Install guide

Sentinel is a normal Paper/Purpur plugin — the same Sentinel.jar, dropped in the same plugins/ folder, works identically everywhere Paper runs. Find your host below, or jump to whichever control panel yours looks like.

Before you start

Your server software has to be Paper or Purpur, 1.21 or newer, on Java 21. Plain Vanilla or Spigot won't work — Sentinel's anti-xray and a few other checks use Paper-specific APIs that don't exist on Spigot. Every host below lets you pick Paper or Purpur when you create or reinstall the server; look for a "server software" or "server type" setting.

Aternos

Free Minecraft hosting

1. On your server's page, open Software and select Paper (or Purpur, if listed) — Aternos will reinstall the server on that software.
2. Open the Files tab and go into the plugins folder.
3. Upload Sentinel.jar using the upload button (or drag it in).
4. Start the server. Sentinel loads automatically on boot.
5. In the Aternos web console, run sentinel activate <your-key> to unlock Pro/Ultimate — skip this step to run the free tier.

Exaroton

Pay-as-you-go hosting, billed by the minute

1. When creating the server (or from Settings on an existing one), set the software to Paper or Purpur.
2. Open the Files tab in the server dashboard and navigate into plugins.
3. Use the upload button to add Sentinel.jar.
4. Restart the server from the dashboard.
5. In the console tab, run sentinel activate <your-key>.

Apex Hosting

Paid, panel-based hosting

1. In the control panel, go to Server Type (or reinstall) and choose Paper / Purpur.
2. Open File Manager (or connect over FTP with the credentials on your panel's Access tab) and browse to /plugins.
3. Upload Sentinel.jar.
4. Restart the server from the panel.
5. In the console, run sentinel activate <your-key>.

Pterodactyl-panel hosts

BisectHosting, PebbleHost, Nodecraft, Sparked Host, GGServers, HostHavoc, and plenty of others commonly run this panel

Pterodactyl is a widely-used open-source game server panel — you'll recognize it by a left-hand sidebar with tabs like Console, Files, Databases, Startup, and Users. Steps are the same regardless of which host is running it:

1. Open the Startup tab and set the server jar / egg to Paper (or Purpur, if your host offers it as a separate egg), then pick a 1.21+ version.
2. Open the Files tab, go into plugins, and use Upload (or drag-and-drop) to add Sentinel.jar.
3. Restart the server from the Console tab.
4. In the console's command box, run sentinel activate <your-key>.

Multicraft-panel hosts

Another long-standing, common panel across budget and mid-tier hosts

Multicraft looks different from Pterodactyl — a top navigation bar with tabs like Console, FTP File Access, Configuration Files, and Server Settings.

1. Open Server Settings (or a similarly-named jar/type selector) and choose Paper or Purpur as the server type/jar, 1.21+.
2. Open FTP File Access (or the panel's built-in file manager, if it has one) and browse to plugins/.
3. Upload Sentinel.jar.
4. Restart from the Console tab.
5. In the console, run sentinel activate <your-key>.

Your own VPS or dedicated server

DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Contabo, Linode, a home server — anywhere you have SSH/terminal access

No panel here, so it's the most direct path: download Paper, download Sentinel, run Java.

# from your server's plugins/ directory:
curl -o Sentinel.jar https://www.sentinel-anticheat.info/sentinel-free.jar
# (or use your Pro/Ultimate download link from your purchase email instead)

cd ..
java -Xmx4G -jar paper-*.jar --nogui

Once it's running, activate from the console with sentinel activate <your-key>. For a server you'll keep running long-term, wrap that java command in a systemd service or a screen/tmux session so it survives you disconnecting.

Docker

Using the popular itzg/minecraft-server image

Mount a volume for plugins/ and drop Sentinel.jar into it, same as any other plugin:

services:
  mc:
    image: itzg/minecraft-server
    environment:
      EULA: "TRUE"
      TYPE: "PAPER"
      VERSION: "1.21.4"
    ports:
      - "25565:25565"
    volumes:
      - ./data:/data
      - ./plugins/Sentinel.jar:/data/plugins/Sentinel.jar

Start the container, then attach to it (docker attach, or your compose tool's console view) and run sentinel activate <your-key>.

Anything else

The steps are always the same three things: server software is Paper/Purpur 1.21+, the jar goes in plugins/, and you restart. If your host has a plugin marketplace, Sentinel generally won't be listed there yet — the file-manager/FTP upload above always works regardless.

Bedrock players on your Java server

If you run Geyser (with or without Floodgate) so Bedrock players can join your Paper server, Sentinel detects them automatically — no setup needed. It looks for Floodgate's API first, falls back to reading the client brand Geyser reports, and falls back again to a UUID-format check if neither plugin is installed. However it's detected, Bedrock players get their violation sensitivity scaled down by default, since touch/controller input is genuinely different from mouse and keyboard. Tune or disable this under bedrock: in config.yml.