Visual Identification (VisualID)

Lightweight server-side WAILA/Jade-style plugin for Paper. Shows players what block or entity they are looking at via the actionbar. No client mod required.

Requirements

• Paper 1.21.4 (API 1.21.4-R0.1-SNAPSHOT)
• Java 21

Build

./gradlew clean build

Output: build/libs/VisualID-1.0.1.jar

Install

Copy the jar to your server's plugins/ folder and restart. On first start, a plugins/VisualID/config.yml is created with defaults.

sudo cp build/libs/VisualID-*.jar /srv/minecraft/paper/plugins/

Commands

Command	Description	Permission
/visual-id	One-shot: show what you're looking at, held for 3× the normal interval	visualid.use
/visual-id toggle	Enable/disable your personal HUD	visualid.toggle
/visual-id status	Show HUD state and which sections are enabled	visualid.use
/visual-id config <section> enable|disable	Toggle a display section and save	visualid.reload
/visual-id reload	Reload config from disk	visualid.reload

Display sections

Section	What it shows
name	Pretty block/entity name
key	Namespaced ID (e.g. minecraft:oak_log)
coordinates	Block XYZ
biome	Biome name
light	Light level at the block
health	Entity current/max health with colour coding

Example: /visual-id config biome enable

Permissions

Permission	Default	Description
visualid.use	true	Receive the HUD
visualid.toggle	true	Toggle own HUD on/off
visualid.reload	op	Reload config / toggle sections

Config

plugins/VisualID/config.yml:

# Command keyword. Change this if another plugin already uses /visual-id.
# Requires a server restart to take effect.
command: visual-id

enabled-by-default: true
update-interval-ticks: 5
max-distance: 8.0
prefer-entities: true

show:
  material-name: true
  namespaced-key: true
  coordinates: true
  biome: false
  light-level: false
  entity-health: true

Example output

Looking at a block:

Packed Ice  ·  minecraft:packed_ice  ·  12, 64, -8  ·  Minecraft

Looking at an entity:

Zombie  ·  minecraft:zombie  ·  ❤ 18/20  ·  Minecraft

Development deploy (VS Code)

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your server details, then use the Build & Deploy VisualID to Server run configuration or the Build & Deploy task.