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Plugins

Minecraft Citizens NPC Tutorial

Create custom NPCs with Citizens, spawn NPCs, give them skins, click commands, paths and shops with the Citizens plugin.

8 min read9 sectionsJava & Bedrock1.21

Citizens is the plugin behind almost every NPC you see at a Minecraft server spawn, the shopkeeper, the warps NPC, the quest-giver. This tutorial covers spawning, skinning, click-commands and the most common addons.

1. Install

Download Citizens from citizensnpcs.co. Drop into plugins/ and restart. (For HD skins, also install ProtocolLib.)

2. Create your first NPC

/npc create Bob
/npc skin Steve
/npc lookclose true
/npc named "&6Shopkeeper Bob"

/npc list shows IDs. Selected NPC commands act on the one closest to you (or use /npc select <id>).

3. Click actions

Right-click NPC -> run a command:

/npc command add --player warp shop
/npc command permissions essentials.warp.shop

For a console-side command (e.g. opening a GUI):

/npc command add --c shopguiplus open shop %p%

4. Movement

/npc path                       # waypoints between blocks you stand on
/npc wander                     # walk around in a 25-block radius
/npc speed 0.5

5. Persistent across restarts

Citizens saves NPCs to plugins/Citizens/saves.yml automatically. Use /npc save after big edits.

6. Useful addons

  • Sentinel, combat NPCs (guards, mob targets).
  • Denizen, a full scripting layer; alternative to Skript for NPC dialogues.
  • ShopKeepers, not Citizens but works alongside; villager-based admin shops.

7. NPCs as warp menus

Pair a Citizens NPC with a GUI menu plugin (DeluxeMenus, ChestCommands). Right-click NPC -> open menu -> click button -> warp. This is what every modern hub uses.

8. Common pitfalls

  • Skin not loading, online-mode on the server must be true, or you need to set texture manually with /npc skin.
  • NPC won't stay put, toggle /npc protected on, also disable wander.
  • Clicks not registering, check region permissions; some plugins block right-click on entities.

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Questions about Minecraft Citizens NPC

Minecraft Citizens NPC: what is the short version?

Citizens is the plugin behind almost every NPC you see at a Minecraft server spawn, the shopkeeper, the warps NPC, the quest-giver.

What do you type for Minecraft Citizens NPC?

Drop into plugins/ and restart. (For HD skins, also install ProtocolLib.) /npc list shows IDs. This guide uses /npc create Bob /npc skin Steve /npc lookclose true /npc named "&6Shopkeeper Bob".

Where does Minecraft Citizens NPC store its settings?

Right-click NPC -> run a command: For a console-side command (e.g. opening a GUI): Citizens saves NPCs to plugins/Citizens/saves.yml automatically.

Minecraft Citizens NPC: what does 2. create your first npc mean here?

This tutorial covers spawning, skinning, click-commands and the most common addons.

Minecraft Citizens NPC Tutorial: Create custom NPCs with Citizens, spawn NPCs, give them skins, click commands, paths and shops with the Citizens plugin.
Minecraft Citizens NPC Tutorial, from the Plugins guides on Astroworld.

Blocks and items in this guide

Target in MinecraftTarget

Target is named in the Minecraft Citizens NPC guide above. Look them up in the item database.

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