Set up MineTinker on your Minecraft server

MineTinker is a plugin inspired by the Tinker's Construct mod. Tools and armour gain experience as players use them, level up and take modifiers such as Auto-Smelt, Haste or Luck. It runs only on the server, so players join with a normal copy of Minecraft.

Checked against MineTinker 2.0 (released January 2025), October 2026. Its Spigot page lists Minecraft 1.21 as the tested version, and no source confirms 2.0 on the Minecraft 26.x releases.

What you need

• A Paper or Purpur server, which shows a Plugins tab under Content in the panel menu.
• A Minecraft version the plugin supports. If the plugin will not load, read the Console error first. Only on a new server with no world yet, switch to a Paper 1.21 build in JAR Manager, as Change your Minecraft version or mod loader shows.
• Nothing else. ProtocolLib is an optional extra that MineTinker uses if it is installed.

MineTinker is not on Modrinth or Hangar. Its latest release, 2.0, is a jar on GitHub, so use the GitHub button, or upload the jar yourself.

Install from GitHub

1. Open the Plugins tab and click GitHub.
2. Type Flo56958/MineTinker and click Look up.
3. On the Release step, check that Version 2.0 is picked. It is the release the wizard picks first. This release has one jar, so the File step is skipped. Go on to Review and click Install. The review step warns that nobody checks files on GitHub. This repository is the plugin author's own.
4. Open Console and click Restart. Plugins load only at startup.

If you would rather upload it, download MineTinker.jar from the same release, open File Manager, go into the plugins folder and click Upload.

First run

On the first start MineTinker creates a plugins/MineTinker folder. The main config.yml holds the core settings, and every modifier gets its own file in a Modifiers folder inside it. Those files are written by the plugin on its first run, so they do not exist until then.

Settings you may want in config.yml:

• LevelStep (100) and LevelFactor (2.0) set how much experience each level needs.
• ExpPerBlockBreak and ExpPerEntityHit (both 1) set how much experience a tool earns.
• EnableLore (true) writes a stat summary onto the item. Set it to false if another plugin also edits item lore.
• Language (en_US) changes the language.

Open File Manager, edit the file and click Save. Then run mt reload in the Console. MineTinker warns that it may not work correctly after a reload and recommends restarting the server, so restart if anything looks wrong.

Using it in game

• /mt mods lists the modifiers with what each one does. The plugin's page points players there for the documentation.
• Players add a modifier in an anvil, with the tool in the first slot and the modifier item in the second. The tool is repaired by dragging its material onto it.
• /mt info and /mt name are open to every player. Staff commands such as /mt give, /mt addmodifier and /mt reload are operator-only by default.
• /mt editconfig opens a settings editor in game, and /mt help lists the commands.

The author balanced the plugin for PvE. For PvP servers, you need to balance it yourself through the config.

Common problems

• It will not load. Read the Console at startup for the error, and compare your server's version with the version note above.
• Crafting or anvil changes do nothing. Plugins that change items or enchants can clash. The Spigot page lists MobHunting, EnchantmentAPI and Vanilla Additions as known conflicts, and says EssentialsX kits break MineTinker items.
• Item lore is overwritten. Set EnableLore to false.
• Back up first. The Spigot page warns that tools and saves can be corrupted with future builds. Use Backups before updating.