Glossary

Short, plain-English definitions of the terms used across the PluginPulse guides.

• Paper / Spigot / Folia — server software that runs Bukkit plugins. Paper is the most common; Spigot is its older sibling; Folia is a multithreaded Paper fork. PluginPulse works on all three.
• Plugin jar — the .jar file you drop into a server's plugins/ folder. It's a ZIP archive containing compiled code and a descriptor.
• Descriptor (plugin.yml / paper-plugin.yml) — a small text file inside a plugin jar that tells the server the plugin's name, version, and main class (its entry point).
• JitPack — a free service (jitpack.io) that turns any public GitHub repository tag into a downloadable Gradle/Maven dependency on demand. You do not need a JitPack account to use a library — you just add a repository URL to your build file. (A GitHub account only matters if you publish your own project through JitPack later.)
• Gradle / Maven — build tools for Java/Kotlin projects. Your build file (build.gradle.kts, build.gradle, or pom.xml) lists dependencies and how to package your plugin.
• Shading — bundling a library's classes inside your plugin jar so it ships as one self-contained file (the server won't load the library separately).
• Relocation — renaming a shaded library's packages (e.g. io.github.darkstarworks.pluginpulse → my.plugin.libs.pluginpulse) so two plugins that both shade the same library don't collide at runtime. Always relocate shaded libraries.
• MiniMessage — Paper's rich-text format for colored, clickable chat messages (<gold>, <click:...>). PluginPulse uses it for update notices; on Spigot it falls back to plain text automatically.
• Bukkit update folder (plugins/update/) — a folder the server checks on startup. If it finds a jar there whose filename exactly matches a loaded plugin's jar, it swaps the old one for the new one. This is how PluginPulse applies a staged update on the next restart — no live jar swapping by default.
• Modrinth / Hangar — plugin hosting sites with public APIs PluginPulse can check for new versions. GitHub Releases works too.
• Hot reload — applying an update without restarting the server, by unloading and reloading the plugin in place. Opt-in and used with care; restart-install is the safe default.