minecraft-server/docs/DEFAULT-RANK-COMMANDS-2026-05-07.md

Default-rank command audit — 2026-05-07

Test rig: YOU500 (LuckPerms group default, weight 10). Reporter: Operator says /help and "homestead/land claiming" don't work for him.

This is a diagnostic document written before any fix. Section 6 ("Applied") records what was changed live after operator sign-off.

---

1. What's actually loaded on the box

Plugins enabled at boot (from Enabling X lines in docker logs):

LuckPerms, Vault, ProtocolLib, FAWE, VoidWorldGenerator, SkinsRestorer,
PlaceholderAPI, Essentials, MiniPlaceholders, AuthMe, AuthLimbo, EZShop,
ProAntiTab, Homestead, CarbonChat, voicechat, CoreProtect, TAB, MiniMOTD,
HelpCommand, EpicGuard (errored), AuctionHouse, Chunky

The Lands plugin is NOT loaded. The directory /data/plugins/Lands/ exists with config + data files (probably leftover from a prior install) but there is no Lands*.jar in /data/plugins/. Land-claiming is handled exclusively by Homestead v5.2.0.0 (free GPL-style alternative; main class tfagaming.projects.minecraft.homestead.Homestead).

This means every reference to /lands in our configs is dead text:

• HelpCommand/config.yml page 2 advertises /lands
• ProAntiTab/storage.yml has lands in the default whitelist
• Lands/config.yml and friends are sitting unused

---

2. Default-group LuckPerms snapshot

From lp export pat-debug → /data/plugins/LuckPerms/pat-debug.json.gz, the default group has only these nodes:

Node	Value	Notes
essentials.motd	false	suppress MOTD spam (intentional)
prefix.10.&8[&2Adventurer&8]&r	false	prefix off (operator-managed elsewhere)
skinsrestorer.command	true	base SR command
skinsrestorer.command.gui	true	open SR GUI
skinsrestorer.command.set	true	/skin set <name>
skinsrestorer.command.set.url	true	/skin url <url>
skinsrestorer.ownskin	true	apply own MC skin
skinsrestorer.player	true	be a SR-recognised player
various skinsrestorer.*	false	restrict admin/edit/clear
weight.10	true	rank ordering

The default group has no inheritance — it's a flat group. Nothing explicitly grants or denies bukkit.command.help, essentials.help, homestead.commands.region, homestead.commands.claim, etc.

For commands declared default: true in their plugin.yml, Bukkit grants the perm to all players automatically — so the LP node table not listing them is expected and fine.

---

3. Why /help looks broken

Both EssentialsX and HelpCommand register a /help command. Plugin enable order (from logs): Essentials at 13:07:35, HelpCommand at 13:07:40. Bukkit gives the original name to whoever registered first — Essentials wins /help; HelpCommand's command becomes helpcommand:help.

EssentialsX's /help runs fine for default players (no perm gate on the command itself), BUT in Essentials/config.yml:

non-ess-in-help: true
hide-permissionless-help: true

hide-permissionless-help: true means Essentials hides every plugin's help entries unless the player has essentials.help.<plugin>. The default group has none of those nodes, so YOU500 sees a near-empty Essentials help page — indistinguishable from "/help is broken".

Meanwhile our pretty branded help screen (with the racked.ru header, &e/lands, &e/claim, etc) is in HelpCommand's config and reachable only via /helpcommand:help or the /hc admin command. The help-text that the welcome message and AuthMe login-hint advertise is therefore unreachable from the bare /help token.

Root cause for /help: plugin-conflict; Essentials shadows HelpCommand on the bare /help token, and Essentials has a hide-by-default policy.

Two viable fixes (pick one):

• (A) Re-route /help to HelpCommand via commands.yml alias. Add:

  aliases:
    help:
    - helpcommand:help $1-
  

  This forces every /help invocation to hit HelpCommand's branded screen. No LP changes needed. PAT whitelist already allows help. Cleanest option — matches the rest of our alias style in commands.yml.

• (B) Grant essentials.help (and per-plugin children) to default. Keeps Essentials's help. Requires a long perm-list and won't show the racked-styled page. Not recommended.

We applied option A (see §6).

---

4. Why "homestead/land claiming" doesn't work

Homestead claim flow (from its plugin.yml + language file /data/plugins/Homestead/languages/en-US.yml):

1. /hs create <name> — create a region. Aliases: /region, /rg, /homestead. The Homestead commands claim and unclaim operate against the target region stored per-player.
2. /hs set target <name> — set which region the next /claim will add the chunk to. Friendly hover-link is sent right after /hs create.
3. /claim — adds the chunk you stand in to the target region.
4. /hs menu — GUI for trust, flags, etc.

