HotbarSwitch – two hotbars, one click

Building, exploring and combat call for different items. HotbarSwitch gives each player two stored hotbars to switch between, without rearranging their items by hand every time.
How it works
By default, a switch item occupies slot 9 of your hotbar. Select it and right-click to swap your active hotbar with the stored second hotbar.
With the switch item enabled, you get two sets of eight usable slots. Disable it in your personal settings to use two sets of nine slots, switching through the menu or a command instead.
Minecraft displays one active hotbar at a time. No client mod or resource pack is required.

• Two stored hotbars per player.
• Switch using the right-click item, a menu button or a command.
• Enable or disable the switch item in your personal settings.
• German and English menus and messages, with an in-game language selector.
• Overview of the active and stored hotbars.
• Inactive hotbar storage across reconnects and server restarts.
• Switching leaves armor and the offhand unchanged.
• Optional update notifications for operators and authorized administrators.

What happens to your items?
Items retain their names, enchantments and other stored properties when switching. The switch item is protected against normal movement, placement and dropping. The creative inventory may briefly display a client-side drag animation; placement of the switch item is rejected by the server.
If slot 9 is already occupied, its item moves to the main inventory only when an empty slot is available. A full inventory is not overwritten. Slot 9 of the stored hotbar must also be empty before enabling the switch item.
With keepInventory=true, the stored hotbar is retained on death.
With keepInventory=false, its contents are added to the death drops and removed from plugin storage. The virtual switch item itself never drops.
Manage your items in the normal player inventory; the overview is a preview. Switching is blocked while a container is open or an item is on your cursor.

Watch HotbarSwitch in action
Click a preview image or the link below it to watch the corresponding video.
English settings

▶ Watch video: English settings
Hotbar overview

▶ Watch video: Hotbar overview
Switching hotbars in game

▶ Watch video: Switching hotbars in game

1. Stop the server and back up player and world data.
2. Place HotbarSwitch-1.0.jar in the plugins folder.
3. Start the server and run /hotbar.

• /hotbar or /hb – open the overview.
• /hotbar switch – switch to the other hotbar.
• /hotbar 1 or /hotbar 2 – activate a specific hotbar.
• /hotbar settings – configure the switch item, language and, for administrators, update checks.
• /hotbar language de or /hotbar language en – change your personal language.

• hotbarswitch.use – use hotbars and personal settings; enabled for all players by default.
• hotbarswitch.admin – manage server-wide update checks and receive update notifications; enabled for operators by default.

Developed and tested on Paper and Spigot 26.3.
Java 25 is required.
Folia is not supported.
The stored second hotbar is per player and server-wide. Check compatibility with per-world inventory managers, kit plugins and custom death-handling plugins before use.
Before uninstalling, empty both hotbars in turn and disable the switch item. Keep the plugin data folder.

Report issues, ask questions and share suggestions through Plugin-Werkstatt.
Update checks can be disabled and never replace the JAR automatically.
Free. A Ki11ix Plugin-Werkstatt project, developed with AI assistance.