VelocityFailover

A lightweight Velocity proxy plugin that automatically handles server crashes and restarts — no player left behind.

What does it do?

When a backend server goes down (crash, restart, /stop), VelocityFailover:

1. Instantly detects the server is down
2. Moves affected players to a limbo server
3. Monitors the downed server for recovery
4. Automatically reconnects players back to their original server once it's ready
5. Blocks other players from joining unavailable servers with a friendly message

All of this happens seamlessly — players see a short message, wait on limbo, and get moved back automatically.

Why VelocityFailover?

• Zero external dependencies — only the Velocity API, nothing else
• Extremely lightweight — no constant heartbeat pinging all servers. Recovery pings run only on servers that are actually down
• Instant detection — uses Velocity's kick events instead of slow polling intervals. Players are redirected in milliseconds, not seconds
• Gradual reconnection — players are transferred back one at a time to avoid overloading a freshly started server
• Smart kick detection — distinguishes between server crashes and normal kicks (bans, anticheat, etc.). A banned player won't end up on limbo
• Connection blocking — players trying to manually join a recovering server get a message instead of being thrown into limbo
• No Paper plugin needed — runs entirely on the Velocity proxy side

Requirements

• Velocity 3.4.0+
• Java 17+
• A limbo server registered in velocity.toml (e.g. PicoLimbo or an empty Paper server)

Installation

1. Download the latest .jar from Releases
2. Place it in your Velocity plugins/ folder
3. Start the proxy — a default config.yml will be generated in plugins/velocityfailover/
4. Edit config.yml to match your server setup
5. Restart the proxy or use /failoverreload

Commands and permissions

/failoverreload - reloads config (permission: velocityfailover.reload)

Configuration

# Name of the limbo server registered in velocity.toml
limbo-server: "limbo"

# Server groups to monitor.
# Groups are for organization only — each server is tracked individually.
groups:
  lobby:
    servers:
      - "lobby1"
      - "lobby2"
  spawn:
    servers:
      - "spawn1"
      - "spawn2"

# Recovery monitor settings
recovery:
  ping-interval-ms: 2000       # How often to ping downed servers
  pings-to-ready: 3            # Successful pings in a row before recovery starts
  grace-period-ms: 5000        # Extra wait after pings pass (lets plugins load)
  transfer-interval-ms: 50     # Delay between each player transfer
  ping-timeout-ms: 2000        # Timeout for a single ping

# Kick reasons that indicate a server shutdown (checked via String.contains)
# If a player is kicked with one of these reasons, the server will be marked as offline
shutdown-keywords:
  - "Server closed"
  - "Server shutting down"

# Messages sent to players (MiniMessage format)
messages:
  sent-to-limbo: "<red>The server is temporarily unavailable. You will be moved back automatically when it returns."
  reconnecting: "<green>The server is back online! Reconnecting..."
  connection-blocked: "<red>This server is currently unavailable. Please try again in a moment."

Important notes

• The limbo server must not be listed in any monitored group — it is always treated as available
• Server names in the config must match exactly what is in your velocity.toml
• Messages support MiniMessage formatting

How it works

Player on spawn2 ──> spawn2 crashes
                          │
          KickListener catches the crash kick
                          │
          Player redirected to limbo instantly
                          │
          RecoveryMonitor starts pinging spawn2
                          │
          3 successful pings ──> 5s grace period
                          │
          Players transferred back one by one
                          │
          spawn2 marked as ONLINE again

FAQ

Q: What if a player disconnects while waiting on limbo? They are removed from the reconnect queue. When they rejoin, your existing routing plugin handles them normally.

Q: What if the server crashes again during player transfers? The plugin handles this gracefully. Already-transferred players get kicked back to limbo. Remaining players stay on limbo. Recovery restarts from scratch.

Q: Does this replace my hub plugin? No. This only handles crashes/restarts.