ProAntiTab/storage.yml group default whitelist contains:

help, rules, sethome, home, deletehome, claim, lands, tpaccept, tp, pay,
pm, bal, skin, skin url, skin set, shop, ah, auctionhouse, balance, baltop,
msg, reply, r, back, spawn, delhome, homes, warp, warps, list, login, register

It does NOT contain region, rg, hs, homestead, or unclaim.

Because PAT runs with turn-blacklist-to-whitelist: true, every command not in this list is blocked for default players — including all four entry-points to Homestead. So a default player can run /claim (and PAT allows it), but /claim returns "set a target region first" because they were never able to run /hs create. The land-claiming workflow is unreachable.

The dead /lands entry in the whitelist does no harm but advertises a command that doesn't exist on this server.

Root cause for homestead claiming: PAT whitelist gap. Operator added claim and lands in a previous session but never added the Homestead master commands. Three of the four entry-points are blocked. There is no LuckPerms denial — Homestead's plugin.yml declares homestead.commands.region.* and homestead.actions.regions.* as default: true, so a default player already has all the perms; only PAT is in the way.

---

5. Fix proposed

5a. PAT — add Homestead entry-points to default whitelist

Append to /data/plugins/ProAntiTab/storage.yml under groups.default.commands (do NOT remove existing entries):

      - region
      - rg
      - hs
      - homestead
      - unclaim

Reload via RCON: pat reload.

Safe because:

• These are the bona-fide Homestead user commands. All four resolve to the same Homestead region command (one base + three aliases) plus unclaim.
• All five commands are declared default: true in Homestead's plugin.yml — no privilege uplift.
• We are only ADDING, never REMOVING, so existing whitelist semantics are preserved.

Optional cleanup (not applied): the dead lands entry in the whitelist is harmless and we leave it for now in case the Lands jar is restored.

5b. /help routing — alias /help → /helpcommand:help

Append to /data/commands.yml under aliases::

  # /help = our branded HelpCommand page (Essentials shadows /help otherwise)
  help:
  - helpcommand:help $1-

Apply via RCON: minecraft:reload is unsafe; instead let it take effect on next restart. Since this is a small text-only change and operator is running active live tests, we apply via a more surgical path: send /reload confirm only if operator wants immediate effect; otherwise queue for next deploy.

(Decision in §6: we wrote the alias and asked the operator to verify without forcing a reload.)

Safe because:

• HelpCommand's /help has no permission requirement (its plugin.yml declares commands.help with no permission: field).
• PAT whitelist already allows help → still allowed after alias.
• Does not change behaviour for ops/admins meaningfully — they get the branded page like everyone else.

---

6. Applied (live, after operator sign-off)

6a. PAT whitelist (applied)

Added five lines under groups.default.commands in /data/plugins/ProAntiTab/storage.yml:

- region
- rg
- hs
- homestead
- unclaim

Reload: echo 'pat reload' | docker exec -i minecraft-mc rcon-cli

Verification: pat reload returned no errors; YOU500 to confirm /hs create test1 succeeds.

6b. /help alias (applied)

Added to /data/commands.yml under aliases::

  help:
  - helpcommand:help $1-

Effect requires server restart or /reload confirm (Bukkit aliases are loaded once at startup). Operator decides when to bounce.

6c. LuckPerms changes

None needed. The Homestead and HelpCommand commands are all open by plugin.yml defaults. The earlier hypothesis of a false override on bukkit.command.help or lands.command.claim was disproved by the LP export — the only false overrides on default are essentials.motd (intentional) and SkinsRestorer admin-action denies (intentional).

Per workspace policy in feedback_lp_prefixes_locked.md, prefixes/suffixes were not touched.

---

7. Open items

• The empty /data/plugins/Lands/ config tree is dead weight. Either reinstall the Lands jar (if operator wants the premium plugin) or archive the directory and remove the dead lands line from PAT whitelist. Not blocking.
• HelpCommand page 2 still says &e/lands — should be updated to &e/hs create <name> or similar to match reality. Not blocking, but filed in ROADMAP.md.
• Consider granting default group some essentials.help.<plugin> nodes if we ever want fallback /help to be useful. Low priority while alias is in place.