PlaceholderAPI

PlaceholderAPI (PAPI) solves one recurring thing: how to get live data into text. Instead of every plugin maintaining its own system, a unified tag in percent signs is used — a placeholder. For example, %player_name% is output as the player's name, %vault_eco_balance% as their balance, and %server_online% as the number of players on the server.

Tags do not come from a single source: PAPI has so-called expansions. Each adds its own set — one for player data (Player), one for economy (Vault), one for server (Server), and hundreds of others. Expansions are downloaded with the command /papi ecloud download and PAPI keeps them.

Without an expansion, the tag is not filled in and remains visible in the text as ordinary text. This is the most common mistake: an owner forgets to install the expansion and wonders why the tab list shows %vault_eco_balance% instead of the amount.

Every plugin that PAPI supports uses expansions: DeluxeMenus (menu), TAB (tab list and name above head), holograms, chat, and vote rewards. That is why PAPI is installed almost always, even though it does nothing visible by itself.

When you want to find out what a given tag outputs, use /papi parse me . PAPI will fill it in and show the result — for example, /papi parse me Jsem %player_name% and I have %vault_eco_balance%.

1. Download PlaceholderAPI from modrinth.com/plugin/placeholderapi or dev.bukkit.org — the build for your server version.
2. Upload the .jar into the plugins folder.
3. Restart the server. The console shows a line with the PAPI version and the number of loaded expansions.
4. Type /papi list — it lists the installed expansions. On a clean server there will be only a few.
5. Add what you need: /papi ecloud download Player (player data), /papi ecloud download Vault (money), /papi ecloud download Server (server status).
6. After every download type /papi reload — that loads the expansion.
7. Check the placeholder: /papi parse me %player_name% must print your name, not the text with the placeholder.
8. Once the placeholders work, use them where you want to see them — in TAB, in a menu, in a hologram or in chat (for chat you need a plugin that supports PAPI).
9. If a placeholder does not work even after adding the expansion, check the plugin's documentation that it really supports it. Some plugins have their own placeholders.
10. Update expansions with /papi ecloud refresh and then /papi reload.

When the text displays %player_name% instead of the name, the Player expansion is missing or it didn't start after downloading. /papi reload. NejdFirst check /papi list, and only then look for the error in the plugin that uses the placeholder.
Placeholders are case-sensitive and require the exact name. %player_name% works, %Player_Name% does not — always copy the name from /papi info .
The expansion won't load via /reload. Always /papi ecloud download and then /papi reload.
NSome placeholders depend on other plugins: %vault_eco_balance% needs Vault and an economy, %luckperms_prefix% needs LuckPerms. Without them the placeholder remains empty — and that's not a PAPI error.
Each placeholder fill is a small query. In a scoreboard that refreshes every second, don't put dozens of them — the server will notice it in performance.
Expansions are stored in plugins/PlaceholderAPI/expansions. When you back them up, you'll transfer them to another server too.