Tutorials/Setting up a Spigot server

Note: If you are trying to set up a vanilla server, you are on the wrong page. This is to set up the modded server SpigotMC or the dwindling Bukkit. If you want to install an unmodified ("Vanilla") Minecraft Server, please refer to Tutorials/Setting up a server.

So, you have been using the vanilla server for two weeks, and things have been getting boring. You want a server with more customization features to use, and an easy to setup and use interface. You want Spigot. This page will show you how to easily set up a server and have your friends come on, and a list of must-have plugins, or mods used on a server. Spigot is updated for full 1.12.X functionality.

Please note that this guide only covers Windows machines. If you are running macOS or Linux, please read this tutorial.

Obtaining the files
First, download the latest BuildToolsGUI.exe from here. To use this program, you must have .NET 4.5 installed. If you have used your computer for a while, you probably already have it. If not, grab the installer here.

Preparing the server
Now that we have BuildToolsGUI, we are ready to start. Open the BuildToolsGUI.exe file, and if you wish, change the version with the drop-down menu. Click "Run BuildTools". It will start running, and you can wait a bit until it has finished running. Note that this may take a while, depending on your connection and your computer. Once it is done running, open the BuildTools folder created in the same directory as the executable. Next, create a folder on your desktop named "Spigot". Copy the file "spigot-1.x.x" to the Spigot folder, and rename it to spigot. Next, open a text editor such as Notepad, and paste the following code in:

JAVA -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar spigot.jar

In your text editor, select File > Save As, and navigate to the Spigot directory. Change the name of the file to run.bat.

Starting the server for the first time
Congratulations! Your server is now up and running. To connect to it, open the version of Minecraft your server is on, click Multiplayer, then Direct Connect, and type in localhost as the server IP. You should connect to the world that was generated a moment ago. Now you can start to customize your server with the various options included and plugins that you can download.
 * Double-click your run.bat in the Spigot directory. A command prompt window will open briefly, then close.
 * Open eula.txt in the Spigot directory, and change eula=false to eula=true.
 * Double-click run.bat again to start the server. Some new files will be created in the Spigot directory.

Customizing your server
With the Command Window still open, type op  and hit Enter. You are now an operator and have privileges to execute commands on the server. Another file to play around in is the server.properties file. Open it up with a text editor and play around. There are many guides around the internet that show what these various options do, and one can be found here. When you are done on your server, type stop into the console to stop the server. If you want to add plugins to your server, you can find some here, here, and here. To install a downloaded plugin, place it in the Plugins folder in your Spigot directory. To start your server again, simply double-click run.bat.