Set up TitleManager on Minecraft

TitleManager shows animated titles when players join, adds a header and footer to the player list you see when you hold Tab, can draw a sidebar scoreboard, and sends titles and action bar messages on command. It runs only on the server, so players install nothing.

Checked against TitleManager 3.0.0-alpha.1, a pre-release that targets Minecraft 1.8 to 1.21.11, on Paper, October 2026.

Read this before you install

TitleManager has two lines. The long-standing release, 2.3.6, is on SpigotMC with its last update in December 2021 and a tested list that stops at 1.18. The 3.x line is a rebuild with different, split config files. Its newest versioned release is 3.0.0-alpha.1, marked a pre-release on GitHub, and the project says it currently targets Minecraft 1.8 through 1.21.11. A server on Minecraft 26.x is outside that range. Use the JAR Manager tab to pick a version in range if you want this plugin. Change your Minecraft version or mod loader shows how. Moving to an older version is a large step for a pre-release plugin, so if you only need a join message and want to stay on your current version, choose a plugin that supports it instead.

What you need

• A Paper or Purpur server on Minecraft 1.21.11 or older, which shows a Plugins tab under Content in the panel menu.
• PlaceholderAPI and Vault are optional. See Set up PlaceholderAPI on your Minecraft server for the first.

Install TitleManager

TitleManager's newest Hangar files are hosted on GitHub, and the Plugins tab does not install a Hangar version that is hosted elsewhere. Use the GitHub button instead, which needs the file access permission on the server:

1. Open the Plugins tab and click GitHub.
2. Enter Puharesource/TitleManager, click Look up, then Next.
3. Pick the release listed as 3.0.0-alpha.1, which has the tag v3.0.0-alpha.1 beside it, and click Next. The list opens on the newest stable release, 2.3.6, so change the pick. The release has one jar, TitleManager-3.0.0-alpha.1.jar, so the panel skips the file choice and goes straight to the review step.
4. Click Install.
5. Open Console and click Restart. The server needs a restart before a new plugin loads.

The first start creates plugins/TitleManager. It holds advanced.yml, player-list.yml, welcome-title.yml, welcome-actionbar.yml, scoreboard.yml, gradients.yml, announcer.yml and hooks.yml, plus an animations folder. Run tm version in the Console to confirm it loaded.

Change the join title

Open welcome-title.yml in File Manager:

enabled: true
delayMilliseconds: 1000
title: "Welcome to My Server"
subtitle: "Hope you enjoy your stay"
fadeIn: 20
stay: 40
fadeOut: 20

fadeIn, stay and fadeOut are in ticks, and 20 ticks is one second. delayMilliseconds is in milliseconds and sets how long the plugin waits after the triggering event before it sends the message. A firstJoin block below it holds a separate message for new players. Edit the text, click Save, and run tm reload in the Console. A reload that finds a mistake keeps the old settings running, so a typo does not take the plugin down.

Change the player list header and footer

player-list.yml has header and footer text. Placeholders such as %{online} and %{max} fill in player counts, and & colour codes work. A worlds section lets one world use different text.

Send a title on demand

Run these in the Console, without the slash:

• tm broadcast Server restarting soon sends a title to everyone.
• tm message Steve Welcome back sends one to a single player.
• Add <nl> to split title from subtitle, and flags such as -stay=60 or -fadein=10 to set timings in ticks.
• tm diagnostics reports which runtime it selected, which integrations are active and any config error.

Permissions

Command permissions default to operators, for example titlemanager.command.reload and titlemanager.command.diagnostics. See Set up LuckPerms on your Minecraft server to give them to a group.

Common problems

• The plugin is in safe mode. Run tm diagnostics in the Console. It reports safe-mode details and config errors. Fix what it reports, then run tm reload.
• A colour or symbol looks wrong. Save the YAML files as UTF-8.
• Unknown animation placeholder. A ${name} animation reads the file plugins/TitleManager/animations/name.txt. The file name is the placeholder name, so check the spelling. tm animations lists the registered ones.
• YAML indentation. Use spaces, never tabs. See How to find and fix YAML and JSON config errors.