WHAT IS THIS
This is a lightweight Minecraft limbo server. It can be used as a fallback server on your proxy network (Velocity / BungeeCord / Waterfall), or as an authorization holding server on offline-mode projects.
The main goal of the project is maximum simplicity with a minimum number of sent and handled packets.
This limbo is empty — there is no ability to load schematic buildings, since this is not necessary. You can send useful information in chat, boss bar, title, or player list header/footer. The server is only meant to keep many players connected while your main server is down or during authentication.
Important!
The server cannot run Bukkit/Spigot/Paper plugins — it is not a fork of any of them. Please do not ask for Spigot-plugin support. If you need a feature while the player is in limbo, implement it on your proxy side (BungeeCord / Velocity).
FEATURES
- High performance. The server does not save or cache any useless (for a limbo) data.
- Does not spawn a thread per player. Uses a fixed thread pool.
- Native Netty transports out of the box — epoll and io_uring on Linux (x86_64 / aarch64), kqueue on macOS (x86_64 / aarch64), with automatic NIO fallback if the native transport is unavailable.
- Wide protocol coverage — from 1.7.2 all the way to the latest 1.21.11 and 26.1 clients (see the version list below).
- BungeeCord and Velocity info forwarding, plus BungeeGuard handshake format.
- External secret files — Velocity-MODERN secret and BungeeGuard tokens can be loaded from a file using the @-prefix (e.g. secret: '@secret.txt'). Great for Docker secrets, Kubernetes secrets, or SOPS-managed credentials.
- MiniMessage text format supported in every text field (chat, title, subtitle, boss bar, player-list header/footer, MOTD). Legacy &-codes and raw JSON are still accepted for backwards compatibility.
- Per-connection packet rate limiting — optional traffic block in the config throttles clients that try to flood packets or bytes.
- Privacy-friendly logging — the logPlayersIp config flag hides player IP addresses from connect logs (GDPR-friendly).
- Fully configurable and lightweight (~5 MB jar, natives bundled).
VERSIONS SUPPORT
Symbol X means all minor versions.
- 1.7.X
- 1.8.X
- 1.9.X
- 1.10.X
- 1.11.X
- 1.12.X
- 1.13.X
- 1.14.X
- 1.15.X
- 1.16.X
- 1.17.X
- 1.18.X
- 1.19.X
- 1.20.X
- 1.21.X (incl. 1.21.2, 1.21.3, 1.21.4, 1.21.5, 1.21.6, 1.21.7, 1.21.8, 1.21.9, 1.21.10, 1.21.11)
- 26.1.X
- 26.2.X
COMMANDS
These commands are available in the server console:
help - Show the help message
conn - Display the number of connections
mem - Display memory usage stats
version (or ver) - Display the limbo version
stop - Stop the server
The server also shuts down correctly on Ctrl+C.
INSTALLATION
Requires Java 21 or higher.
The installation process is simple.
- Download the latest version from: https://github.com/Nan1t/NanoLimbo/releases
- Place the jar file in the folder of your choice.
- Create a start script, similar to what you would do for Spigot/BungeeCord:
Code (Bash):java -jar NanoLimbo.jar
- The first run will create a settings.yml file. Configure it as you wish and restart the server.
UPGRADING FROM 1.8.x
Since 1.12.0 (the 1.21.2+ protocol rewrite) a few breaking changes apply to existing configs:
- Java 21+ is required (was Java 11).
- dimension: NETHER was renamed to dimension: THE_NETHER.
- useEpoll: true was replaced by netty.transportType: EPOLL (other values: NIO, IO_URING, KQUEUE).
- New top-level keys: secureProfile, logPlayersIp, and the traffic block. Default values are safe; no manual edit is required if you don't care.
- The built jar is now simply NanoLimbo.jar (no version suffix).
- Text fields accept MiniMessage by default, but your existing legacy &-codes and raw-JSON values keep working unchanged.
PLAYER INFO FORWARDING
The server supports three forwarding types:
- LEGACY - BungeeCord IP forwarding.
- MODERN - Velocity native info forwarding. Paste the secret from Velocity's config into the secret field, or use secret: '@secret.txt' to load it from a file.
- BUNGEE_GUARD - BungeeGuard handshake format. List tokens inline, or point at an external file with tokens: '@tokens.txt' (one token per line).
CREDITS
NanoLimbo 1.12.0 is the result of community work across several forks. Thanks to:
- Nan1t - original author and maintainer of NanoLimbo.
- BoomEaro (Valentine) - the 1.21.2 through 1.21.11 / 26.1 / 26.2 protocol rewrite, MiniMessage stack, native-transport support, build modernization, and GitHub Actions CI. The bulk of this release.
- YueMi-Development - external secret/token file support via the @-prefix.
- Biquaternions - the logPlayersIp privacy flag.
LINKS
- Source code and releases: https://github.com/Nan1t/NanoLimbo
- Report bugs or request features: https://github.com/Nan1t/NanoLimbo/issues
- Discord: https://discord.gg/4VGP3Gv
Quick facts
- Edition: Minecraft Java
- File type: .jar
- Minecraft versions listed: 1.7, 1.8, 1.9
- How to install: Install the matching mod loader (Forge, Fabric or NeoForge) for your Minecraft version. → Download the .jar. → Put it in the .minecraft/mods folder and launch that loader profile.
- Where to get it: Opens on Spigot — not every file is mirrored on our own servers.
Install steps are the general flow for this file type — How to install Minecraft Java mods & modpacks walks through it step by step.
NanoLimbo | 1.7 - 26.2 is a free Minecraft Java mod. Compatible with Minecraft 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10 and newer. Downloaded 15,883 times (via Spigot). Download it and open it directly in the game.