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Players do not need to install anything. The mod is entirely server-side, everything it shows is delivered through the vanilla tab list and vanilla chat. Anyone on a matching Minecraft version can join with a stock client.

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The challenge

Every entity that can be killed counts exactly once toward your total. On 26.2 that's 87 mobs with the default settings.

Three mobs are excluded out of the box, because most servers don't want them blocking a completion:

Ender Dragon · Giant · Illusioner

Change any of that in-game. nothing here is fixed.

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Features

Progress tracking

• Unique-mob progress per player, counted once per mob type
• Total mob kills, PvP kills, and deaths with a breakdown of how each player died
• Play time

Tab list integration

• Server name header, plus a #1 <player> leader banner that updates live
• Per-player stats beside each name, progress, deaths, PvP kills, mob kills
• Fully templated with & colour codes and placeholders; every line can be changed or turned off
• Refreshes are event-driven and rate-limited, not polled on a timer

Dimension checklists

• missing splits what's left into Overworld / Nether / End / Other
• Done mobs are greyed out, excluded mobs are struck through, you can see the whole set at once
• Any mob can be moved between groups if your server's progression differs

Leaderboards & announcements

• Top-N closest to finishing, and a separate deaths board
• First-kill announcements: "Steve hunted their first Warden! [61/86]"
• Announce to the whole server, or privately to the player who got the kill

AFK flagging

• Automatic movement-based detection with a configurable threshold
• /nolifetracker afk pins the state manually either way

Built to not lose your data

• A file that fails to parse is moved aside as <name>.corrupt-<timestamp> and defaults are used, rather than taking the server down with it
• Progress lives inside the world save, so each world keeps its own challenge and a world backup carries the stats with it

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Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader 0.19.3+ on your server (Minecraft 26.2, Java 25+).
2. Drop NoLife Tracker and Fabric API into the server's mods/ folder.
3. Start the server.

Config files are generated on first start, fully commented. There is nothing you must configure.

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Commands

Everything is under /nolifetracker. Run it with no arguments for the in-game command list.

Everyone

Command	What it does
/nolifetracker	Show the command list
/nolifetracker <player>	Progress summary for that player
/nolifetracker <player> missing	Mobs they still need, grouped by dimension
/nolifetracker <player> mobs	Every mob they've killed, with counts
/nolifetracker <player> deaths	How they've died
/nolifetracker <player> kills	Who they've killed
/nolifetracker missing	Shortcut for your own checklist
/nolifetracker afk	Toggle your own AFK flag
/nolifetracker leaderboard	Closest to finishing
/nolifetracker leaderboard deaths	Ranked by deaths

Moderators (permission level 2)

Command	What it does
/nolifetracker audit	Report anything that could make the mob list wrong

Admins (permission level 3)

Command	What it does
/nolifetracker exclude <mob> <true|false>	Stop or resume counting a mob
/nolifetracker editMob <mob> <dimension>	Move a mob to another dimension group
/nolifetracker editMob <mob> clear	Remove a dimension override
/nolifetracker config	Show every setting and its current value
/nolifetracker config <setting> <value>	Change a setting in-game, written straight to disk
/nolifetracker reload	Re-read config from disk and rebuild the mob list

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Configuration

Everything lives in config/nolifetracker/config.json, and every setting is also reachable through /nolifetracker config changes made in-game are written back to the file immediately, so the two can never drift apart.

All settings, defaults and valid ranges

Tab list

Setting	Default	Meaning
tabHeader	&a&l! Minecraft SMP !	Text above the tab list, your server name line
showTopPlayerInTabList	true	Add the leader banner underneath the header
topPlayerLine	&6&l#1 &e%player% …	The #1 <player> banner. Hidden while nobody has killed anything
tabFooter	(empty)	Text below the tab list. Empty hides it
tabNameSuffix	&6[%kills%/%total%] …	Stats beside each player's name. Empty shows names alone
afkSuffix	&7&o[AFK]	Marker added for an AFK player
tabUpdateSeconds	5	Smallest gap between refreshes (1–3600)

Announcements

Setting	Default	Meaning
announceFirstKills	true	Announce the first time a player kills each mob
globalMobKillAnnouncement	false	true tells the whole server, false only the player
announceNonChallengeKills	true	Also announce mobs outside the challenge

AFK

Setting	Default	Meaning
afkTrackingEnabled	true	Automatic movement-based detection
afkThresholdSeconds	120	Idle time before flagging (10–86400)

Other

Setting	Default	Meaning
leaderboardSize	10	Rows shown by leaderboard (1–100)
autoSaveMinutes	5	How often progress is flushed to disk (1–1440)
forceIncludeMobs	10 mobs	Mobs to count that Minecraft files as non-spawning

Out-of-range values are clamped rather than rejected, so a hand-edited config can never wedge the server.

Text formatting and placeholders

& codes set colour and style: &a green, &6 gold, &c red, &7 grey, &l bold, &o italic, &n underline, &m strikethrough, &r reset. A line break inside a JSON string is written \n.

In tabHeader, topPlayerLine and tabFooter

Placeholder	Value
%player%	Name of the player with the most unique mob kills
%kills%	That player's unique challenge kills
%total%	Number of mobs in the challenge
%online%	Players currently online
%max%	Player slots on the server

In tabNameSuffix rendered per player, beside their own name

Placeholder	Value
%kills%	That player's unique challenge kills
%total%	Number of mobs in the challenge
%deaths%	Times they have died
%pvpkills%	Players they have killed
%mobkills%	Mobs they have killed in total, repeats included

The other config files

File	Purpose
excluded_mobs.json	Mobs left out of the challenge. Edit with /nolifetracker exclude
dimension_overrides.json	Which group a mob is listed under. Cosmetic only — it never removes a mob from the challenge
challenge_mobs.json	Generated, not read. Rewritten every start with the resolved mob list, so you can see the challenge set instead of guessing at it

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How the mob list is decided

This is the part worth understanding,

The list is rebuilt from the entity registry at every server start, using Minecraft's own SpawnGroup classification. Everything that isn't a living mob like arrows, boats, minecarts, item frames, TNT, displays, experience orbs. is filed by vanilla under MISC; everything else falls into one of the living categories. That's a stable property of the game, so new mobs are picked up on their own.

A handful of genuine mobs are also MISC, because they're built or summoned rather than spawned: the golems, bosses, the summon-only horses, and villagers. Those are listed explicitly in forceIncludeMobs.

Because "did I miss a mob?" is nearly impossible to answer by eye, there are two safety nets:

1. Every start logs exactly what changed.

[nolifetracker] Challenge set: 86 mobs (2 added, 0 removed since last start).
[nolifetracker]   now counted: minecraft:foo, minecraft:bar

2. /nolifetracker audit reports every MISC entity the classifier couldn't place.

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Things worth knowing

Kill attribution is strict. A kill counts when the player deals the killing blow. A mob finished off by your tamed wolf, an iron golem, or fall damage after a knockback does not count. This is deliberate. So it's worth telling your players up front.

AFK detection is position-based. Standing still while mining, fishing, or looking around will eventually flag you as AFK. /nolifetracker afk pins the state either way until you toggle it back.

Play time comes from vanilla statistics, not a separate timer, so it survives crashes and restarts.

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Data and upgrading

Progress is stored in <world>/nolifetracker/player_stats.json inside the world save, not the server directory. Each world keeps its own challenge, and a world backup carries the stats with it.

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