Tools & Reference
Kitchen tools, commands, permissions and every setting in config.yml.
Everything you can run, every permission, and every setting, all on one page.
Kitchen tools
Check
/lightning check reads the config files of every plugin on your server, in the background, and points out formatting that will never work:
- Typos in tags.
<gradiant:red:gold>gets "did you mean<gradient>?" Only near misses are flagged, so usage lines like/home <name>are left alone. - Missing sparks.
<spark:prefx>gets "there's no spark called 'prefx'". - Leftover
&codes. Counted per file, with a pointer to/lightning convert.
Each finding shows the file and line. Hover it to see the line itself, click it to copy where it is. Up to 12 show in chat, and the full list goes to plugins/Lightning/check.txt. Use /lightning check Essentials to check just one plugin.
Convert
/lightning convert <plugin> rewrites a plugin's old & color codes as MiniMessage. With Lightning charging that plugin's text, its configs become MiniMessage configs, gradients and all, even though the plugin only ever understood &.
Preview it. /lightning convert Essentials shows how many lines would change. Hover Examples to see a few lines before and after. Nothing is written yet.
Confirm it. Click Convert, or run /lightning convert Essentials confirm. Every file that changes is backed up to plugins/Lightning/backups/ first.
| Old code | Becomes |
|---|---|
&c | <red>, or <reset><red> after bold and similar, matching how old colors cleared formatting |
&l &o &n &m &k | <bold> <italic> <underlined> <strikethrough> <obfuscated> |
&r | <reset> |
&#FF5500, &x&F&F&5&5&0&0 | <#ff5500> |
§ codes | The same as & |
Careful by design
Convert leaves links alone (https://site.com/?a=1&b=2), keeps accents and other languages intact, and refuses to touch Lightning's own folder.
Parse, inspect and debug
/lightning parse <text>charges text for you exactly like a real message, bolts included. It's the fastest way to preview a line./lightning inspectshows where every message you receive comes from. See Inspect./lightning debugexplains in the console what Lightning skips and why, until the next reload. No config edit needed.
Commands
All commands need lightning.admin, and /lt works as a shortcut.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
/lightning reload | Reloads config.yml and everything in sparks/, rewires/ and commands/ |
/lightning parse [surface] <text> | Shows exactly what players would see. Put a surface first, like kicks, to test rewires meant for it. \n is a line break |
/lightning sparks | Lists every loaded spark |
/lightning inspect [surface] | Shows where messages come from, on any surface |
/lightning check [plugin] | Finds formatting that will never work |
/lightning convert <plugin> [confirm] | Turns & codes into MiniMessage, with a backup |
/lightning debug | Logs what Lightning skips and why |
Permissions
| Permission | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
lightning.admin | op | Every /lightning command |
lightning.trusted | op | Guard never holds back what this player types |
lightning.bypass | Nobody | Skips cooldowns and limits on custom commands |
config.yml
Every key is a single word, nested only where things belong together.
| Key | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
detect | smart | smart charges any text holding a real tag. marker only charges text containing <charge> |
surfaces.<name> | Mostly true | Turns a surface on or off. Off means Lightning never even looks |
placeholders | true | Fills in %placeholders% inside charged text |
guard | 10m | How long Guard remembers what players type. 0 turns it off |
pulse | 1s | How often animated lines refresh. 0 turns Pulse off |
center | 154 | The middle of the chat box in pixels, used by <center> |
timezone | server | Time zone for <clock>, like Europe/London |
cache | 4096 | How many charged texts are kept ready. 0 turns the cache off |
items.italics | false | Keeps the italics Minecraft adds to renamed items and lore |
faces.fallback | <gray>☺</gray> | Shown instead of a face on servers older than 1.21.9 |
faces.shadow | false | Text shadow makes faces look dark in the tab list. true brings it back |
debug | false | Logs anything Lightning skips and why |
messages.* | Lightning's own messages, in MiniMessage. <prefix> inserts messages.prefix |
PlaceholderAPI
When it's installed and placeholders is on, %placeholders% in charged text fill in for whoever is reading.
- Placeholders fill in before tags, so they can feed sparks and formulas.
- Expansions that answer with
§colors are converted to tags automatically. - Text with placeholders is never cached, since it changes per player.
Placeholders run off the main thread
Lightning handles packets off the main thread, so placeholders resolve there too. Most expansions are perfectly fine with that. If one misbehaves, the expansion is the place to look.
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