Add NPCs to your Minecraft server with Citizens

Citizens adds NPCs, which are characters that stand in your world, talk, look at players, run commands when clicked and walk set paths. You make one with /npc create. You pick it with /npc select, then change it with more /npc commands.

Citizens is a plugin for servers built on the Bukkit API. Its skin page says Paper also generally works. Its newest SpigotMC version is named “2.0.44 (26.3 BUILD #2)” and was updated on 5 October 2026.

Getting Citizens

Citizens is not on Modrinth or Hangar. Two places offer it:

SpigotMC. The resource is marked premium, which means a paid download; the author sets the price. You need a SpigotMC account.
The project’s build server. The Citizens README names its build server for “developmental builds”. A development build is not a numbered release.

The panel cannot install Citizens on 26.3. In Add-ons, Plugins, a search for Citizens finds “Nothing found.” on Modrinth and CurseForge, unrelated plugins on Hangar, and only Citizens add-ons on SpigotMC. So you add it by hand.

In the ArthOS panel

Get the jar by hand (see below). Do not look for it in Add-ons.
After it loads, make yourself an operator in Players. Citizens gives all its permissions to operators by default.

By hand

Download the jar from SpigotMC (the 26.3 build) or the build server. A build for an older Minecraft version can cause bugs or lag, so take a backup first and read when a plugin has no build for your version.
Open Files, go into the plugins folder, and choose Upload, then Upload from computer.
Restart the server. Type plugins in the Console. Citizens should be green.

Citizens writes its settings to plugins/Citizens/config.yml and keeps the NPCs in saves.yml in the same folder.

Make your first NPC

Type these in game chat, standing where you want the NPC. Commands start with a slash.

/npc create Guide makes an NPC named Guide. To make a mob instead of a player, add --type and a mob type, or change it later with /npc type [type].
Select an NPC by right-clicking it while you hold a stick (the default selection item in config.yml is stick), or type /npc select [id|name]. /npc id prints the number of the selected NPC.
/npc rename [name] changes the name. /npc tphere moves the NPC to you. /npc remove deletes the selected NPC.

Everything after this works on the selected NPC. /npc list lists all of them, and /npc help lists every command on your version.

Skin

/npc skin [name] gives the NPC the skin of a Minecraft player. Add -l to keep it updated when that player changes skin.
/npc skin --url [link] uses a skin image. The link must be a public direct link ending in .png.

Citizens’ skin page lists what must be true for skins to work, among them: the server runs in online mode, there are no errors in logs/latest.log, and Mojang is not limiting you. It also says the server must be a dedicated one that is not shared hosting, and that no other Minecraft server may use ports on the same address. See online mode. Not checked on 26.3 as of 11 October 2026: custom skins on a Loafhosts server.

Look at players

/npc lookclose turns on looking at players who come near. In config.yml the default range is 5 blocks, and look-close is off until you use the command. /npc rotate turns the NPC to a set direction.

Walk a path

/npc path opens the waypoint editor. Type the same command again to leave it. Citizens’ waypoint page lists three kinds of path: linear (the default, visits each point in order), wander and guided.
/npc pathto me sends the NPC to where you stand. here, cursor or coordinates also work.
/npc speed [speed] sets how fast it moves, as a percentage.

Talk and click commands

/npc text opens the text editor. Type exit in chat to close it. Players need the permission citizens.npc.talk to hear NPCs.
/npc command add [command] runs a command when a player right-clicks the NPC. By default it runs as the server. Add -p to run it as the player, and write <p> where the player’s name belongs. For example /npc command add -p help.

Permissions and limits

Citizens’ permissions page says all permissions default to operators. It also warns the page may be out of date. Some of the nodes it lists:

Permission	Lets the player use
`citizens.npc.create`	`/npc create`
`citizens.npc.select`	`/npc select`
`citizens.npc.remove`	`/npc remove`
`citizens.npc.text`	`/npc text`
`citizens.npc.talk`	Hear NPCs (every player needs this)

Give a node with a permissions plugin. See LuckPerms. In config.yml, limits has default-limit: 10, the most NPCs one player can make.

If it does not work

Citizens is red in plugins. Read the first error in logs/latest.log. The usual cause is a build made for a different Minecraft version.
Players hear nothing from an NPC. They lack citizens.npc.talk.
You cannot select an NPC. Hold a stick, or use /npc select [id].
The skin stays Steve. Check the skin page’s list above. After a change, restart.
A walking NPC teleports instead. Citizens’ FAQ says this means it found no path: the target is too far or blocked.