How to set up LuckPerms: ranks and permissions

LuckPerms is the standard permissions plugin for Paper servers. A permission is a small switch such as essentials.home that says a player may use a command or feature. LuckPerms lets you give those switches to groups (ranks) instead of one player at a time. This guide gets you from nothing to working ranks.

The idea in one minute

A permission is a name like essentials.sethome. Each plugin lists the ones it uses.
A group is a bundle of permissions, such as default, member or moderator.
A player belongs to one or more groups. Everyone starts in default.
Groups can inherit from each other, so a moderator gets everything a member has, plus more.

Install it

Put the LuckPerms jar in your plugins folder and restart, see how to install plugins. On Saryno it is a one-click add-on. LuckPerms needs no setup to start, and it saves to a local file by default.

The easiest way: the web editor

Run /lp editor in the game or console. LuckPerms gives you a link to a page where you can create groups, tick permissions and add players, and then press save and apply the changes to your server with a command it shows you. If you prefer a visual tool, use this.

Doing it with commands

Everything the editor does is also a command, and these are worth knowing.

/lp creategroup member
/lp creategroup moderator
/lp group moderator parent add member

The last line makes moderators inherit everything members can do. Now give permissions:

/lp group default permission set essentials.home true
/lp group member permission set essentials.tpa true
/lp group moderator permission set essentials.kick true
/lp group moderator permission set essentials.mute true

Put a player in a group, and check:

/lp user FriendName parent add member
/lp user FriendName info

To take a permission away from a group, set it to false, or use unset to remove the line:

/lp group default permission set essentials.tpa false
/lp group default permission unset essentials.tpa

Prefixes in chat

A prefix shows the rank in chat. It needs a chat plugin that understands LuckPerms, such as EssentialsX Chat, or a placeholder in your chat format.

/lp group moderator meta setprefix 100 "&9[Mod] &r"

The number is a priority: if a player has several prefixes, the highest wins.

A simple rank ladder

default: can chat, build and use basic commands. Nothing else.
member: inherits default, plus homes and teleport requests.
moderator: inherits member, plus kick, mute and teleport to players.
admin: you and the people you trust with everything. Prefer this to using op.

Mistakes to avoid

Do not give the * permission (everything) to anyone you would not make an operator.
Do not give permissions to single players when a group would do. It becomes hard to see who can do what.
Test with a second account in the default group, so you see what a normal player sees.
Keep a backup of the plugins/LuckPerms folder before large changes.