HyQuery

A lightweight UDP query protocol plugin for Hytale servers that enables external tools to query server information.

HyQuery uses the same port as your game server by intercepting UDP packets with magic bytes before the QUIC codec processes them, ensuring no additional port configuration is needed.

Features

• Zero Port Configuration - Uses the same port as your game server (typically 5520)
• Privacy Control - Anonymous mode by default, optionally show player lists and plugins
• Custom MOTD - Support for Minecraft color codes in your MOTD
• Binary Protocol - Efficient binary format for fast queries
• Easy Integration - Simple UDP protocol for developers

Installation

For Server Administrators

1. Download HyQuery

   • Download the latest hyquery-plugin-x.x.x.jar from the releases page

2. Install the Plugin

   # Place the jar file in your server's mods directory
   cp hyquery-plugin-1.0.0.jar /path/to/hytale/server/mods/

3. Start Your Server

   • The plugin will automatically create a configuration file at mods/HyQuery/config.json

4. Configure (Optional)

   • Edit mods/HyQuery/config.json to customize behavior (see Configuration section)

5. Restart the Server

   • Changes to the configuration require a server restart

Configuration

Configuration file: mods/HyQuery/config.json

{
  "enabled": true,
  "showPlayerList": false,
  "showPlugins": false,
  "useCustomMotd": false,
  "customMotd": "§aWelcome to §l§cHytale§r§a! §6Enjoy your stay!"
}

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
enabled	boolean	true	Enable/disable the query server
showPlayerList	boolean	false	Include online player names and UUIDs in responses
showPlugins	boolean	false	Include installed plugin list in responses
useCustomMotd	boolean	false	Use custom MOTD instead of server config MOTD
customMotd	string	"§aWelcome..."	Custom MOTD with Minecraft color code support

Security Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
rateLimitEnabled	boolean	true	Enable per-IP rate limiting
rateLimitPerSecond	int	10	Maximum requests per second per IP
rateLimitBurst	int	20	Maximum burst requests allowed
cacheEnabled	boolean	true	Enable response caching
cacheTtlSeconds	int	5	Cache time-to-live in seconds

Network Mode

HyQuery supports multi-server network configurations with primary and worker roles. This allows server networks to aggregate player counts and information across multiple servers.

Architecture

                    ┌─────────────┐
                    │   Primary   │ ◄── Query responses include
                    │   (Hub)     │     all network players
                    └──────▲──────┘
                           │
            ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
            │              │              │
     ┌──────┴──────┐ ┌─────┴─────┐ ┌──────┴──────┐
     │   Worker    │ │  Worker   │ │   Worker    │
     │  (Game 1)   │ │ (Game 2)  │ │  (Game 3)   │
     └─────────────┘ └───────────┘ └─────────────┘

• Primary: Receives status updates from workers, aggregates data for query responses
• Worker: Sends periodic status updates to primary server(s)

Primary Server Configuration

{
  "enabled": true,
  "showPlayerList": true,
  "showPlugins": false,
  "useCustomMotd": false,
  "customMotd": "",
  "rateLimitEnabled": true,
  "rateLimitPerSecond": 10,
  "rateLimitBurst": 20,
  "cacheEnabled": true,
  "cacheTtlSeconds": 5,
  "network": {
    "enabled": true,
    "role": "primary",
    "workerTimeoutSeconds": 30,
    "workers": [
      { "id": "game-1", "key": "your-secret-key-here" },
      { "id": "game-2", "key": "your-secret-key-here" },
      { "id": "minigame-*", "key": "shared-minigame-key" }
    ],
    "logStatusUpdates": false
  }
}

Primary-specific options:

Option	Description
workerTimeoutSeconds	Seconds before marking a worker as offline
workers	List of authorized workers with their IDs and HMAC keys

Worker IDs support wildcard matching with * (e.g., minigame-* matches minigame-1, minigame-lobby, etc.)

Worker Server Configuration (Single Primary)

{
  "enabled": true,
  "showPlayerList": true,
  "showPlugins": false,
  "useCustomMotd": false,
  "customMotd": "",
  "rateLimitEnabled": true,
  "rateLimitPerSecond": 10,
  "rateLimitBurst": 20,
  "cacheEnabled": true,
  "cacheTtlSeconds": 5,
  "network": {
    "enabled": true,
    "role": "worker",
    "id": "game-1",
    "primaryHost": "hub.example.com",
    "primaryPort": 5520,
    "key": "your-secret-key-here",
    "updateIntervalSeconds": 5,
    "logStatusUpdates": false
  }
}

Worker-specific options:

Option	Description
id	Unique identifier for this worker (must match primary's workers list)
primaryHost	Hostname or IP of the primary server
primaryPort	Port of the primary server
key	Shared HMAC secret (must match primary's key for this worker)
updateIntervalSeconds	How often to send status updates

Hub Clustering

For networks with multiple hub servers (load-balanced or regional), workers can send status updates to all primary servers. This ensures any hub can answer queries with complete network data.

