Release v6.0.0

[leviem1]

This is the single largest release in the project's history (6 years!) and introduces some major quality of life changes!

✍🏻 This template actually helps you write a plugin now!

This project previously only contained the bare minimum to build a jar file that was compatible with PaperMC and some automation around that. With this release I've added two major changes that actually provide some code that you can use in your own plugin!

I've added some code to the project that demonstrates how to create your own commands like /example ping using CommandAPI, and the provided code should allow you to easily add your own commands!

I've also added a config loading system! The config.yml now has an example configuration and the code uses Jackson and the Hibernate Validator to read the config and make sure it's valid before your plugin starts! There's examples in the README.md on how to add your own config values!

These features have been wired together to provide a fully functioning example plugin. You can download the JAR from the releases page and add it to your server to see it working in action!

🏗️ Build Stability Improvements

PaperMC (and Minecraft) have recently adopted a new versioning schema, and builds should no longer break unexpectedly!

Previously, PaperMC released multiple builds under a single version identifier. As a plugin developer, this means that without changing a single line of code in your project your code could suddenly fail to build because PaperMC was updated. The plugin-template used to run a weekly build to catch when an update like this created an incompatibility that needed to be addressed.

Now, PaperMC provides a unique ID for each build so you'll never receive an "unexpected update", and as such we've done away with the weekly build. This unfortunately means that you will have to modify your build.gradle file for each new build, however this can largely be automated using Dependabot, which the template already provides most of the setup for, short of actually enabling the service.

🤖 AI Support

If the above was complete gibberish, then this is the section for you!!

A significant number of users are being referred to this project through AI tools, and are increasingly using them to accelerate the development of their Minecraft plugins. As this continues to become the norm, I've decided to add a CLAUDE.MD file that can be used to help inform AI agents of important context. This is a really rough first-pass and could probably use improvement, but better than nothing.

What's Changed

• chore(deps): Bump com.github.spotbugs from 6.5.4 to 6.5.5 by @dependabot[bot] in chore(deps): Bump com.github.spotbugs from 6.5.4 to 6.5.5 #350
• chore(deps): Bump com.gradleup.shadow from 9.4.1 to 9.4.2 by @dependabot[bot] in chore(deps): Bump com.gradleup.shadow from 9.4.1 to 9.4.2 #351
• feat(deps): pin Paper API to immutable build versions, drop weekly cron by @leviem1 in feat(deps): pin Paper API to immutable build versions, drop weekly cron #352
• chore(deps): Bump checkstyle from 13.4.2 to 13.5.0 by @leviem1 in chore(deps): Bump checkstyle from 13.4.2 to 13.5.0 #353
• chore(docs): Add CLAUDE.md to assist agentic development by @leviem1 in chore(docs): Add CLAUDE.md to assist agentic development #354
• feat: Provide example command implementation using CommandAPI by @leviem1 in feat: Provide example command implementation using CommandAPI #355
• feat(config): Add a fully functioning config loading example by @leviem1 in feat(config): Add a fully functioning config loading example #356
• fix(build): Resolve missing build files preventing plugin startup by @leviem1 in fix(build): Resolve missing build files preventing plugin startup #358

Full Changelog: v5.0.1...v6.0.0

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This discussion was created from the release Release v6.0.0.