LuckPerms basics

LuckPerms is the plugin that decides who can do what on your server: who's an admin, which commands each player may run, what perks a rank gets. If you install one plugin, make it this one — countless other plugins simply assume a permissions plugin is present, and LuckPerms is the one they mean. This guide covers the core ideas and the handful of commands you'll use forever.

New to installing plugins? See Install Minecraft plugins first — this guide assumes it's already on your server.

The three ideas

Permissions sound complicated but rest on three simple ideas:

1. A permission node is a string a plugin checks before letting someone do something — like essentials.home or worldedit.wand. Each plugin documents its own nodes.
2. A group is a named bundle of permissions — default, member, admin. You give permissions to the group, not to each player.
3. A player is in a group. Put someone in admin and they get everything admin has. That's the whole model.

Everyone starts in a built-in group called default the first time they join. You never create that one — it's already there.

The web editor is the easy way

LuckPerms has two faces: chat commands, and a web editor. Beginners should live in the editor. In the console or in-game, run:

/lp editor

It hands you a one-time link. Open it in your browser and you get a full interface: every group and player, with permissions you toggle by clicking. When you're done you press Save in the browser, which gives you an /lp applyedits ... command to paste back — and your changes go live. No syntax to memorise.

💡 Tip: The editor link is private and expires. Don't share it — anyone who opens it can rewrite your permissions. Generate a fresh one each time with /lp editor.

The commands worth knowing

Even if you use the editor, a few commands are faster for one-off changes. These have been stable for years:

/lp group default permission set essentials.home true
/lp group admin permission set worldedit.* true
/lp user Steve parent set member
/lp user Steve info
/lp group member info

Reading those:

• group ... permission set <node> true grants a permission to a whole group.
• *A `is a wildcard** —worldedit.*` grants every WorldEdit node at once. Handy for staff, dangerous for everyone else.
• user ... parent set <group> puts a player in a group (replacing their current one). parent add puts them in an additional group.
• ... info shows exactly what a player or group has — your first stop when something's off.

To remove a permission, set it to false (an explicit deny) or unset it (remove it entirely). A false beats a true from a parent group, which is how you carve exceptions.

A first real task: make yourself admin

You're an operator (op) already if you set yourself up in the panel's Players page, and op overrides most permission checks. But the clean way is a rank:

/lp creategroup admin
/lp group admin permission set '*' true
/lp user YOUR_NAME parent set admin

Now you have a real admin group you can hand to trusted staff, instead of opping everyone. Building that out into a full ladder — member, mod, admin, with prefixes — is the next guide: Build a rank ladder.

The config file

LuckPerms is managed almost entirely by commands and the editor, so you rarely touch its config. It lives at /plugins/LuckPerms/config.yml. The one setting most people eventually change is storage:

# Default is a local H2 database file — fine for a single server.
# Switch to MySQL only when you run a NETWORK sharing one permission set.
storage-method: h2

Leave storage-method: h2 unless you're running several servers behind a proxy that need to share ranks — then you'd point them all at one MySQL database (see Add a database). For a single server, the default is exactly right and needs no attention.

Verify it works

Grant a test permission to default — say essentials.back — then join as a normal (non-op) player and try /back. If it works, your permission plumbing is correct. Run /lp group default info to confirm the node is listed.

The honest limits

• LuckPerms grants permissions — it doesn't create features. Giving someone essentials.fly does nothing unless EssentialsX (which defines that node) is installed. LuckPerms is the switchboard, not the appliances.
• It won't tell you what nodes exist. Each plugin owns its own node names; you find them in that plugin's documentation, not in LuckPerms.
• Prefixes/suffixes need a chat plugin. LuckPerms can store a prefix, but showing [Admin] in chat needs a chat plugin like EssentialsX Chat reading it through Vault.
• Command names and the editor have been stable for years; if a specific flag differs, check LuckPerms' current documentation.

Troubleshooting

• A permission won't take effect — check for a conflicting false on the player or a parent group (an explicit deny wins). /lp user <name> info shows the full picture.
• /lp editor link won't open — it's one-time and expires quickly; generate a new one. Some links time out if your server's outbound connection is slow.
• Ops can do everything regardless — that's expected; op bypasses most permission checks. De-op yourself to test what a normal player actually sees.
• Changes vanished after a restart — make sure you pressed Save/applyedits in the editor; unsaved editor changes don't persist.

Next steps

• Build a rank ladder
• Set up EssentialsX
• Vault and economy
• Customize your server