Hub Clustering Architecture

     ┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────┐
     │  Primary A  │     │  Primary B  │  ◄── Both hubs have
     │   (US Hub)  │     │  (EU Hub)   │      complete network data
     └──────▲──────┘     └──────▲──────┘
            │                   │
            └─────────┬─────────┘
                      │
            ┌─────────┼─────────┐
            │         │         │
     ┌──────┴───┐ ┌───┴───┐ ┌───┴──────┐
     │ Worker 1 │ │ Wkr 2 │ │ Worker 3 │  ◄── Workers push to
     └──────────┘ └───────┘ └──────────┘      ALL primaries

Worker Configuration (Hub Clustering)

Use the primaries array instead of single primaryHost/primaryPort:

{
  "enabled": true,
  "showPlayerList": true,
  "showPlugins": false,
  "useCustomMotd": false,
  "customMotd": "",
  "rateLimitEnabled": true,
  "rateLimitPerSecond": 10,
  "rateLimitBurst": 20,
  "cacheEnabled": true,
  "cacheTtlSeconds": 5,
  "network": {
    "enabled": true,
    "role": "worker",
    "id": "game-1",
    "primaries": [
      { "host": "us-hub.example.com", "port": 5520 },
      { "host": "eu-hub.example.com", "port": 5520 }
    ],
    "key": "your-secret-key-here",
    "updateIntervalSeconds": 5,
    "logStatusUpdates": false
  }
}

Notes:

• The primaries list takes precedence over legacy primaryHost/primaryPort
• All primaries must have this worker authorized with the same key
• Status updates are sent to all primaries simultaneously
• If some primaries are unreachable, updates continue to the available ones

Network Configuration Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
network.enabled	boolean	false	Enable network mode
network.role	string	"worker"	Server role: "primary" or "worker"
network.logStatusUpdates	boolean	false	Log status update activity

Primary-only:

Option	Type	Default	Description
network.workerTimeoutSeconds	int	30	Seconds before worker marked offline
network.workers	array	[]	Authorized workers [{id, key}, ...]

Worker-only:

Option	Type	Default	Description
network.id	string	"server-1"	This worker's unique identifier
network.primaryHost	string	"localhost"	Legacy: single primary host
network.primaryPort	int	5520	Legacy: single primary port
network.primaries	array	[]	Hub clustering: [{host, port}, ...]
network.key	string	"change-me"	Shared HMAC secret
network.updateIntervalSeconds	int	5	Update interval in seconds

Minecraft Color Codes

When useCustomMotd is enabled, you can use Minecraft formatting codes in your MOTD.

Note: These color codes currently have no impact on the in-game display. They are preserved in the query response for external tools such as server lists to display formatted MOTDs.

Colors:

• §0 Black, §1 Dark Blue, §2 Dark Green, §3 Dark Aqua
• §4 Dark Red, §5 Dark Purple, §6 Gold, §7 Gray
• §8 Dark Gray, §9 Blue, §a Green, §b Aqua
• §c Red, §d Light Purple, §e Yellow, §f White

Formatting:

• §l Bold, §m Strikethrough, §n Underline, §o Italic, §r Reset

Example:

"customMotd": "§aWelcome to §l§6MyServer§r§a! §bHave fun!"

Developer Integration

Protocol Specification

HyQuery uses a simple binary protocol over UDP on the game server port (default: 5520).

Request Format

┌──────────┬─────────────┐
│ Magic    │ Query Type  │
│ 8 bytes  │ 1 byte      │
└──────────┴─────────────┘

• Magic Bytes: HYQUERY\0 (ASCII, null-terminated)
• Query Type:
  • 0x00 - Basic query (server info only)
  • 0x01 - Full query (includes player list and plugins if enabled)

Response Format

All multi-byte integers use little-endian byte order.

