Minecraft: become OP & admin rightsSet operators and manage your server

Published on October 20, 2026

Make yourself OP

The quickest way is via the server console in our panel. Simply enter:

op YourMinecraftName

You are then an operator and can use all admin commands directly in the game via chat with a leading /. If you want to take the rights away from someone again, use deop YourMinecraftName.

Set OP via ops.json

Alternatively, you enter OPs directly in the file ops.json in the server's main directory - via WebFTP or SFTP. An entry looks like this:

[
  {
    "uuid": "<your-uuid>",
    "name": "YourMinecraftName",
    "level": 4,
    "bypassesPlayerLimit": false
  }
]

The level ranges from 1 to 4 and determines the scope of rights (4 = full access to all commands). After saving, reload the file with reload or a restart.

Important admin commands

• /gamemode creative YourName - switch game mode
• /gamerule - set game rules such as keep_inventory or advance_time (before Java 1.21.11: keepInventory, doDaylightCycle)
• /kick, /ban, /pardon - manage players
• /whitelist add NAME - maintain the whitelist (see its own guide)
• /tp, /give, /time set day, /weather clear
• /op and /deop - grant or revoke operator rights

For server-wide permission management with groups and ranks, a plugin such as LuckPerms on a Paper server is recommended - more flexible than plain OP levels.

The four OP levels

Minecraft knows four permission levels, which appear as level in ops.json. Almost everyone grants level 4 across the board - yet much less is often enough for moderation:

The difference is not theoretical: whoever has level 4 can give others OP and shut down the server. When in doubt, grant level 3 - your team can then moderate without a misunderstanding costing you the server.

Why LuckPerms is the better solution

OP levels are coarse: they unlock whole blocks of commands without letting you exclude individual ones. As soon as more than one person moderates, this reaches its limits - someone should be allowed to ban but not to spawn items, and that is exactly what OP levels cannot express.

A permissions plugin on a Paper server solves this with groups: you create ranks, assign individual permissions and add players to them. Whoever leaves the team is removed from the group, done. On top of that, plugin commands can be included, which OP levels do not know at all.

For a server with a fixed group, OP is entirely sufficient. From the moment you take in strangers and hand out tasks, switching is worth it - see Install plugins.

When OP does not take effect

Three causes cover almost all cases. Wrong spelling: the name must match exactly; when editing ops.json directly, the UUID counts as well, not the name. File edited at runtime: the server overwrites ops.json with its own state when it shuts down - only edit it with the server stopped. Not reconnected: the rights only take effect once the player in question leaves the server and joins again.

If you have locked yourself out, the server console in the web interface helps: there, you enter op YourName without a leading slash, without being in the game at all. Afterwards, make sure you are also on the whitelist - OP alone does not lift it.

OP is a right in the game. If a team member should also work on the server outside the game - console, restart, files - create their own login in the panel instead of sharing your password. How that works is described in Add subusers and assign permissions.

Frequently asked questions