Set up Citizens on your Minecraft server

Citizens adds NPCs to your server: characters that the server controls. The author lists conversations, click-commands, player statues, looking around and waypoints, and add-ons such as Sentinel for guards, Denizen for scripting and NPC shops build on it. An NPC can be any entity type, and it is a player unless you say otherwise.

Checked against Citizens 2.0.44 (build for Minecraft 26.3) on Paper 26.3, October 2026.

Where to get it

Citizens is published on SpigotMC as a premium resource, which pays for development. The author says the same versions are free to download from the project's own build server. Neither place is searched by the store in the Plugins tab, so you download the jar and upload it:

• Paid, from the plugin's SpigotMC page: spigotmc.org/resources/citizens.13811.
• Free, from the build server at ci.citizensnpcs.co, where the jar is named like Citizens-2.0.44-b4266.jar.

What it needs

• A server that loads plugins. You need a Plugins tab, so Paper or Purpur. The author lists Citizens as a plugin for Paper and Spigot.
• A Minecraft version the build supports. The SpigotMC page lists 26.3, 26.2 and 26.1 for the 2.0.44 release. Each Minecraft release needs its own update, and if the version is not compatible the plugin switches itself off and prints a severe message. Choose your version in JAR Manager (Change Minecraft server version or loader). The panel picks Java 25 for 26.x servers.
• Optional plugins. Citizens lists Vault, PlaceholderAPI, WorldGuard, packetevents and Denizen as soft dependencies. It runs without them.

Install it

1. Open the Backups tab and click Create backup. The author asks you to back up your worlds, Citizens data and server data before upgrading.
2. Open File Manager, open the plugins folder and click Upload files. Choose the jar.
3. Open the Console tab and click Restart.
4. A Citizens folder appears in plugins, with config.yml and saves.yml in it.

Create your first NPC

Make yourself an operator with Operators in the Players tab (Whitelist players and set operators). Most Citizens commands are operator-only by default. Join the server and stand where you want the NPC:

• /npc create Guide creates an NPC named Guide. Its type is a player unless you add --type.
• /npc select <id or name> chooses an NPC to edit, and /npc sel is the short form. The commands below apply to the selected NPC.
• /npc rename <name> renames it, and /npc skin <name> gives it a player's skin.
• /npc command add <command> runs a command when a player clicks the NPC.
• /npc lookclose makes it turn to look at nearby players.
• /npc tp teleports you to it, /npc despawn despawns it and /npc spawn spawns it again.
• /npc list lists NPCs, and /npc remove deletes one.

Files and reloads

Citizens writes config.yml for settings, saves.yml for the NPCs themselves, shops.yml for NPC shops, and templates and skins folders. Open them in File Manager. After editing config.yml, run /citizens reload. By default the first reload only prints a warning, and you run the command again within five seconds to go ahead. /citizens save saves the NPCs. Both commands need the citizens.admin permission.

Permissions

Each command has its own permission, such as citizens.npc.create, and most of them default to operators (the citizens.npc.limit.* nodes and a few safety overrides default to nobody). Grant the ones you need in your permissions plugin (Set up LuckPerms). Do not hand out citizens.admin to players you do not trust, because it covers reload and save.

Common problems

• Citizens turns itself off at start-up. Its build does not match your Minecraft version. Open Download Log in the Console tab, find the Citizens message and compare the version with the SpigotMC page.
• A player cannot use /npc. Most Citizens permissions default to operators, so a player needs the ones you want them to have granted in your permissions plugin.
• /citizens reload does nothing the first time. That is the reload warning. Run it again within five seconds.