ProtoTools by _w41k3r

Start mining and the right pickaxe is already in your hand. Chop a tree and it swaps to your axe. Run out of blocks halfway through a build and a fresh stack drops into the same slot, so you keep going without opening your inventory. Swing at a mob and your best weapon comes out.

You do not set any of this up. There is no list of blocks to fill in and no config to write before it works.


It works the rest out by itself

Most auto-tool plugins carry a big list: this block goes with that tool. Those lists go stale every time the game adds a block.

Proto Tools does not have one. It asks your own server two things about the block you are hitting: which of your tools will actually give you the drop, and which of those breaks it quickest. That is why shears win on leaves, and why it will never hand you a gold pickaxe for diamonds and leave you with nothing.

When a new Minecraft version adds blocks, they just work. No plugin update needed. And it does not guess: ask it the same question twice and you get the same answer.


⚠️ Paper and Spigot

One jar, both servers. It works out which one it is running on when it starts, and says so in the console.

Paper is the main target and gets everything on this page. Spigot works too, but four things are weaker there. All four are printed to your console at startup, so nothing about this is a surprise later.

What	Paper	Spigot
Picking a tool that gets you the drop	full	full
Picking the fastest tool	exact	close, see below
Silk Touch and Fortune preference, ignore lists, bare hands	full	full
Refilling your stack	full	full
Which weapon it picks	damage, then enchantments	damage only
When the weapon swaps	before your first hit	one hit late
Menu, commands, other plugins hooking in	full	full
Message formatting	the lot	colours only

The half that matters most is the same on both. The check that decides whether a tool will actually get you the drop is standard Bukkit, not a Paper extra. So on Spigot a gold pickaxe still gets you nothing off diamonds, shears still win on leaves, and there is still no list of blocks anywhere in the plugin.

Here is exactly what you give up on Spigot:

1. It might not pick the fastest tool. Spigot cannot tell a plugin how fast a given tool breaks a given block, so Proto Tools falls back on the six vanilla tool materials plus Efficiency. Which tools work on which blocks still comes from your server's own data, so there is still no list of blocks; only the speed numbers themselves are fixed. Two tools made of the same material can come out in the wrong order. It always picks a tool that works, just not always the quickest one.
2. The weapon swap is one hit late. Spigot has no way to tell a plugin about a hit before it lands, so your first swing uses whatever was already in your hand. The right weapon is there from the second hit onwards.
3. Weapons that hit the same are not sorted by enchantments. If two weapons have the same base damage, Proto Tools cannot see which one has the better damage enchantments on Spigot. Base damage and durability still decide.
4. Messages lose their fancy bits. Colours and gradients still work, hex colours included. Hover text and clickable text do not, and item names in the settings menu show up in italic.

✨ What it does

• Picks your tool. Whatever actually gets you the drop comes first, then whatever breaks it fastest, then whichever has the most durability left.
• Silk Touch or Fortune on demand. Say you prefer one and it will reach for it where it helps. It will never pick one that costs you the drop.
• Knows when to use your hands. If a tool would just get chewed up for nothing, it puts it away instead of swinging it. It only ever changes which slot you have selected, and never moves anything out of your hotbar to make room.
• Leaves the small stuff alone. Torches, flowers and crops pop instantly and cost no durability, so nothing gets swapped. The exception is if you asked for Fortune, since crops are exactly where Fortune pays.
• Protects nearly-broken tools. A tool one hit from snapping is left alone, unless it is all you have.
• Picks your weapon. Your hardest hitter comes out before you swing, so on Paper the very first hit counts. It goes on the weapon's own damage first, then on damage enchantments. You can have this without auto-tool, or auto-tool without this.
• Refills your stack. Place your last block, eat your last stew or throw your last pearl and another stack drops into the slot. It matches the whole item, so a named or enchanted stack never gets quietly swapped for a plain one. Every refill is double-checked and counted first, so nothing can be duplicated or lost.
• Your own ignore list. Blocks you never want it touching, removable with a click straight from the list in chat. You can set a server-wide one too.
• Cobblestone generators work. Right after you break something it looks again at whatever appeared in its place, so gen setups and OneBlock islands behave.
• A menu, if you prefer. /prototools settings has all of it, so nobody has to memorise commands.
• Off until asked for. Auto-tool and auto-refill both start switched off. Players get one hint that they exist and are never nagged again.
• Other plugins can hook in. They can watch a swap happen, or stop one.
• One jar, no version juggling. The only thing it checks is Paper or Spigot, once, at startup.

⌨️ Commands and permissions

/prototools is also /pt or /ptools. Everything tab-completes as you type.

Command	What it does	Permission
/prototools	Turn auto-tool on or off	prototools.use
/prototools refill, or /refill	Turn auto-refill on or off	prototools.refill
/prototools weapon	Turn auto-weapon on or off	prototools.weapon
/prototools hotbar	Look in your hotbar only, or your whole inventory	prototools.use
/prototools prefer	Prefer nothing, Silk Touch or Fortune	prototools.use
/prototools settings	Open the menu	prototools.use
/prototools blacklist	Add, remove, list or clear your ignored blocks	prototools.blacklist
/prototools reset	Put your own settings back to the server defaults	prototools.use
/prototools reload	Reload the config and message files	prototools.admin.reload
/prototools debug	Ask why it picked that, check a player, or log every choice	prototools.admin.debug

The four player permissions are on for everyone by default, and that is safe. Having permission only means a player is allowed to use a feature; auto-tool and auto-refill still start switched off, so nothing happens until they ask. The two admin permissions are op only. Hand out prototools.admin for both of those, or prototools.* for the lot. Reload and debug work from the console as well.


✅ What you need

• Paper or Spigot, 1.20.6 or newer. One jar, everything from 1.20.6 to 26.2. On Spigot, see the four differences above.
• Java 21 or newer.

The message-formatting libraries ride along inside the jar, because Spigot does not ship them. On Paper your server's own copies get used instead, so nothing changes there. Nothing else is bundled.


⚙️ Settings

Everything lives in the plugins/ProtoTools folder.

config.yml sets what is switched on for new players, whether it searches your hotbar or your whole inventory, which slot tools land in, how close to breaking is too close, blocks to ignore server-wide, and per-block overrides for the handful of cases where taste beats data. It is read at startup and again whenever you run /prototools reload.

messages.yml holds every line of text the plugin says, so you can reword or recolour any of it. Colours and gradients work on both servers; hover text and clickable text are Paper only. Blank a line out to switch it off entirely.

Player settings are saved with the player. There is no database and no extra files to back up.

The full list of settings, key by key, is in the README.


⚡ Installing it

1. Drop the jar in your plugins folder.
2. Start the server.
3. Type /prototools to switch it on, and /refill for auto-refill.

Licence

Free to run on any server you operate, including one that takes donations or sells ranks. You may not re-upload it, change it, fork it, sell it, or bundle it into anything you sell. Licensed under the PolyForm Strict License 1.0.0, plus a supplemental permission covering running it on a server.