Paper, Purpur, Folia and Spigot setup

Backend

Install the connector on backend servers for heartbeats, in game events, confirmed bans, and login confirmation.

Last updated: September 2026

#When to install on Paper

Behind a proxy the Velocity or BungeeCord connector already handles hostname attribution and sessions. Adding the Paper connector gives you per server health, confirmed cheat bans, and login confirmation for cracked players.

Without a proxy, the Paper connector does everything on its own.

#Supported versions

One jar covers Paper, Purpur, Folia and Spigot, 1.20 and newer. It is built for Java 17, so it runs wherever your server's Java runs.

Folia ticks every region on its own, so a Folia server has no single TPS or MSPT. Its heartbeat sends online players and memory, and Health shows Not available for the tick numbers rather than a made up value. The connector finds Folia at startup and reads players and worlds only on the thread that owns them; the Folia page lists what runs where.

Purpur is built on Paper and runs the same jar. It runs on live networks today, though it is not in our automated test runs, so tell us on Discord if something behaves differently there.

Spigot runs the same jar too. Spigot does not report TPS, so the connector measures it itself, and it has no MSPT or client brand to read, so Health shows Not available for MSPT and sessions carry no brand. A vote from a player who is offline is sent without a player match. Everything else works as on Paper, and the console says this in one line at startup.

Platform	Versions we test on
Paper	1.20.1, 1.20.4, and 26.3
Folia	1.20.4 and 26.2

Folia support

#Deployment modes

How auto decides

Backend means proxies.velocity.enabled is true in config/paper-global.yml, or settings.bungeecord is true in spigot.yml. The online-mode switches under proxies are true on every server and are ignored. The console and /mca status name the mode and the setting behind it. A server behind a proxy that forwards nothing, such as Velocity with player-info-forwarding-mode set to none, is detected as standalone: set deployment-mode to backend there.

Mode	Use it when	What it sends
auto	You are not sure	Backend when Velocity forwarding or BungeeCord mode is on, standalone otherwise
backend	The server sits behind a proxy that runs the MCAnalytics connector	Heartbeats, in game events, confirmed bans, and login hooks. Sessions come from the connector on the proxy, so it needs that connector
standalone	Players join this server directly, or through a proxy without MCAnalytics	Sessions and hostnames as well as the above

#Configuration reference

The config file is plugins/MCAnalyticsLoader/config.yml.

yamlplugins/MCAnalyticsLoader/config.yml

# Connect from the console: mca pair <code>
# MCAnalytics always connects to https://mcanalytics.org.
# There is no address to set.

server-name: "paper-server"
deployment-mode: "auto"   # auto | backend | standalone

# Off by default. When on, the API stores only a keyed hash.
track-ip-address: false

debug: false

# Update the loader jar by itself (loader 1.0.5 and newer). A verified
# newer loader goes to plugins/update and is used after the next restart.
# Set to false to update the loader by hand.
auto-update-loader: true

Behind a proxy with a login plugin

If you supply the token through MCANALYTICS_API_TOKEN instead of pairing, set MCANALYTICS_NETWORK_ID too. The auth channel between Paper and the proxy is signed with the network id.

On a network that runs nLogin for its cracked players, the connector waits for a confirmed login before it stamps a session as authenticated. A session that stalls at the password prompt is never counted as a return.

Premium Java and Bedrock players are authenticated by the platform at join, so their sessions carry the confirmation already.