Response Header:

┌──────────┬─────────────┐
│ Magic    │ Type        │
│ 8 bytes  │ 1 byte      │
└──────────┴─────────────┘

• Magic Bytes: HYREPLY\0 (ASCII, null-terminated)
• Type: 0x00 (basic) or 0x01 (full)

Basic Response (Type 0x00):

Field	Type	Description
Server Name	String	Length-prefixed UTF-8 string
MOTD	String	Length-prefixed UTF-8 string
Online Players	uint32 LE	Current player count
Max Players	uint32 LE	Maximum player capacity
Port	uint32 LE	Server port
Version	String	Length-prefixed UTF-8 string

Full Response (Type 0x01):

Includes all basic fields plus:

Field	Type	Description
Player Count	uint32 LE	Number of player entries
Player Entries	Array	For each player:
- Username	String	Length-prefixed UTF-8 string
- UUID	16 bytes	UUID (MSB 8 bytes + LSB 8 bytes)
Plugin Count	uint32 LE	Number of plugin entries
Plugin Entries	Array	For each plugin:
- Name	String	Length-prefixed UTF-8 string (format: "group:name")

String Format:

┌──────────┬───────────┐
│ Length   │ Data      │
│ uint16LE │ UTF-8     │
└──────────┴───────────┘

Example Implementations

Python

import socket
import struct

REQUEST_MAGIC = b"HYQUERY\0"
RESPONSE_MAGIC = b"HYREPLY\0"
TYPE_BASIC = 0x00
TYPE_FULL = 0x01

def query_server(host, port, query_type=TYPE_BASIC):
    # Create request
    request = REQUEST_MAGIC + bytes([query_type])

    # Send query
    sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
    sock.settimeout(5.0)
    sock.sendto(request, (host, port))

    # Receive response
    data, _ = sock.recvfrom(65535)
    sock.close()

    return parse_response(data)

def parse_response(data):
    if not data.startswith(RESPONSE_MAGIC):
        raise ValueError("Invalid response magic bytes")

    offset = len(RESPONSE_MAGIC)
    response_type = data[offset]
    offset += 1

    # Read strings
    def read_string(offset):
        length = struct.unpack_from('<H', data, offset)[0]
        offset += 2
        string = data[offset:offset + length].decode('utf-8')
        return string, offset + length

    # Parse basic info
    result = {}
    result['serverName'], offset = read_string(offset)
    result['motd'], offset = read_string(offset)
    result['onlinePlayers'] = struct.unpack_from('<I', data, offset)[0]
    offset += 4
    result['maxPlayers'] = struct.unpack_from('<I', data, offset)[0]
    offset += 4
    result['port'] = struct.unpack_from('<I', data, offset)[0]
    offset += 4
    result['version'], offset = read_string(offset)

    # Parse full response data
    if response_type == TYPE_FULL:
        player_count = struct.unpack_from('<I', data, offset)[0]
        offset += 4

        players = []
        for _ in range(player_count):
            username, offset = read_string(offset)
            uuid_bytes = data[offset:offset + 16]
            offset += 16
            players.append({'username': username, 'uuid': uuid_bytes.hex()})
        result['players'] = players

        plugin_count = struct.unpack_from('<I', data, offset)[0]
        offset += 4

        plugins = []
        for _ in range(plugin_count):
            plugin_name, offset = read_string(offset)
            plugins.append(plugin_name)
        result['plugins'] = plugins

    return result

# Usage
info = query_server('localhost', 5520, TYPE_BASIC)
print(f"Server: {info['serverName']}")
print(f"Players: {info['onlinePlayers']}/{info['maxPlayers']}")

JavaScript (Node.js)

const dgram = require('dgram');

const REQUEST_MAGIC = Buffer.from('HYQUERY\0', 'ascii');
const RESPONSE_MAGIC = Buffer.from('HYREPLY\0', 'ascii');
const TYPE_BASIC = 0x00;
const TYPE_FULL = 0x01;

function queryServer(host, port, queryType = TYPE_BASIC) {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        const request = Buffer.concat([REQUEST_MAGIC, Buffer.from([queryType])]);
        const client = dgram.createSocket('udp4');

        client.on('message', (msg) => {
            client.close();
            try {
                resolve(parseResponse(msg));
            } catch (err) {
                reject(err);
            }
        });

        client.on('error', (err) => {
            client.close();
            reject(err);
        });

        setTimeout(() => {
            client.close();
            reject(new Error('Timeout'));
        }, 5000);

        client.send(request, port, host);
    });
}

function parseResponse(data) {
    if (!data.subarray(0, 8).equals(RESPONSE_MAGIC)) {
        throw new Error('Invalid response magic bytes');
    }

    let offset = 8;
    const responseType = data[offset++];

    const readString = () => {
        const length = data.readUInt16LE(offset);
        offset += 2;
        const str = data.subarray(offset, offset + length).toString('utf-8');
        offset += length;
        return str;
    };

    const result = {
        serverName: readString(),
        motd: readString(),
        onlinePlayers: data.readUInt32LE(offset),
        maxPlayers: data.readUInt32LE(offset + 4),
        port: data.readUInt32LE(offset + 8),
    };
    offset += 12;
    result.version = readString();

