Retention Autopilot

Unlimited

Where new players drop off in their first session, which join address stopped bringing players back, and what to check first. On the Unlimited plan.

Last updated: September 2026

#What it shows

Autopilot sits under Analytics in the sidebar. It reads the first sessions of your new players and their 7-day return, and answers three things: where new players drop off, which join address is slipping, and what to check first.

It is on the Unlimited plan. On any other plan the page says so and reads no data at all. The daily alert check skips every network that is not on a live Unlimited plan.

New players here are players whose first join fell in the 30 days before the last 7. Every one of them has had a full 7 days to come back, so the share in each group and its return rate are read on the same players.

The same return rule as Growth

7-day return is a later qualifying session within 7 days of the first join: a confirmed login, or 3 minutes online on a network with no login plugin. See the 7 day return rule for the details.

#Drop-off groups

Each group is read from the player's first session, and a player can sit in more than one. Each group shows its share of the new players it could judge, then its 7-day return next to everyone else. The return rates show once each side holds 30 players. Under that the group reads Not enough players yet.

The hub is the first server a player lands on, so any move to another server leaves it. Set a lobby server name in Autopilot settings and any move to, or landing on, a server other than the lobby leaves it instead.
On a single Paper server with no proxy there are no server moves, so Never left spawn reads the distance from spawn or the spawn region, and advancements on an older connector.
A group that needs data your connectors do not send says what it needs instead of showing 0%.
By join address repeats the four groups for your six busiest addresses. Players with no join address count in the totals and get no row.

Group	Who is in it	What it needs
Left within 10 minutes	The first session ended less than 10 minutes after the join.	Any connector. Judged on first sessions that have ended.
Never left spawn	Under 16 blocks from where they started, or never left a region named spawn, and no move off the hub server in the first session. Older connectors: no advancement.	Connector 1.0.5 or newer, and the connector on your Paper servers. 1.0.14 or newer for the exact rule.
Quit after dying	Died in the first session and quit within 5 minutes of that death.	Connector 1.0.5 or newer on your Paper servers, which report deaths.
Kicked	Kicked in the first session for being idle or by a plugin. Ban and whitelist kicks are left out, because those players could not come back.	Connector 1.0.5 or newer.

#Join address alerts

Once a day, Autopilot takes each join address and compares the 7-day return of last week's new players with the same address over the 4 weeks before. Last week is the latest 7 days of first joins whose 7 days have all closed.

Every alert is logged on the page with the numbers that fired it, and posted to your Discord webhook when one is saved and alerts are on.

Each side needs at least 30 new players from that address.
Last week must be at least 5 points under the 4 weeks before.
A two-proportion z test with a pooled standard error must put the drop at p under 0.05, two sided. Two sided is stricter than it has to be for a drop, on purpose: the check runs every day.
At most one alert per address in any 7 days. A drop that is still there next week alerts again.

Read it as a lead

An alert says players from one address stopped coming back as often. It does not say why. A new ad, a changed server list page, or a campaign that brought a different crowd all look the same here.

#Suggested fixes

One suggestion per pattern that passed a rule. They are worded in advance and picked by the rule, never generated, and each names the numbers behind it.

A drop-off group gets a suggestion when at least 1 in 10 of the new players it judged sit in it, each side holds 30 players, and the group comes back at least 5 points less often than the rest at p under 0.05. A big group whose players come back as often as anyone else gets none.

Pattern	Suggestion
Left within 10 minutes	Shorten the tutorial or the walk from spawn.
Never left spawn	Make the way out of spawn obvious.
Quit after dying	Check early mob or PvP exposure near spawn.
Kicked	Check the AFK kick timer when most kicks are for being idle, or anticheat kicks for false flags when most come from a plugin.
A join address dropped	Check what changed on that address's server or ad.

#Settings

Autopilot settings sit at the bottom of the Autopilot page. An owner or admin can change them.

Discord webhook URL. In Discord open the channel settings, then Integrations, Webhooks, New Webhook, and Copy Webhook URL. Only https://discord.com/api/webhooks/ and discordapp.com addresses are accepted. The URL is stored sealed and never shown again; the page shows the last four digits of its id.
Post alerts to Discord. Off still logs every alert on the page.
Lobby server name. Optional. The server name from your proxy config. Empty means the hub is the first server each player lands on.

#What it cannot see

Autopilot reads what the connector already sends. Never left spawn is exact only on connector 1.0.14 or newer, which sends how far a player got from where they started. On an older connector it means no advancement and no move off the hub server.

Quit after dying counts any death, whatever the cause. A fall, a mob and another player all count the same.

A group is a lead, not proof. Players who leave in 10 minutes may differ in other ways too, such as the address they came from or the hour they joined.