Bukkit Color Codes

Bukkit color codes

Format codes

ChatColor API

The 16 colours as the Bukkit ChatColor enum, with the ampersand code used in config files.

Using color in a plugin

In config.yml: prefix: "&8[&bServer&8]". In code:

String msg = ChatColor.translateAlternateColorCodes('&',
    config.getString("prefix"));
player.sendMessage(msg);

On Paper / Spigot 1.16+ you can also use full hex with &#RRGGBB, or net.md_5.bungee.api.ChatColor.of("#RRGGBB"). The 16 classic codes above work on every version.

Bukkit, Spigot and Paper — same codes

Bukkit, Spigot and Paper all share the same color-code system, because it comes from Minecraft itself. Spigot is a fork of Bukkit and Paper is a fork of Spigot; each adds performance and API features on top, but org.bukkit.ChatColor, the § codes and translateAlternateColorCodes behave identically across all three. That means a plugin config written with & codes, or a permissions prefix, or an Essentials nickname, works the same whether the server runs CraftBukkit, Spigot or Paper. The one meaningful split is hex support: full #RRGGBB colors need a 1.16+ server, and the exact helper differs — Paper adopts the modern Adventure Component API, while Spigot uses the BungeeCord ChatColor.of() method.

The ampersand convention

Almost every plugin asks you to write colors with & rather than § in YAML and JSON config, because the section sign is awkward to type and easy for a text editor to corrupt. The plugin then calls ChatColor.translateAlternateColorCodes('&', text) to swap every & followed by a valid code character into a real § before sending the message. If your colors show up as literal &a text in game, that translate call is missing or the config value was not passed through it. The MOTD in server.properties is the exception — it is read by the vanilla server, not a plugin, so it needs the \u00A7 unicode form, which the generator above produces.

Bukkit color code FAQ