CommandAPI

A Bukkit/Spigot API to use the command UI introduced in Minecraft 1.13

Support and Project Discussion:

• Discord
• Spigot page
• Modrinth page
• Hangar page

Downloads & Documentation:

• All downloads
• Documentation (includes usage for server owners!)

Other

• Buy me a coffee

Compatible Minecraft versions:

The list of what version of the CommandAPI you’ll need to run on a specific version of Minecraft is as follows:

Purpose

This project provides an API to help Bukkit/Spigot developers use the Minecraft 1.13 command UI, which includes:

• Better commands - Prevent players from running invalid commands, making it easier for developers - you won’t get dodgy input!

  

• Better arguments - Choose from over 50 arguments including location arguments, raw JSON, enchantments, lists, particles… all fully supported with built-in error checking!

  

• Support for proxied command senders - Run your command as other entities using /execute as ... run command

  

• Argument tooltips - Let your users know exactly what their command will do using argument tooltips

  

• Support for the /execute command - Let your command to be executed by the built in /execute command, as well as command blocks!

• Support for Minecraft’s functions - Allow your command to be executed from Minecraft’s functions and tags

• No plugin.yml registration - Commands don’t need to be registered in the plugin.yml file anymore

• No need for Brigadier - You don’t need to import Brigadier in your projects to use the CommandAPI

• No tracking - The CommandAPI doesn’t collect any stats about its plugin; what you see is what you get!

Still not convinced? In addition to all of the above, the CommandAPI also provides:

• Built-in command converter - Convert other plugin commands into /execute-compatible ones - no code required!
• Tree-structure command registration - Like Brigadier’s code format? We’ve got you covered with CommandTree
• Kotlin DSL - Prefer writing plugins in Kotlin? The CommandAPI has an optional Kotlin DSL just for you
• Powerful suggestion generation - Generate new suggestions for each argument, or add to existing suggestions
• Safe suggestion generation - The CommandAPI offers compile-time type safety for specific arguments
• Precise permission support - Apply permissions to specific arguments - you need perms to even see the argument
• Fast updates - Consistently supports new Minecraft versions within a week of their release
• Insanely detailed documentation - Trust me, you’ve never seen a plugin documentation look so good.

Code examples

new CommandAPICommand("enchantitem")
    .withArguments(new EnchantmentArgument("enchantment"))
    .withArguments(new IntegerArgument("level", 1, 5))
    .executesPlayer((player, args) -> {
        Enchantment enchantment = (Enchantment) args.get("enchantment");
        int level = (int) args.get("level");
        
        //Add the enchantment
        player.getInventory().getItemInMainHand().addEnchantment(enchantment, level);
    })
    .register();

List<Argument<?>> arguments = new ArrayList<>();
arguments.add(new EntitySelectorArgument.OnePlayer("target"));
arguments.add(new PotionEffectArgument("potioneffect").replaceSafeSuggestions(SafeSuggestions.suggest(info -> {
    Player target = (Player) info.previousArgs().get("target");

    //Convert PotionEffect[] into PotionEffectType[]
    return target.getActivePotionEffects().stream()
            .map(PotionEffect::getType)
            .toList().toArray(new PotionEffectType[0]);
})));

new CommandAPICommand("removeeffect")
    .withArguments(arguments)
    .executesPlayer((sender, args) -> {
        Player player = (Player) args.get("target");
        PotionEffectType effect = (PotionEffectType) args.get("potioneffect");
        player.removePotionEffect(effect);
    })
    .register();

new CommandAPICommand("perm")
    .withSubcommand(new CommandAPICommand("group")
        .withSubcommand(new CommandAPICommand("add")
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("permission"))
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("groupName"))
            .executes((sender, args) -> {
                //perm group add code
            })
        )
        .withSubcommand(new CommandAPICommand("remove")
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("permission"))
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("groupName"))
            .executes((sender, args) -> {
                //perm group remove code
            })
        )
    )
    .withSubcommand(new CommandAPICommand("user")
        .withSubcommand(new CommandAPICommand("add")
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("permission"))
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("userName"))
            .executes((sender, args) -> {
                //perm user add code
            })
        )
        .withSubcommand(new CommandAPICommand("remove")
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("permission"))
            .withArguments(new StringArgument("userName"))
            .executes((sender, args) -> {
                //perm user remove code
            })
        )
    )
    .register();

new CommandTree("perm")
    .then(new MultiLiteralArgument("group", "user")
        .then(new MultiLiteralArgument("add", "remove")
            .then(new StringArgument("permission")
                .then(new StringArgument("groupName")
                    .executes((sender, args) -> {
                        // args = ["group" or "user", "add" or "remove", permission, groupName]
                    })
                )
            )
        )
    )
    .register();

