Install NxShards on Paper or Folia Servers

Drop the NxShards JAR into your Paper or Folia plugins folder, restart, and configure SQLite or MySQL storage in seconds.

NxShards installs as a single JAR. The plugin generates its configuration on first start, so the only decision you need to make upfront is which storage backend to use — SQLite works out of the box with zero setup.

Requirements

Requirement	Version
Paper or Folia	Modern release
Java	17 or newer
PlaceholderAPI	Optional — enables %shards_*% placeholders
MySQL	Optional — only required for multi-server sync

Installation Steps

1. Download NxShards

   Grab the latest NxShards-x.x.x.jar from the official release source.

2. Drop the JAR into plugins/

   Copy the JAR into your server’s plugins/ directory:

   cp NxShards-1.0.0.jar /your/server/plugins/
   
3. Start or restart the server

   Perform a full server restart (not /reload). On first start, NxShards generates the following files:

   plugins/
   └── NxShards/
       ├── config.yml
       └── database.db   # only when storage type is SQLite
   

   Check the console for a line confirming NxShards enabled successfully.

4. Choose your storage backend

   Open plugins/NxShards/config.yml. The default storage type is SQLITE, which keeps everything in database.db and needs no additional setup.

   To use MySQL for multi-server synchronisation, switch the type and fill in your connection details:

   storage:
     type: MYSQL          # MYSQL | SQLITE
     host: "127.0.0.1"
     port: 3306
     database: "minecraft"
     username: "root"
     password: "yourpassword"
   

   Use MySQL only when you need a shared Shards balance across several servers. SQLite is faster and zero-config for single-server setups.

5. Install PlaceholderAPI (optional)

   Drop PlaceholderAPI into plugins/ if you want to use %shards_balance% or the leaderboard placeholders on scoreboards, holograms, or tab. NxShards auto-registers its expansion on startup — no eCloud download required.

6. Create your first AFK zone

   Join the server with admin permissions and run /shards wand to grab the selection tool. See the AFK Zones page for the full workflow.

Folia Notes

NxShards is natively compiled for Folia. Every periodic task — AFK timers, zone scans, BossBar refreshes — is dispatched through the dedicated entity scheduler, so there is no global tick contention. No extra configuration is needed when running on a Folia fork.

Verifying the Installation

After restarting, run /shards. The plugin should respond with your current balance (0 by default). If you see a Unknown command message, ensure the JAR is present in plugins/ and that there are no startup errors in the console.