Set up GroupManager on your Minecraft server

GroupManager is an older permissions plugin for Bukkit-based servers. You define groups, let them inherit from each other and put players in them, and it keeps separate files for each world. This guide installs it on Paper or Purpur and covers the commands you will use first.

Checked against GroupManager 3.2 and its own documentation, October 2026. Its Spigot page lists testing up to Minecraft 1.21, and it loads on Paper 26.3.

Before you pick it

GroupManager works, but it is not the usual choice today. The newest release on GitHub is 3.2 from August 2023, and the EssentialsX plugin lists GroupManager as an unsupported permissions plugin and recommends LuckPerms. If you are starting fresh, Set up LuckPerms on your Minecraft server is the safer route. LuckPerms can also import GroupManager data later. Run only one permissions plugin at a time.

Install it

GroupManager is not on Modrinth or Hangar, so use the GitHub button.

1. Open Plugins in the Content group of the left rail and click GitHub. The button shows only if you have file access to the server.
2. Type ElgarL/GroupManager, click Look up, then Next.
3. Pick release v3.2 and click Next to reach the Review step, then click Install. A release with several jars adds a File step first, where you pick the jar. If the server has no recent backup, a No backup yet window opens first: click Install GroupManager anyway, or click Go to Backups to take one.
4. Open the Console tab and press Restart, or Start if the server is stopped.

Or download GroupManager.jar from the project's release page and upload it to plugins with the File Manager. The first start writes the config files.

What it creates

The files sit in plugins/GroupManager:

• config.yml for general settings and world mirroring
• globalgroups.yml for permission sets shared between worlds
• worlds/<world>/groups.yml and users.yml for the groups and players of each world

The generated groups.yml has Admin, Builder, Default, Moderator and Owner groups. New players join the one marked default: true, and there can be only one.

Make yourself the owner

Run this in the Console, with your player name and no leading slash:

manuadd YourName Owner

Everyday commands

The names follow man + user or group + action.

A minus sign in front of a permission negates it, and * is a wildcard.

Editing the files by hand

Run manload after you save a manual change. The project warns that GroupManager overwrites its config files on reload, so a change you have not loaded can be lost. It also calls the in-game commands simpler and safer than editing the files. YAML needs spaces for indents, never tabs. If commands fail with an error after manload, restart the server.

Common problems

• Commands act on the wrong world. manworld shows the world you are working with, manselect <world> changes it and manclear resets it.
• A rarely seen player lost their rank. The config.yml purge removes users who have not logged in for 90 days. Set a user's lastplayed to 0 to protect them.
• Prefixes do not appear in chat. GroupManager stores the prefix and suffix variables but does not draw them in chat. A chat plugin has to display them.