    if (responseType === TYPE_FULL) {
        const playerCount = data.readUInt32LE(offset);
        offset += 4;

        result.players = [];
        for (let i = 0; i < playerCount; i++) {
            const username = readString();
            const uuid = data.subarray(offset, offset + 16);
            offset += 16;
            result.players.push({ username, uuid: uuid.toString('hex') });
        }

        const pluginCount = data.readUInt32LE(offset);
        offset += 4;

        result.plugins = [];
        for (let i = 0; i < pluginCount; i++) {
            result.plugins.push(readString());
        }
    }

    return result;
}

// Usage
queryServer('localhost', 5520, TYPE_BASIC)
    .then(info => {
        console.log(`Server: ${info.serverName}`);
        console.log(`Players: ${info.onlinePlayers}/${info.maxPlayers}`);
    })
    .catch(err => console.error('Query failed:', err));

Java

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.*;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.nio.ByteOrder;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class HyQueryClient {
    private static final byte[] REQUEST_MAGIC = "HYQUERY\0".getBytes(StandardCharsets.US_ASCII);
    private static final byte[] RESPONSE_MAGIC = "HYREPLY\0".getBytes(StandardCharsets.US_ASCII);
    private static final byte TYPE_BASIC = 0x00;
    private static final byte TYPE_FULL = 0x01;

    public static QueryResponse query(String host, int port, byte queryType) throws IOException {
        // Create request
        byte[] request = new byte[REQUEST_MAGIC.length + 1];
        System.arraycopy(REQUEST_MAGIC, 0, request, 0, REQUEST_MAGIC.length);
        request[REQUEST_MAGIC.length] = queryType;

        // Send query
        DatagramSocket socket = new DatagramSocket();
        socket.setSoTimeout(5000);

        InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(host);
        DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(request, request.length, address, port);
        socket.send(packet);

        // Receive response
        byte[] buffer = new byte[65535];
        DatagramPacket response = new DatagramPacket(buffer, buffer.length);
        socket.receive(response);
        socket.close();

        return parseResponse(response.getData(), response.getLength());
    }

    private static QueryResponse parseResponse(byte[] data, int length) {
        ByteBuffer buf = ByteBuffer.wrap(data, 0, length).order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN);

        // Check magic bytes
        byte[] magic = new byte[RESPONSE_MAGIC.length];
        buf.get(magic);

        byte responseType = buf.get();

        QueryResponse result = new QueryResponse();
        result.serverName = readString(buf);
        result.motd = readString(buf);
        result.onlinePlayers = buf.getInt();
        result.maxPlayers = buf.getInt();
        result.port = buf.getInt();
        result.version = readString(buf);

        // Parse full response if needed
        if (responseType == TYPE_FULL) {
            int playerCount = buf.getInt();
            result.players = new Player[playerCount];
            for (int i = 0; i < playerCount; i++) {
                String username = readString(buf);
                byte[] uuid = new byte[16];
                buf.get(uuid);
                result.players[i] = new Player(username, uuid);
            }

            int pluginCount = buf.getInt();
            result.plugins = new String[pluginCount];
            for (int i = 0; i < pluginCount; i++) {
                result.plugins[i] = readString(buf);
            }
        }

        return result;
    }

    private static String readString(ByteBuffer buf) {
        int length = buf.getShort() & 0xFFFF;
        byte[] bytes = new byte[length];
        buf.get(bytes);
        return new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        QueryResponse info = query("localhost", 5520, TYPE_BASIC);
        System.out.println("Server: " + info.serverName);
        System.out.println("Players: " + info.onlinePlayers + "/" + info.maxPlayers);
    }
}

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Java 25 or higher
• Maven 3.6+
• HytaleServer.jar (place in project root)

Build Steps

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/hyvote/hyquery.git
cd hyquery

# Place HytaleServer.jar in the project root
cp /path/to/HytaleServer.jar .

# Build with Maven
mvn clean package

# The compiled jar will be in target/
ls target/hyquery-plugin-*.jar

Troubleshooting

Plugin not loading

• Check that the jar file is in the mods/ directory
• Verify server logs for error messages
• Ensure you're running a compatible Hytale server version

No response to queries

• Check that enabled is true in config.json
• Verify the server port (default: 5520)
• Check firewall rules allow UDP traffic
• Review server logs for HyQuery errors

Player list / plugins not showing

• Set showPlayerList or showPlugins to true in config
• Use query type 0x01 (full query) instead of 0x00 (basic)
• Restart the server after config changes

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Support

For issues, questions, or feature requests, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.