NPCs on Your Minecraft Server with Citizens: Shops, Guides and Teleports

What an NPC is and which plugin to pick

An NPC is a character nobody controls: it can look like a player (with any skin you like) or like any mob, stand still, look at whoever comes close and do something when clicked. They're used mostly at spawn and in lobbies: to teleport to other worlds, open menus, welcome people or sell.

Citizens is the classic NPC plugin: it's been around for more than ten years, has commands for almost everything (skins, gear, paths, holograms, commands on click) and many plugins build on it (Sentinel for guards, Quests for quests). It works on Spigot and Paper. You download it from SpigotMC or its build server; it's not on Modrinth.

FancyNpcs is the modern alternative: lighter, because its NPCs aren't real entities but packets sent to each player, and it only works on Paper. It's on Modrinth and Hangar. It has fewer options than Citizens, but for a spawn with four NPCs that teleport, it's plenty.

Don't install both at once: they both use the /npc command and clash.

Installing Citizens

1. Check the server version

   Citizens works with Spigot and Paper (not with Fabric, Forge or NeoForge). Each build says which versions it's for: in June 2026 its SpigotMC page listed 26.2, 26.1.1 and 1.21.11. If your server is older, look for an earlier build.

2. Download the .jar

   From the Citizens page on SpigotMC or from its build server (ci.citizensnpcs.co), the file for your version. Nothing else is needed: Vault is only used if you want to charge money for using an NPC.

3. Upload it to the plugins folder and restart

   On startup, Citizens creates plugins/Citizens with its config.yml and, when you create the first NPC, the saves.yml file, where all of them are stored.

4. Check that it loads

   Type /npc help in game (as an operator). If the list of commands shows up, you're done.

Creating your first NPC

Stand where you want the NPC, facing the way you want it to face, and type /npc create Guide. It appears right there, looking like a player, and stays selected: the commands you type next apply to it.

To switch NPC, look at it and type /npc select (or /npc select with its number; /npc list tells you each one's number). Almost every “nothing happens” problem comes from having another NPC selected.

Names accept colors with & (&dGuide, &e&lShop). If you don't want the name to show above it, /npc name hides it, and with /npc name -h it only shows when you get close and look at it.

/npc create &dGuide
/npc skin Notch
/npc lookclose
/npc tphere

Skin, shape and looking at passers-by

/npc skin followed by a Minecraft account name gives it the skin that account has right now, and it keeps it even if the account changes it later; with /npc skin -l and the name, the NPC follows that account's skin every time it changes (handy for an NPC with the face of each staff member). For your server's own skin without any account having it, /npc skin --url and the address of the PNG (for example, one you've uploaded to a skin website).

/npc type changes the shape: /npc type villager turns it into a villager, /npc type cow into a cow. To go back to a player, /npc type player.

/npc lookclose makes it turn its head towards the nearest player; type it again to turn it off. It's what makes an NPC look alive instead of like a statue. To give it gear or something in its hand, /npc setequipment with the slot and the item (/npc setequipment hand diamond_sword), or /npc equip to equip it by hand following what the chat says (type it again to exit).

/npc tphere brings the NPC to where you are, /npc tp takes you to where it is and /npc remove deletes the selected one (without asking: careful with /npc remove all).

Making it do something on click

The most useful thing about an NPC is running a command when clicked. Citizens has it built in with /npc command add, no extra plugins (it used to need CommandNPC; not anymore).

By default the command is run by the console, with every permission, and triggers on right click. In the command, <p> is replaced by the name of whoever clicked. With -p the player runs it, with their own permissions: that's the safe option for commands the player can already use, like /warp or /spawn. With -l it triggers on left click, and with -l -r on both.

With --cooldown and the seconds, each player has to wait between uses; with --n and a number, each player can only use it that many times (for example, a welcome gift given once). --permissions requires a permission to use it, which you grant with LuckPerms.

Careful with commands run by the console: they can do anything. A “give <p> diamond 64” with no cooldown or limit is a diamond factory. Use -p whenever you can and put limits on anything that gives stuff away.

# Teleport with the EssentialsX command, as the player
/npc command add -p warp survival

# Chat message to whoever clicks, as the console
/npc command add tellraw <p> {"text":"Welcome. Read the rules with /rules","color":"light_purple"}

# Welcome gift: once per player
/npc command add give <p> bread 16 --n 1

# See and remove the NPC's commands
/npc command
/npc command remove 1

Ideas that work at spawn

One NPC per game mode, in a row, each with the world's name above it and a /warp or a Multiverse command with -p. It's clearer for newcomers than a list of commands, and it looks better in the screenshots you use to advertise the server.

A guide by the entrance that, when clicked, explains the rules and gives the Discord link (with /tellraw you can make the link clickable; NapNodes's /tellraw generator writes it for you). A merchant that opens your economy plugin's shop (or, without an economy, a Shopkeepers (in Spanish) shopkeeper, which charges emeralds through the villager trading window). An NPC with each staff member's skin in the staff room.

More NPCs isn't better: each one shaped like a player costs the server something, and a spawn with forty lags when it loads. For lots of decoration, use blocks or armor stands; NPCs are for what gets used.

If you prefer FancyNpcs

FancyNpcs is installed from Modrinth or Hangar on a Paper server and is also run with /npc: /npc create and a name creates it where you are. Click actions are added with /npc action, the NPC's name, the click (for example right_click) and add with the action: player_command is run by the player and console_command by the console, where {player} is whoever clicked.

Since its NPCs are packets and not entities, they don't move around the world or get pushed, and they barely cost anything. In exchange it has no paths, no guards and none of the plugins built on Citizens. For a simple spawn, either one works; if you're thinking of quests or NPCs that walk, Citizens.

Backups and common problems

All Citizens NPCs live in plugins/Citizens/saves.yml. If you delete it or it gets corrupted, they all disappear; keep it with your world backups, especially before updating the server or the plugin.

“Unknown command” or Citizens not starting after updating Minecraft: it's almost always a Citizens build that isn't for your version. Look at the console on startup: it says which version it expects. Get the new build and restart.

The NPC does nothing when clicked: check with /npc command that it has the command you think (and that you added it with that NPC selected), and that you didn't use the other mouse button. If the command uses -p, the player needs permission for that command.

The skin doesn't load or it shows Steve: the account you used doesn't exist or Mojang is slow to respond. Wait a minute and type /npc skin with the name again, or use --url with the image.

How to do it on NapNodes

NapNodes Minecraft servers are delivered on Paper, so Citizens and FancyNpcs work from day one, on the free server too. FancyNpcs is on Modrinth: in the panel, “Mods & plugins” finds it among what works for your version and installs it. Citizens isn't on Modrinth, so you upload it by hand.

1. Make a backup

   In “Backups”, before installing new plugins (the free server has no backups: keep a copy of anything you don't want to lose).

2. Upload Citizens

   Download the .jar for your version to your computer and, in “Files”, go into the plugins folder and upload it.

3. Restart

   With “Restart”. In “Console” you'll see Citizens loading; if it says it's not for your version, get another build.

4. Create the NPC in game

   Join the server as an operator (op your_name in “Console”, without the slash) and type /npc create with its name where you want it.

5. Keep saves.yml

   When your NPCs are the way you want them, download plugins/Citizens/saves.yml from “Files”: it's all you need to get them back.

Frequently asked questions