Citizens

Full-featured NPC plugin. Create human and mob NPCs with custom skins, behaviors, pathfinding and interaction scripts.

by fullwall

Fun

Complete Configuration Tutorial Hosting Setup

Platforms

bukkit spigot paper

Dependencies

No dependencies required.

What is Citizens?

Citizens is the de facto NPC framework for Bukkit servers. It spawns persistent non-player characters — human-looking with custom skins, or any mob type — that stand where you place them, survive restarts, and can run commands or open shops when clicked. NPCs support pathfinding and waypoints so they walk routes, look-close behaviour so they turn to nearby players, and equipment. Through traits and the Denizen scripting add-on they can hold dialogue and complex behaviour, which is why questing, shop and minigame plugins frequently build on Citizens.

Who it's for: Servers that want shopkeepers, quest givers, info NPCs, server-selector characters or decorative crowds. A building block for RPG and roleplay servers as much as a standalone tool. It is built and maintained by fullwall and sits in the fun category.

Key features of Citizens

Custom NPC creation
Skin support
Pathfinding and waypoints
NPC commands on click
Mob NPC types
Equipment customization
Script integration (Denizen)
Look-close behavior
Hologram names

How to install Citizens

Citizens runs on Bukkit, Spigot or Paper servers. fullwall maintains Citizens for current Spigot/Paper versions; the modern Citizens2 line covers recent Minecraft releases with frequent updates to track skin and entity changes.

1Stop your server, or have it ready to restart. Always back up your world and plugins folder before adding a new plugin.
2Download Citizens.jar (a build matching your server version) and place it in your server's /plugins folder.
3Citizens has no required dependencies, so it runs on its own once the jar is in place.
4Start the server fully. Citizens generates its configuration files on first launch — stop the server, edit them to taste, then start again.
5Confirm it loaded by checking the console for Citizens on startup, or by running one of its commands in-game.

Note: Drop Citizens.jar into /plugins and restart. It works standalone, but custom skins fetched from the Mojang API need outbound internet access, and advanced scripted behaviour requires the separate Denizen plugin. NPCs are stored in saves.yml and respawn automatically.

Citizens commands and permissions

Main commands

/npc create: Spawns a new NPC at your location with the given name; by default a player-type NPC.
/npc skin: Applies a skin to the selected NPC by player name or signature.
/npc command: Attaches a command to run when the NPC is clicked, optionally as the server or the player.
/npc type: Changes the selected NPC into a different entity, such as a villager, zombie or armor stand.

Permission nodes

citizens.npc.create: Allows creating new NPCs.
citizens.npc.skin: Allows changing NPC skins.
citizens.npc.command: Allows attaching click commands to NPCs.
citizens.npc.edit: General editing access to existing NPCs.

Citizens FAQ

How do I create an NPC?

Run /npc create <name>. The NPC spawns where you stand and is automatically selected for further commands. Use /npc skin <player> to give it a face and /npc command add ... to make it do something when clicked.

How do I give an NPC a custom skin?

Select the NPC, then run /npc skin <minecraft_username> to copy that account's skin. This requires the server to reach Mojang's skin API. For skins not tied to a username you can apply a texture/signature pair stored from a skin site.

Can NPCs run commands when clicked?

Yes. Use /npc command add <command> on the selected NPC, and choose whether it runs as the player or as the console. This is how server-selector NPCs, warp NPCs and simple shop NPCs are built without any scripting.

Do Citizens NPCs survive a restart?

Yes. NPCs are saved to saves.yml and respawn on startup at their stored location with their traits intact. You do not need to recreate them after a reboot.

What is Denizen and do I need it?

Denizen is a separate scripting add-on for Citizens that adds dialogue trees, quests and complex behaviour. You only need it for advanced interactive NPCs; basic NPCs that just stand around or run a click command work with Citizens alone.

Features

Custom NPC creation
Skin support
Pathfinding and waypoints
NPC commands on click
Mob NPC types
Equipment customization
Script integration (Denizen)
Look-close behavior
Hologram names

Commands

/npc create/npc remove/npc skin/npc command/npc tp/npc equip/npc type/npc lookclose/npc waypoints

Permissions

citizens.npc.createcitizens.npc.removecitizens.npc.skincitizens.npc.commandcitizens.npc.edit