Installation

Installation

This page covers the installation and first startup of AFK Area.

For configuration options after installation, continue with Configuration.

Requirements

AFK Area requires:

• Paper 1.21.4 or newer
• VertexCore 1.1.0 or newer
• A Java version supported by your Paper version

AFK Area itself targets Java 21 bytecode.

AFK Area is designed for Paper servers and does not currently support Spigot.

Required dependency

VertexCore

VertexCore 1.1.0 or newer is required.

AFK Area uses VertexCore for command registration, configuration handling and database/persistence support.

AFK Area will not start without a compatible VertexCore version.

Optional integrations

WorldGuard + WorldEdit

Install WorldGuard and WorldEdit if you want to use existing WorldGuard regions as AFK areas.

Native cuboid AFK areas do not require WorldGuard.

See WorldGuard Integration for setup details.

PlaceholderAPI

PlaceholderAPI enables AFK Area placeholders for other plugins.

See PlaceholderAPI & TAB.

TAB

TAB can be used for external player-list formatting.

When TAB is installed together with PlaceholderAPI, AFK Area can provide its tab suffix through %afkarea_tab_suffix%.

See PlaceholderAPI & TAB.

Installing AFK Area

1. Stop the server.
2. Install VertexCore 1.1.0 or newer in the server's plugins directory.
3. Place the AFK Area JAR in the same plugins directory.
4. Install any optional integrations you want to use.
5. Start the server.

Basic installation:

plugins/
├── AFKArea.jar
└── VertexCore.jar

With optional integrations:

plugins/
├── AFKArea.jar
├── VertexCore.jar
├── WorldEdit.jar
├── WorldGuard.jar
├── PlaceholderAPI.jar
└── TAB.jar

Only VertexCore is required.

First startup

During startup, AFK Area detects integrations, validates configuration, initializes persistence, loads stored data and starts its AFK/reward/display services.

The first startup creates:

plugins/AFKArea/
├── config.yml
└── messages.yml

JSON persistence is used by default, so no external database is required.

Verifying the installation

Check the console for:

AFKArea has been enabled

You can also test:

/afk
/afkarea

If AFK Area does not start, see Troubleshooting.

Next steps

1. Configuration
2. AFK Areas
3. AFK Handling

For WorldGuard regions, see WorldGuard Integration.