Server Setup

One stop for everything server side. If you only play singleplayer, you don't need any of this.

Only in the case of multiplayer, the mod needs to be on the server (or the person hosting) so players see each other's emotes. Players without the mod can still join, they just don't see emotes.

The config

config/playeremotes-server.json is written the first time the server starts. Change it and run /playeremotes reload, no restart needed.

{
  "enabled": true,
  "cooldownTicks": 4,
  "disabledEmotes": [],
  "restrictedEmotes": [],
  "syncEmotes": true,
  "partnerEmotes": true,
  "partnerRequestSeconds": 60,
  "sendServerPacks": true
}

Field	Default	What it does
enabled	true	emotes at all
cooldownTicks	4	fewest ticks between two emotes of one player (20 ticks = 1 second, max 1200)
disabledEmotes	[]	emotes nobody can play
restrictedEmotes	[]	emotes only players with playeremotes.restricted can play
syncEmotes	true	whether /emotesync works
partnerEmotes	true	two-player emotes
partnerRequestSeconds	60	how long a partner request waits for an answer (5 to 600)
sendServerPacks	true	send emote packs from data packs to players

If the file is broken (a typo, a missing comma), the server tells you in the log and uses the defaults until it's fixed.

Disabling and restricting emotes

Three ways to write an emote in disabledEmotes and restrictedEmotes:

"disabledEmotes": [
  "playeremotes:t_pose",     // this exact emote
  "floss",                   // floss from any pack
  "somepack:*"               // every emote of a namespace
]

(JSON doesn't allow comments, they're only here to explain, please leave them out in the real file. Don't copy-paste that for whatever reason.)

The default ids are in the Emote List. A disabled emote's animations are blocked too, so another emote can't sneak them in.

Permissions

Without a permission mod, the operator level decides.

Permission	What for	Op level without a permission mod
playeremotes.use	playing emotes	0 (everyone)
playeremotes.sync	/emotesync	0 (everyone)
playeremotes.partner	partner emotes	0 (everyone)
playeremotes.restricted	the emotes in restrictedEmotes	2
playeremotes.command.reload	/playeremotes reload	3

Example with LuckPerms, a VIP-only emote:

/lp group default permission set playeremotes.restricted false
/lp group vip permission set playeremotes.restricted true

"restrictedEmotes": ["playeremotes:kamehameha"]

Commands

/playeremotes reload         re-reads the config
/emote <emote>               play an emote
/emotesync <player>          join a player's emote
/emoteaccept                 accept a partner emote request

Server Emote Packs

You can give every player your own emotes, they don't need to install anything. Put emote packs in a data pack, players download them when joining.

world/datapacks/my_server_emotes/
  pack.mcmeta
  data/
    myserver/
      playeremotes/
        pack.json
        my_emote.json

Same layout as in a resource pack, only data/ instead of assets/. How to make the emotes themselves is on Making Emotes, and the folder layout on Emote Packs.

sequenceDiagram
    participant P as Player
    participant S as Server
    P->>S: joins
    S->>P: list of emote files (with hashes)
    P->>P: checks its cache
    P->>S: only the files it doesn't have yet
    S->>P: the files

Loading

• Players only download each file once, it's cached in .minecraft/playeremotes/server-packs/
• After /reload on the server, players get the changed files.
• Limits: 2 MB per file, 16 MB in total.
• Data packs have no translations, so names come from pack.json (name, description).
• Sounds can't be sent this way, a server pack can only use sounds the players already have (vanilla ones work).

Turn it off with "sendServerPacks": false.