Installation

Installation

This guide is for server owners installing Watchtower on a Linux server running NeoForge for Minecraft 1.21.x.

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At a glance

• Download: watchtower-neoforge-1.0.0+mc1.21.jar from GitHub Releases or Modrinth
• Where it goes: your server's mods/ folder
• Recovery tool (optional): watchtower-cli-1.0.0.jar in the same folder
• After start: a watchtower/ folder appears next to your world
• Next step: Quick Start Checklist

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What you need

Requirement	Notes
Linux server	Works on VPS, bare metal, and most hosting panels
NeoForge 1.21.x	Minecraft 1.21.1 through latest 1.21 patch
Java 21	Comes with NeoForge — you usually do not install Java separately

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Install steps

1. Download watchtower-neoforge-1.0.0+mc1.21.jar from Downloads and Releases
2. Copy it into your server's mods/ folder
3. Start (or restart) the server
4. Check the console for Watchtower messages and confirm a watchtower/ folder exists
5. Open http://<your-server-ip>:8787 and sign in — see Dashboard Overview

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What gets created

On first start, Watchtower creates a watchtower/ folder on your server with settings, reports, and history files. You do not need to create this yourself.

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Technical details

Recovery CLI JAR: watchtower-cli-1.0.0.jar is not loaded as a mod. Keeping it in mods/ is convenient so you can run recovery commands from SSH.

Files created on first start (under <server>/watchtower/):

• watchtower.conf — schedule, thresholds, backup paths (editable from Settings)
• Report outputs — watchtower-facts-*.json, watchtower-brief-*.txt
• Live history and minute-by-minute performance files

See On-disk Files for a full list.

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See also

• Quick Start Checklist
• Dashboard Overview
• Downloads and Releases