Set up TAB: tab list header, footer and prefixes

TAB is a plugin that changes the player list, the screen players open by holding the Tab key. You can put text above and below the list, and put a rank in front of each name. TAB 6.2.0, published on 17 September 2026, lists Minecraft 26.3 for Paper and Purpur, so the panel can install it.

TAB is a plugin, so you need Paper or Purpur. It also changes the name tags above players’ heads, which you can leave alone.

Install it

Open Add-ons, then Plugins. Under Find plugins choose Modrinth.
Search for TAB. The result you want is named TAB and is made by NEZNAMY. Other plugins have similar names. On 11 October 2026 the panel listed it on Modrinth with an Install button for a 26.3 server.
Choose Install, then Restart now when the page offers it.

Not checked on 26.3 as of 11 October 2026: TAB loading and showing a header on a running 26.3 server.

TAB needs no other plugin. Ranks need a permission plugin such as LuckPerms, and some text needs PlaceholderAPI (see below).

After the first start, open Files and go into plugins/TAB. These files matter:

File	What it holds
`config.yml`	The features. The header and footer are under `header-footer`.
`groups.yml`	Prefixes and suffixes for each rank.
`users.yml`	Prefixes and suffixes for single players. These win over groups.

Change the header and footer

Open plugins/TAB/config.yml in Files.
Find the header-footer section. A short version of its default looks like this:

header-footer:
  enabled: true
  designs:
    default:
      header:
        - "&3&lServer name"
        - "&7Online players: &f%online%"
      footer:
        - "&2Ping: %ping%"

Change the lines. Each - line is one line on the screen. Put an empty line as "".
Save, then type tab reload in the Console. The game’s own colour codes use &, see colour codes.

The real default has more lines and animations. %online%, %ping% and %player% are placeholders that TAB fills in. Keep the quote marks and keep the spaces at the start of each line, or the file will not load. Use spaces, not the Tab key.

Show ranks in front of names

TAB takes each player’s main group from your permission plugin. It supports LuckPerms. With LuckPerms the steps are:

Put players in groups in LuckPerms. See LuckPerms permissions.
If a player is in more than one group, set weights on the groups, for example lp group <group> setweight <number>. TAB uses the main group, and the weight decides which one that is.
Open plugins/TAB/groups.yml. To take every prefix from LuckPerms, delete the groups and keep only this. It works when LuckPerms runs on the same server:

_DEFAULT_:
  tabprefix: "%luckperms-prefix%"
  tabsuffix: "%luckperms-suffix%"

Save and type tab reload in the Console.

The prefix itself is set in LuckPerms. To set one directly in TAB instead, give a group its own entry in groups.yml:

admin:
  tabprefix: "&4&lAdmin &r"

You can also use a command, in game chat or the console: /tab group admin tabprefix "&4&lAdmin &r". The permission is tab.change.tabprefix. Set tabprefix for the player list, and tagprefix for the name above the head.

Check what TAB sees

/tab groups lists every group that has something set.
/tab dump <player> makes a detailed report about that player for troubleshooting and shows a link (TAB’s Commands page). Open it and look for the group TAB found for the player.

If it does not work

The prefix is missing. TAB may have found a different group. Run /tab dump <player>, read which group it lists, then fix the weights in LuckPerms.
A placeholder shows as raw text. The placeholder may come from PlaceholderAPI, which TAB does not include. Install PlaceholderAPI and the expansion for that placeholder. A single % on its own also breaks every placeholder after it. Write %% to show the symbol.
The config will not load. The YAML is wrong. Check the spaces at the start of lines and the quote marks. Read the start of the Console.
You have a proxy network. Install TAB on the proxy and use /btab instead of /tab. The wiki recommends this over putting TAB on every server.
Your changes do nothing. Type tab reload after each save.