ChunksLoader

ChunksLoader is a Spigot/Paper plugin that lets server owners keep areas of the world permanently loaded by placing special beacon-based "chunk loader" blocks. The plugin supports Minecraft versions up to 1.21.9, integrates with popular web map plugins, and provides tools for managing loaders in game.

Features

Chunk loader item – Operators can grant players a beacon that forces the surrounding chunks to stay loaded while it is active.
Placement safeguards – Loaders cannot be placed in regions that are already covered by another loader to prevent overlapping areas.
Interactive control menu – Right-clicking a loader opens a GUI to toggle it on or off without breaking the block.
Chunk map preview – /chunksloader map displays a coloured overview of nearby chunks that indicates active loaders, inactive loaders, spawn chunks, and unloaded areas.
Dynmap and BlueMap support – When the respective plugins are installed, the loader areas are published to the web map with tooltips that show ownership, radius, and status information.
Persistent storage – Loader locations and states are saved to chunkloaders.yml, ensuring that they survive server restarts.

Commands

Command	Description	Permission
`/chunksloader give [player]`	Gives the chunk loader item to the specified player (or yourself if omitted).	`chunksloader.give`
`/chunksloader map`	Shows the chunk status map centred on the executing player.	`chunksloader.use`

If the plugin command is entered without a sub-command, the available options are displayed in chat.

Permissions

Permission	Default	Description
`chunksloader.use`	Everyone	Allows using `/chunksloader map` and interacting with loader GUIs.
`chunksloader.give`	Operators	Allows giving loader items with `/chunksloader give`.

Configuration

The default config.yml exposes two options:

loader-radius: 1   # How many chunks around the loader stay active (radius).
map-radius: 5      # Radius, in chunks, of the `/chunksloader map` preview.

Reload the server or restart it after changing the configuration so the new values take effect.

Map integrations

Dynmap – When Dynmap is installed, the plugin creates a dedicated marker layer that shows each loader's coverage area with descriptions that include coordinates, chunk count, status, and owner information.
BlueMap – When BlueMap is present, the plugin adds a toggleable marker set to every rendered world and keeps it synchronised with loader changes.

Both integrations are optional; the plugin operates fully without them.

Building

./gradlew build

Note: The Gradle wrapper jar is stored in a Base64-encoded form at gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar.base64. Running ./gradlew restores the jar automatically. If you prefer to invoke Gradle directly, decode the file yourself with base64 -d gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar.base64 > gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar before running any tasks.

The command above generates a shaded jar named using the pattern ChunksLoader-<minecraft-version>-<release-tag>.jar and places it in both build/libs/ and the repository-level assets/ directory. By default the Minecraft version is set to 1.21.9.

To produce jars for every supported Minecraft version in one go, use the helper script:

./scripts/build-all-assets.sh

The script reads the supported Minecraft versions from supported-versions.txt, recompiles the plugin for each entry, and ensures that every resulting jar is copied into the assets/ directory using the ChunksLoader-<minecraft-version>-<release-tag>.jar naming scheme so they can be uploaded directly to a release.