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Follow these steps to install Runway on your Paper server and start using MiniMessage formatting everywhere.

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Before you begin

Make sure your server meets the requirements:
Your server is running Paper 1.20.6 or higher
Your server is running Java 21
Runway requires Paper specifically and will not work on Spigot or Bukkit. If you’re not sure which server software you’re running, check your server jar file name or run /version in-game.

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Installation steps

1

Download Runway

Download the latest version of Runway from one of these sources:

Hangar

Official Paper plugin repository

Modrinth

Community plugin platform
Choose the latest stable release compatible with your server version.
2

Stop your server

Stop your Minecraft server if it’s currently running. You can do this by:
  • Running /stop in the server console
  • Or pressing Ctrl+C in the terminal/console window
Wait for the server to fully shut down before proceeding. Look for the “Closing Server” or similar message in your console.
3

Upload the plugin

Place the downloaded Runway JAR file into your server’s plugins folder.
/your-server-directory/
├── plugins/
│   └── Runway-x.x.x.jar  # Place the file here
├── paper.jar
└── ...
4

Install optional dependencies (optional)

If you want to use placeholders in your formatted messages, install one or both of these plugins:Place them in the plugins folder alongside Runway.
Both plugins can be used at the same time. Runway will automatically detect them on startup.
5

Start your server

Start your Minecraft server. Runway will:
  1. Load with PacketEvents
  2. Generate default configuration files
  3. Detect any optional dependencies
  4. Register packet listeners
  5. Initialize the command system
Watch your console for the success message:
[Runway] The plugin has been successfully enabled!
6

Verify installation

Join your server and verify Runway is working:
/runway parse <gradient:red:blue>Hello World!</gradient>
You should see a beautiful gradient message parsed in the chat. If you see the formatted text, Runway is installed correctly!
By default, you need the runway.reload permission to reload the config, but the /runway parse command is available to all players.

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First-time server setup

After installation, Runway creates several configuration files in the plugins/Runway/ directory:
  • config.yml: Main configuration for prefix requirements, listeners, and behavior
  • lang.yml: Customizable command messages
  • placeholders.yml: Custom static placeholders
You can customize these files to fit your server’s needs. Changes take effect after running /runway reload.

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Configuration files

Here’s what gets generated on first startup: 
require-prefix:
  # Is [mm] required for packets to be parsed by MiniMessage?
  minimessage: true
  # Is [p] required for packets to be parsed by PlaceholderAPI/MiniPlaceholders?
  placeholders: true

# Whether PlaceholderAPI or MiniPlaceholders should be hooked into Runway
placeholder-hook:
  placeholderapi: false
  miniplaceholders: false

# Whether to disable italics in names and lores of items
disable-italics: true

# Whether to ignore legacy colors in packets by replacing the legacy color code with &
ignore-legacy: false

listeners:
  # Whether to parse system messages (plugin messages)
  system-messages: true
  # Whether to parse the tablist
  tablist: true
  # Whether to parse titles and subtitles
  titles: true
  # Whether to parse scoreboards
  scoreboards: false
  inventory:
    # Whether to parse inventory titles
    title: true
    # Whether to parse inventory items (name and lore)
    items: true
  # Whether to parse items (name and lore)
  items: true

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Checking for dependencies

When Runway starts, it automatically checks for optional dependencies:
  • If PlaceholderAPI is not found, placeholder support is disabled with a warning
  • If MiniPlaceholders is not found, MiniPlaceholders support is disabled with a warning
These checks happen automatically, and you can enable the hooks in config.yml once you install the dependencies.

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Troubleshooting

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Runway doesn’t load

Runway requires Java 21. Run java -version in your terminal to check your Java version.
Make sure you’re running Paper 1.20.6 or higher. Runway won’t work on Spigot or Bukkit.
Look for any error messages in your server console when Runway loads. These will indicate what went wrong.

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Plugin loads but formatting doesn’t work

Make sure you’re using the [mm] prefix in your messages (unless you’ve disabled the prefix requirement in the config). See the quick start guide for examples.

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Next steps

Quick start

Learn how to use Runway with your first formatted message

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