Add chat prefixes with LuckPerms

A chat prefix is the tag in front of a name, such as the gold [Owner] in [Owner] Steve: hello. LuckPerms stores prefixes for your ranks, but it does not draw them in chat. You need a chat plugin that reads them through Vault. This guide uses EssentialsX Chat.

Checked against LuckPerms 5.5.88, the build the project's own download page lists, and EssentialsX Chat 2.22.0 on Paper 26.1.2, October 2026. The Plugins tab currently installs LuckPerms 5.5.71, the newest Bukkit build on Modrinth.

What you need

• A Paper or Purpur server with LuckPerms installed and a first group made. Start with Set up LuckPerms on your Minecraft server if you have not.
• Vault, the bridge that lets chat plugins read LuckPerms. See Set up Vault on your Minecraft server.
• EssentialsX and its Chat module. The EssentialsX wiki says Chat needs Vault and LuckPerms to give players prefixes and suffixes.

Install EssentialsX Chat

EssentialsX Chat is a module that sits on top of the main EssentialsX plugin. Modrinth lists it as its own project.

1. Open Plugins in the Content group of the left rail.
2. With the Modrinth button selected, search EssentialsX Chat and click Install.
3. If a prompt says it needs EssentialsX, choose Install all so the main plugin comes too. Set EssentialsX up afterwards with Set up EssentialsX on your Minecraft server.
4. Restart from the Console tab (use Start there if the server is stopped).

Use the same version for every EssentialsX jar. The project warns that a mismatch causes errors. For more on the module, see Format chat with EssentialsX Chat on Minecraft.

Set the prefixes

Run these in the Console tab, without a leading slash. Each prefix has a weight, and the highest weight wins when a player has more than one.

lp creategroup helper
lp creategroup owner
lp group owner parent add helper
lp group owner meta addprefix 80 "&6[Owner] "
lp group helper meta addprefix 60 "&a[Helper] "

Wrap the prefix in quotes so the trailing space survives. The &6 and &a are colour codes. To replace the owner prefix, remove it by weight and add it again:

lp group owner meta removeprefix 80

lp user Steve meta info lists every prefix a player has and inherits, in weight order.

Show them in chat

Open plugins/Essentials/config.yml in the File Manager, find the chat: section and its format line. The shipped line is:

format: '<{DISPLAYNAME}> {MESSAGE}'

The {DISPLAYNAME} placeholder already includes the prefix and suffix, so this default shows your LuckPerms prefixes with no change. If you want the layout from the project's own example, replace that line with the one below. In the file it is one of the commented-out examples a few lines below the default, a line starting with #format:, so remove the # or paste it over the default. Keep only one active format line.

format: '&7{PREFIX}&r {NICKNAME}&r &7{SUFFIX}&r: {MESSAGE}'

Save, then restart. Do not use {DISPLAYNAME} and {PREFIX} together, or players may get the prefix twice.

Run vault-info in the Console. The output should show LuckPerms as the source of chat data.

Common problems

• No prefix at all. Check lp user Steve meta info first. If it lists one, the chat plugin is the issue; confirm Chat is loaded with plugins.
• Wrong prefix wins. The higher weight is used. Give the rank you want shown the larger number.
• Chat looks unchanged after install. EssentialsX flags chat-signing bypass plugins such as AntiPopup, NoChatReports and NoEncryption as able to break EssentialsX Chat. Remove them and test again.