no
minecraft:bans/*	yes	no	no
minecraft:ip_bans/*	yes	no	no
minecraft:operators/*	yes	no	no
minecraft:serversettings/*	partial	no	no
minecraft:gamerules/*	yes	no	no

Spigot/Paper server settings are limited to APIs available through the Spigot 1.8.8 API. Implemented settings are autosave, difficulty, use_allowlist, player_idle_timeout, allow_flight read-only, motd read-only, spawn_protection_radius, game_mode, and view_distance read-only.

Supported Notifications

Notification group	Spigot / Paper	Velocity	BungeeCord
minecraft:notification/server/started	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:notification/server/stopping	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:notification/server/status	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:notification/server/activity	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:notification/players/joined	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:notification/players/left	yes	yes	yes
minecraft:notification/server/saving	yes	no	no
minecraft:notification/server/saved	yes	no	no
minecraft:notification/allowlist/*	management API changes only	no	no
minecraft:notification/bans/*	management API changes only	no	no
minecraft:notification/ip_bans/*	management API changes only	no	no
minecraft:notification/operators/*	management API changes only	no	no
minecraft:notification/gamerules/*	management API changes only	no	no

Configuration

The service is disabled by default. Enable it only after setting a secret and deciding where it should listen.

Spigot/Paper uses plugins/MinecraftServerManagementProtocolLegacySupport/config.yml:

management-server-enabled: true
management-server-host: localhost
management-server-port: 25585
management-server-secret: 'replaceWithExactly40AlphaNumericCharacters'
management-server-allowed-origins: ''
management-server-tls-enabled: false
management-server-tls-keystore: ''
management-server-tls-keystore-password: ''

Velocity and BungeeCord create management-server.properties in the plugin data folder with the same setting names.

Settings

• management-server-enabled: Starts or disables the management endpoint.
• management-server-host: Interface to bind. Use localhost when only local tooling or a reverse proxy should connect.
• management-server-port: Port for the WebSocket server. Use a fixed port for production.
• management-server-secret: Required shared secret. It must be exactly 40 alphanumeric characters.
• management-server-allowed-origins: Comma-separated list of allowed browser origins when authenticating through Sec-WebSocket-Protocol.
• management-server-tls-enabled: Enables wss://. Requires a valid keystore.
• management-server-tls-keystore: Path to a PKCS12 keystore.
• management-server-tls-keystore-password: Keystore password. It can also be supplied through MINECRAFT_MANAGEMENT_TLS_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD or the JVM property management.tls.keystore.password.

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE.