How to setup a localhost Minecraft Paper server.

Before you start:

• You will need Java installed for this to work, I recommend getting it from a provider like Adoptium, you can find out which Java version you need for whichever Minecraft version you are going to use by going to Paper's Fill-ui page and then the version you want to use.
• This guide is made on Windows, it may not work exactly on Linux or Mac, but it should.
• I am making a Minecraft 26.2 server, you should be able to follow the same steps for any version though.

#1 - Getting the start.bat file.

First go to Paper's start script generator. Then;

• 1: Select how much memory capacity you want your server to have. It's really up to you what you choose, for this I'm going to use 8GB.
• 2: Choose whichever platform you are on, I'm on windows.
• 3: Select which startup flags you want to use out of None or Aikar's, I'm going with Aikar's as they help slightly with server performance.
• 4: You can choose to have a gui when you start up your server, and have your server auto restart. Having gui selected will open up a seperate console to the default Windows (or Linux or Max) one when you start your server, I wouldn't recommend this as it can just get in the way.
  Having auto restart selected will make your server actually restart when you run the restart command, but it also happens when you run the stop command, which I don't like so I do not use this.
• 5: Download the configured start.bat file.

#2 - Getting the jar file.

Go to Paper's Fill-ui page. Then;

• 1: Choose which version you want to go with, I'm going with 26.2.
• 2: Go to the versions section and click on the supported version.
• 3: Scroll down to the builds section and download the latest stable build, for me it is #133

#3 - Setting up the rest of the files.

Move the start.bat and jar file from your downloads folder to whatever folder you want your server files to be in, I just have mine in a folder named localhost tutorial in a folder dedicated to minecraft stuff.

Rename the jar file from whatever it is to server.jar

Now run the start.bat file.

When you run it for the first time, it will create a few files and then error, this is normal. You need to agree to the Minecraft EULA for it to continue. Change the "false" in the newly created eula.txt file to "true", you can do this with a text editor of your choice.

You can now run start.bat again, and it will finish creating the rest of the files. Your server is now setup.

You can join your server by going to Minecraft, adding a new server, then;

• 1: Setting the server name, this can be whatever you want it to be.
• 2: Setting the server address to 127.0.0.1 or localhost.
• 3: And click done to add the server to your server list.

Whenever you want to start your server, just run start.bat, you can have a shortcut to it wherever you want.

If you want to add any plugins to your server, download plugin jar files from somewhere like Modrinth, and put them in the plugins folder, then restart your server.