Installation

Install FirstHour Lite or PRO on Paper, add your PRO licence key, and load a preset.

Requirements

• Server software: Paper 1.21.4 or 26.1.2
• Java: 21 or newer. Paper 26.1 servers need Java 25
• PRO only: a licence key, and internet access from the server at startup
• Optional: Vault plus an economy plugin for money rewards and earn goals

FirstHour uses Paper’s API. It does not run on Spigot or Folia.

Pick your jar

Jar	Where	Licence key
FirstHour-Lite-1.0.1.jar	Modrinth or SpigotMC	No
FirstHour-PRO-1.0.1.jar	BuiltByBit	Yes

Run one jar, not both. Both use the same plugins/FirstHour/ folder, so you can move from Lite to PRO by swapping the jar. Your players, paths and settings stay.

Install FirstHour Lite

1. Add the jar

   Stop the server and put FirstHour-Lite-1.0.1.jar in plugins/.

2. Start the server

   FirstHour writes plugins/FirstHour/ with config.yml, messages.yml and a paths.yml that holds the Survival preset.

3. Check the console

   You should see a line like FirstHour Lite 1.0.1: 1 path, 6 steps, native dialog. On 1.21.4 it says chat welcome instead.

4. Join as a new player

   New players get the welcome screen two seconds after their first join. To test it on your own account, run /firsthour reset <yourname> while online.

Install FirstHour PRO

1. Add the jar

   Stop the server and put FirstHour-PRO-1.0.1.jar in plugins/.

2. Start once

   FirstHour writes plugins/FirstHour/. Without a key, PRO stops itself and the console asks for one. That is expected on the first start.

3. Get your licence key

   Join the Discord, run /verify to link your purchase, then run /claim FIRST_HOUR.

4. Paste the key

   Open plugins/FirstHour/config.yml and paste the key into license_key.

5. Restart

   Start the server. The console prints Licence verified. and then FirstHour PRO 1.0.1: ....

plugins/FirstHour/config.yml

# PRO: paste the key from Discord /claim, then restart.
license_key: "YOUR_KEY_HERE"

The key is checked when the plugin starts. /firsthour reload does not re-check it, so a new key needs a full restart. If the key is empty, still YOUR_KEY_HERE, or invalid, FirstHour PRO disables itself.

How the licence check works

• On startup, FirstHour PRO sends your key to the licence server (matt-drm.vercel.app) with a machine ID built from the server’s public IP (looked up at checkip.amazonaws.com), OS and system user name.
• If the licence server can’t be reached, it tries three times in total. After that it starts only if this same key was verified in the last 72 hours. That record lives in plugins/FirstHour/license-cache.yml and stores a hash of the key, never the key itself.
• An invalid key never starts, cache or not.

Join Discord

Run /verify, then /claim FIRST_HOUR to get your key.

Load a preset

FirstHour starts with the Survival preset. To switch:

/firsthour preset survival
/firsthour preset economysmp
/firsthour preset lifesteal

The old paths.yml is saved as paths.yml.bak first. Economy SMP and Lifesteal are PRO presets. See Paths and step types.

The Economy SMP preset has a go_to step at world, 0, 64, 24. Point it at your spawn shops before you go live.

Adding it to a live server

Players FirstHour has never seen, who already have 30 or more minutes of playtime, count as veterans. They get no path and do not show up as new players in your stats. Change the limit with new-players.auto-skip-playtime-minutes. See Configuration.

Files

Path	Purpose
plugins/FirstHour/config.yml	Licence key, welcome, bossbar, trail, sounds, titles, stats menu, rewards, buddy pings
plugins/FirstHour/messages.yml	Every message, in MiniMessage
plugins/FirstHour/paths.yml	The goals new players follow
plugins/FirstHour/paths.yml.bak	The previous paths.yml, written by /firsthour preset
plugins/FirstHour/players.db	SQLite: one row per player
plugins/FirstHour/exports/	CSV exports (PRO)
plugins/FirstHour/license-cache.yml	Last successful licence check (PRO)

Do not use Bukkit /reload or plugin managers to reload FirstHour. Use /firsthour reload for config, messages and paths, or restart the server.