Set up ChangeSkinX on your Minecraft server

ChangeSkinX lets players change their own skin with a command. It fetches the chosen skin from Mojang, so players can pick any skin another Minecraft account currently wears, and you can set a default skin for players who still have Steve or Alex.

Checked against ChangeSkinX v3.2, the newest file on its Bukkit page, uploaded 21 December 2022 for Minecraft 1.19.3, October 2026.

Read this first

The plugin has not had a release since December 2022. The project's own plugin.yml lists ProtocolLib as a required dependency, with the note "Without ProtocolLib the plugin does not work at all", and the ProtocolLib page on Hangar lists Paper versions up to 1.21.8. Its newest release is listed for Minecraft 1.19.3, and nothing we opened says it was tested on a newer version, so treat it as untested on yours. Take a backup in the Backups tab and have a restore point ready before you tell players about it.

What you need

• A Paper or Purpur server. The project lists Spigot 1.8.8 or newer, and any fork of it.
• ProtocolLib installed first.
• Java 8 or newer. Our panel selects the Java version for you.

Install it

1. Open the Plugins tab, pick the Hangar button, search for ProtocolLib and click Install.
2. Download the jar from the plugin's Bukkit page and upload it to the plugins folder in the File Manager with Upload.
3. Restart from the Console tab.
4. Type plugins in the Console and check that both ProtocolLib and ChangeSkin are listed with no errors (the project is called ChangeSkinX on Bukkit, but its plugin.yml name is ChangeSkin).

Install Minecraft plugins on Paper or Purpur covers the upload route and the Installed view.

Commands players use

• /setskin <playerName> or /setskin <uuid> sets your own skin to match that account.
• /setskin <onlinePlayer> <newSkinUUID/newSkinPlayerName> sets another online player's skin.
• /skinupdate throws away the stored copy and fetches a fresh skin from Mojang.

The project's source also lists /skin, /set-skin and /changeskin as aliases of /setskin.

Permissions

• changeskin.command.setskin lets a player set their own skin.
• changeskin.command.setskin.other lets them set other players' skins.
• changeskin.command.setskin.* covers every setskin permission.
• changeskin.command.skinupdate allows /skinupdate.

To limit which skins can be chosen, the whitelist node changeskin.skin.whitelist.<uuid> allows one skin and changeskin.skin.whitelist.* allows all. Grant them through a permissions plugin.

Config

The plugin saves its config to plugins/ChangeSkin/config.yml the first time it loads. Stop the server before you edit. The default config.yml inside the v3.2 jar includes these keys:

• default-skins is a list of skin UUIDs given to players with no skin. It is empty by default.
• skinPermission makes the plugin check the whitelist permissions above. It is false by default.
• cooldown is the seconds a player waits between changes. It is 0 by default.
• instantSkinChange applies a new skin without a re-login, and is true by default.
• storage defaults to a single SQLite file named ChangeSkin.db in the plugin's folder.

Common problems

• The plugin is disabled on start. Read the Console. A missing ProtocolLib stops the plugin loading, because its plugin.yml lists ProtocolLib as a required dependency.
• A skin looks out of date. Run /skinupdate to fetch a fresh copy from Mojang.
• Mojang rate limits. The plugin caches skins to reduce them, and the default config in the v3.2 jar has a mojang-request-limit key for the same purpose.