The Explorer's Friend

The Explorer's Friend — live browser world map for Spigot & Paper
A lightweight, fully server-side web map plugin. One jar, every Minecraft version from 1.21.1 to 26.x. No client mod, no NMS, no database.
Your players open the map in their browser — pan, zoom, switch dimensions, watch each other move in real time. You install a single plugin and get a rendered topographic map of everything that has ever been explored.
Why this plugin

• ️ Real topographic tiles — relief shading, water depth, biome-tinted grass and foliage. Full renders read the region files directly on worker threads: not a single chunk is loaded and the main thread stays untouched.
• ⚡ Built for busy servers — live updates come from thread-safe chunk snapshots with hard per-tick budgets, all queues are bounded, and rendering pauses automatically while your TPS is under pressure.
• Custom content just works — block colors are computed from the actual textures (vanilla assets are fetched once from Mojang, SHA-verified; plugin jars are scanned for resources too). Manual color overrides included.
• One jar for every version — pure Bukkit API (api-version 1.21), no version-specific NMS hacks. The same file runs on 1.21.1 through 26.x, on Spigot, Paper and Paper forks (Purpur & friends). Paper is detected automatically.

Features

• Live player layer with real skin heads (privacy options: hide invisible/spectators, position rounding & delay, name anonymization, per-player opt-out)
• GriefPrevention claims on the map — detected automatically (softdepend), shown as exact block rectangles including subclaims, with live updates on create/resize/delete. No GriefPrevention? The layer simply stays off.
• Markers via
  Code (Text):

  /efmap marker add|list|remove
  with a built-in icon library and your own custom icons (drop PNGs into
  Code (Text):

  plugins/ExplorersFriend/icons/
  )
• JSON claim import as a bridge for any other protection plugin
• Web UI layer panel — every layer individually toggleable, hover tooltips, clustering, share links; settings persist in the browser
• Ops tooling —
  Code (Text):

  /efmap status|render|pause|resume|cancel
  , HTTP ETag caching, JSON status API, optional Prometheus
  Code (Text):

  /metrics
• Privacy-hardened & secure by default — web server binds to 127.0.0.1 until you expose it (reverse-proxy guide included), strict path validation, bounded connections

Quick start

1. Drop
   Code (Text):

   explorersfriend-spigot-paper-<version>.jar
   into
   Code (Text):

   plugins/
   .
2. Start the server. First start downloads the vanilla client jar once from Mojang (block textures are not in the server jar; SHA-1-verified, cached).
3. Open http://localhost:8080/ — then render what's already explored:
   Code (Text):

   /efmap render minecraft_overworld

Configuration lives in (fully commented). Permissions use the standard Bukkit system ( , defaults: admin commands = op, marker creation = everyone, configurable).
Good to know

• Java 21 for Minecraft 1.21.x servers, Java 25 for 26.x — same as the server itself.
• On Minecraft 26.x, Mojang removed the built-in worldgen data files, so biome tinting uses neutral defaults there (map stays fully functional; 1.21.x is unaffected).
• Markers, config, manual colors and tiles are portable: you can move a world from a Fabric/NeoForge server to Paper (or back) and keep your map data — the same map core runs on all of them.

Links

• Source, documentation and issue tracker: github.com/CptGummiball/explorers-friend
• All-platform downloads (Fabric, Quilt, NeoForge): see the Modrinth page or GitHub releases. This page ships the Spigot/Paper plugin build.

License: MIT. Fully original code — no Pl3xMap/Dynmap/BlueMap code or assets.