Getting started
From an empty plugins folder to a running Venus with alerts you can read.
1. Check the requirements
Venus needs Java 17 or newer and a supported server. The full list, including the platforms that get a native build and the ones that only work through the Bukkit jar, is on the requirements and compatibility pages.
2. Install Venus
Drop the Venus jar you downloaded into plugins/ and start the server once. Nothing else belongs in plugins/ — in particular, do not add PacketEvents yourself, since Venus bundles its own copy.
3. Provide the licence
Venus authenticates against the Venus backend with the licence issued for your server. If the licence is missing or already bound elsewhere, the plugin refuses to start and says so in the console — see onboarding for the exact flow.
4. Verify it is live
Run /venus version. It reports the build and licensee information, and a healthy start prints a short initialisation sequence in the console before players can join.
5. Turn on alerts for yourself
Give yourself the staff permission and toggle the streams you want. Alerts are the rendered detection lines; mitigations reports setbacks and other corrections.
In game: /venus alerts and /venus mitigations. Each toggles the stream for the player who runs it. The permission nodes are listed under commands and permissions.
6. Decide what happens on a violation
checks.yml decides which checks are active and what happens as violations pile up. A check that appears in no group is switched off — that is deliberate, so an empty file never accidentally punishes anyone. Start with the shipped file, then adjust thresholds once you have seen a few hours of alerts. See configuration.
Next steps
- Read detections and mitigations before you change any threshold.
- Set up configuration deliberately: the shipped defaults are safe, not tuned to your server.
- If you are writing a plugin, continue with the API overview.