Chat Formats with Essentials Chat

🎨 Chat Formatting in Minecraft — Make Your Server Stand Out! 💬

Chat formatting lets you control how messages appear when players talk in the game. It’s commonly used to set up group names or highlight players to make chat more dynamic and organized.

On Paper servers, chat formatting has two parts — the player’s nickname/display name and the chat message. Using EssentialsX together with EssentialsX Chat and a permissions manager like LuckPerms, you can customize both beautifully!

⚠️ To avoid conflicts, EssentialsX disables most of its chat features unless you install the EssentialsChat module. You can still enable display name formatting manually in the configuration file, though.

⚙️ Where to Find the Configuration

You’ll find all chat formatting settings inside the Essentials config file.Access it from your game panel by going to the “Config Files” tab or manually via FTP File Access:

• Log in using your Control Panel password.

• Open the Plugins folder.

• Navigate to EssentialsX → open config.yml.

• Scroll near the bottom — that’s where the chat formatting lives.

You can define a global chat style for all players or customize unique formats per group.

🧩 Example Chat Format Section (config.yml)

💬 Setting the Default Chat Format

format: '&9{DISPLAYNAME}: &7{MESSAGE}'

Everything inside the quotes (" ") defines your chat look.Tags like {DISPLAYNAME} and {MESSAGE} represent each player’s name and message — and you can add more (like {GROUP}) using the Essentials wiki.

🌈 Adding Colors & Styles

Add flair to your chat with color and text formatting codes.Check the full color list on the Essentials wiki or run /kit color in-game.

For instance, &9 gives light blue, and &l makes text bold — combine them like so:

format: '&9&l{DISPLAYNAME}: &7{MESSAGE}'

Save your changes and restart the server — done! 🚀

👥 Group-Specific Formats

You can also define special formats for each permission group — for example, Default, Admin, or Streamer:

🎯 The group names must match exactly with those from your permissions plugin (like LuckPerms).

Conclusion

We hope this guide has been helpful! 🚀 Remember, don’t hesitate to ask questions on the HolyHosting Discord or contact our support team.

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Stuffy @ HolyHosting