Welcome

What Venus does

Venus reads and reconstructs the packets a client sends, simulates what the vanilla client would have done with them, and flags the player when the two disagree. Because the checks work on the network layer, they stay accurate when the server is lagging, when a proxy sits in front of it, and when the player is on a client version the server does not natively support.

That gives you four things worth knowing about up front:

• Simulation-first movement checks. Setbacks, prediction and the uncertainty handler work together, so one missed transaction does not turn into a false positive.
• A real violation history. Every flag can be stored with a session, the check that produced it, the verbose payload and the server state at the time.
• Cloud detections. Behavioural models run off-server and report back through the same alert pipeline as the local checks.
• A plugin API. Third-party plugins get users, checks, events, punishments, history, alerts, exemptions and the profiler — see the API overview.

Where to start

If you are installing Venus for the first time, read Getting started and then Configuration. If you are writing a plugin against Venus, go straight to the API overview; the table of contents lists every interface the API exposes.

Requirements at a glance

• Java 17 or newer.
• A supported server platform (Bukkit/Spigot/Paper, Folia, or the Fabric build).
• PacketEvents, which Venus bundles — never install a second copy.
• Nothing else. ProtocolLib is not required and not used.

Conventions used in these pages

• /venus is the root command; every example assumes it is registered under its default name.
• API snippets assume the plugin already holds a VenusApi reference; see VenusAPIProvider for how to obtain one safely.