Getting Started

This guide is not beginner-friendly! Making Nova addons requires a lot of knowledge about Kotlin, the Spigot API, Maven and Gradle.

Prerequisites

BuildTools

While you don't necessarily need to access NMS while making an addon, installing a mojang-mapped Spigot version is still required. If you're not familiar with BuildTools you can read this guide. After downloading BuildTools, run the following command:

java -jar BuildTools.jar --remapped

This will install the latest mojang-mapped Spigot version on your local maven repository.

IntelliJ

Even though Eclipse does have Kotlin support via a plugin, it's not the best option. We recommend using IntelliJ to make addons.

GitHub

This guide uses a GitHub repo template so having a GitHub account is recommended. You can also install GitHub Desktop if you don't want to use git commands.

Codestyle

You can find the xenondevs' codestyle here. To apply it, open your Intellij settings and import the codestyle.xml file here:

importing

Setting up your project

You can now create a new repo using our addon template here. After creating the new repo and cloning it, make sure to edit the following files:

src/main/kotlin

Change the package name to your own.

settings.gradle.kts

Change rootProject.name to your addon id.

build.gradle.kts

Change group to your group.
Change version to your version.

In the addon task, set main to your addon main class.

Adding dependencies

If your addon requires dependencies that need to be present at runtime, add them under the nova configuration:

build.gradle.kts dependencies { }

nova("commons-net:commons-net:3.8.0")

Building

To build, run

Build with Gradle

gradlew addonJar -PoutDir="<Path to your addons directory here>"

Or if you're on a mojang-mapped server, run

Build with Gradle

gradlew addonJar -PoutDir="<Path to your addons directory here>" -Pmojang-mapped

Enabling dev mode

Nova's reload prevention can get pretty annoying while making addons. To bypass this check, you can enable dev mode by adding -DNovaDev in front of -jar in your server start script. This also allows you to bypass other restrictions, like joining the server during startup or using addons that were made for a newer version of Nova.