Try it now (Minecraft test servers)

Try it now starts a real Minecraft server with your project installed, just for you. You join it from your own game, test the plugin, script or datapack, and the server disappears by itself when the time is up.

#What you can try

Fabric and Forge mods, Folia and BungeeCord projects cannot be tried on a test server yet.

Plugins and Skript projects can also be checked by Codexe's test players, from the Tests tab of the same window: see Tests with test players.

#Start a test server

The test server opens from the Try it now button in the toolbar, from Try it in Minecraft now, free under the AI's last reply, and from the download window (Start the test server), so you can try a project before downloading it. If today's test servers are used up, it says so and shows the plan with more.

1. Open the project. For a plugin, press Compile first: the server installs the compiled jar.
2. Press Try it in Minecraft: under the last reply in the chat (Try it in Minecraft now, free), in the toolbar next to Compile, and next to Download JAR after a build. It is free on every plan, also for projects you have not downloaded: it is the way to use a project on Free without a download.
3. Enter your Minecraft name and press Start the test server. That name is added to your Server Access list as operator, and only the names on that list can join.
4. The button shows Starting server… while it boots, usually 20 to 40 seconds. When it reads Server online with the time left, the address appears: your time starts only then.
5. In Minecraft: Multiplayer, Direct Connection, and paste the address, for example swift-otter-27.codexe.eu. No port is needed. If the dialog ever shows a numeric address with a port instead, paste it exactly as shown.

You can join from any Minecraft Java version from 1.8 to 26.3, whatever version the server runs: every test server has ViaVersion, ViaBackwards and ViaRewind installed.

#The world

Most projects are tried in a flat world without structures: it starts quickly, and for crates, commands, menus or kits the terrain does not matter.

When the project needs real terrain, Codexe starts the server with a new normal world instead, with biomes, mountains, caves and structures such as villages and pillager outposts. You do not have to ask: Codexe reads the project and decides. For example a datapack that changes world generation (higher mountains, new biomes), or a plugin that acts in snowy peaks or on pillager outposts, gets a normal world; a crates plugin stays flat. A datapack is installed before the world is generated, so its terrain is what you see. Generating the world makes the first start a little longer, and the console says why a normal world was chosen.

#Plugins your plugin needs

If your plugin lists other plugins in its plugin.yml (depend and softdepend) or paper-plugin.yml, such as LuckPerms, Vault, PlaceholderAPI, WorldEdit, WorldGuard or ProtocolLib, the test server installs them for you, in the version made for its Minecraft version, together with what they need in turn. They come from Modrinth and Hangar.

The console says what was installed. Paid plugins (MythicMobs, ItemsAdder, Nexo...) cannot be installed automatically: the console says so, and a plugin that requires one will not enable on the test server.

#A database for your plugin

If your plugin stores its data in MySQL, the test server gives it a MySQL database of its own. It happens by itself when the plugin's config.yml says storage-type: mysql and has the usual mysql: section (host, port, database, username, password): the test server creates the database, writes its address and a new password into that section, and starts the server. The console says when it is done.

• Plugins made with Codexe use SQLite by default, a file that needs no setup. Ask for MySQL in the chat if you want it, and the plugin is written with storage-type: mysql.
• Only your own plugin gets a database. The plugins installed for it (LuckPerms and the others above) keep their own default storage on the test server.
• The database is deleted when the test server stops, together with everything else. It can hold up to 200 MB: past that the server stops.

#Limits per plan

The minutes count from the moment the server is ready, not from when you press Start. One test server per account runs at a time. When all test servers are busy, try again a few minutes later.

#Server Access

Server Access (in the account menu, or the Players tab of a running server) is the list of people who may join your test servers. The number of names is the plan's People on a test server above.

• Add a Minecraft name. Codexe looks it up with Mojang to show whether it is a premium account and its face; names without a Mojang account are added as offline players, and for those the exact spelling matters.
• Operator gives that player /op on the server. You can turn it on and off at any time.
• Remove takes a name off the list.

Changes reach a server that is already running within a few seconds, including removing someone who is online; otherwise they apply to the next server you start. The list also shows who is online now and when each person last joined.

#Console, logs and performance

The panel of a running server has three more tabs:

• Console sends Minecraft commands to the server, as the server console would, and shows the answer. It is only the Minecraft console: commands that stop or reload the server, and commands that change operators or the whitelist, are refused (use Server Access for those). Up to 10 commands every 10 seconds.
• Logs shows the server log live, with warnings and errors highlighted, and keeps the end of the log after the server stops. Export logs saves the log of this session as a .log file, with the time and level of every line, to debug or to share with someone helping you.
• Performance shows CPU, memory, TPS, players online and disk use of the server, sampled every 10 seconds.

#When the server stops by itself

Besides the end of its time, a test server stops:

• When you leave Codexe. The project's page tells the server you are still there. If that page has not been open for about a minute (you closed the tab, signed out, or lost the connection), the server stops. Signing out stops it at once.
• When nobody plays. After 15 minutes with nobody online, the server stops.

The reason is shown in the panel: stopped by you, time up, you left Codexe, nobody online, or a server error.

If you have not downloaded the project yet, the download window opens again when the test server stops, so you can download the project or pick a plan. It no longer shows the button to start another test server.

#While you play

• Friends you let in through Server Access are greeted as guests on your server, and told only you can change the project.
• When you join, a [Codexe] message in chat explains that this is a test server, how long it has left, and that everything on it is deleted when it closes.
• Reminders appear in chat 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute and 10 seconds before the end.
• The AI cannot see what happens on the server. To change the project, describe the change in the project chat as usual.
• Slimes do not spawn by themselves, so they do not get in the way while you test. Every other mob spawns as usual, and a slime from a spawn egg, a spawner or a command still appears.

#Updating the project

If you compile again (or change the Skript files or the datapack) while a test server is running, the dialog shows This server runs an older build with Restart with the latest build. The new server has the latest build and a fresh timer.

#What is kept

The server itself: nothing. When a test server stops, for any of the reasons above or when you restart it with a newer build, the server and everything on it is deleted: worlds, builds, configuration changes and your plugin's database. It cannot be reopened.

Codexe keeps a short record of each session for you and for support: when it started and stopped and why, the Minecraft version, the players who joined, the commands sent from the console, the last part of the log and the performance samples. What is kept and for how long is in the Privacy Policy, Section 4.8 and its retention table.

#Isolation and safety

• Each test server runs in an isolated environment, with its own limits on memory, CPU and time, and no access to the internet. Code that calls a web API, an external database or Mojang cannot reach them from a test server. The only database it can reach is the one created for your plugin, which no other test server can open.
• The server runs in offline mode, so it does not check the player name with Mojang: anyone who knows both the address and a name on your Server Access list could join while it runs. Do not share the address with people you do not want on it.
• The console reaches only Minecraft: there is no shell, no file access and no command on the machine behind it.
• What the test server keeps while it runs, and for how long, is described in the Privacy Policy, Section 4.8. The rules are in the Terms, Sections 15.6 to 15.10.

#Troubleshooting