@Command("warp")
public class WarpCommand {
    
    // List of warp names and their locations
    static Map<String, Location> warps = new HashMap<>();
    
    @Default
    public static void warp(CommandSender sender) {
        sender.sendMessage("--- Warp help ---");
        sender.sendMessage("/warp - Show this help");
        sender.sendMessage("/warp <warp> - Teleport to <warp>");
        sender.sendMessage("/warp create <warpname> - Creates a warp at your current location");
    }
    
    @Default
    public static void warp(Player player, @AStringArgument String warpName) {
        player.teleport(warps.get(warpName));
    }
    
    @Subcommand("create")
    @Permission("warps.create")
    public static void createWarp(Player player, @AStringArgument String warpName) {
        warps.put(warpName, player.getLocation());
    }
    
}

commandAPICommand("mute") {
    playerArgument("target")
    integerArgument("duration")
    playerExecutor { player, args ->
        val target: Player = args["target"]!!
        val duration: Int = args["duration"]!!
        // Implementation...
    }
}

commandTree("mute") {
    playerArgument("target") {
        integerArgument("duration") {
            playerExecutor { player, args ->
                val target: Player = args["target"]!!
                val duration: Int = args["duration"]!!
            }
        }
        playerExecutor { player, args -> 
            val target: Player = args["target"]!!
            // Some default duration
            // Implementation...
        }
    }
}

plugins-to-convert:
  - Essentials:
    - speed <speed>[0..10]
    - speed <target>[minecraft:game_profile]
    - speed (walk|fly) <speed>[0..10]
    - speed (walk|fly) <speed>[0..10] <target>[minecraft:game_profile]

Building the CommandAPI

The CommandAPI is built using the Maven build tool - if you don’t have it, you can download it here.

• Clone the repository using your preferred method, or with the command below:

  git clone https://github.com/CommandAPI/CommandAPI.git
  

• For the Paper implementation, the CommandAPI uses dependencies that are not published on any repository. To compile the CommandAPI run this command to setup the required dependencies:

  ./setupPaperNMS.sh
  

• Run mvn clean install -P Platform.Bukkit,Platform.Velocity

Notable artifacts can be found here:

• Paper Plugin .jar:

  commandapi-platforms/commandapi-paper/commandapi-paper-plugin/target/CommandAPI-X.X.X_DATE.jar
  

• Spigot Plugin .jar:

  commandapi-platforms/commandapi-spigot/commandapi-spigot-plugin/target/CommandAPI-X.X.X_DATE.jar
  

• Velocity Plugin .jar:

  commandapi-platforms/commandapi-velocity/commandapi-velocity-plugin/target/CommandAPI-X.X.X_DATE.jar
  

CommandAPI Project Timeline

This is the current roadmap for the CommandAPI (as of 3rd October 2025):

• Annotation improvements

  The CommandAPI’s annotation system has always been a bit limited and was primarily introduced as a proof-of-concept. In this update, the CommandAPI’s annotation system will be improved to be (ideally) as powerful as the non-annotation system and have slightly better type safety, support for non-static methods and better checks to prevent invalid command generation. More information about annotations can be found in the Annotation specification document.

• Argument conflict detection

  The CommandAPI simply uses the Brigadier system under the hood. This system is prone to argument conflicts, which is where certain arguments are given priority over other arguments. (For example “hello” and “123” are both valid string arguments, but if you have a command that has a string argument or an integer argument, Brigadier may ignore the integer argument). In this update, the CommandAPI will try to spot potential conflicts and add a warning in the console.

• ‘True’ custom arguments and server-side argument implementations

  Through some brief testing of the regex-mod branch and my MinecraftRegexArgumentMod repository, it was discovered that ‘true’ custom arguments (arguments with a custom implementation of the returned type and parser) are possible with the aid of a client-sided mod. Additionally, this functionality also works without a client-sided mod, assuming this is only used server-side. This can be useful for server-only datapacks, functions and tags, as well as command blocks. It is possible that this may lead into being ported to Fabric, but there are no concrete plans to do so as of now.

Changelog