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Minecraft Server Commands: The Complete Op & Admin List

Op yourself from the console, then run every Minecraft Java command — player management, gamerules, world tools, scoreboards, /execute, data and functions, with permission levels.

Updated August 07, 2026
Minecraft

Minecraft server commands let you grant admin, manage players, change gamerules, control time and weather, teleport, script behaviour with /execute, and moderate your world without ever leaving the game. This guide covers how to become an operator, where commands can be typed, and every command worth knowing on a Java Edition server.

This guide covers Java Edition dedicated servers

Bedrock dedicated servers share most gameplay commands but use a different permission system and lack many Java-only commands. Differences are covered in section 10, and setup is in Setting up your Bedrock Minecraft server.

1. How Operator Permission Works

An operator (op) is a player granted elevated permissions. Ops are stored in ops.json in your server directory and persist across restarts.

Minecraft has five permission levels, 0 to 4. op-permission-level in server.properties sets the level a player is given when you run /op:

Level Grants
0 Operator status with no extra commands — TPS graph, command-block output in chat, and console output if broadcast-console-to-ops=true
1 Bypass spawn protection
2 /gamemode, /give, /tp, /difficulty, /effect, /gamerule, and command blocks
3 Everything in 2, plus /ban, /kick, /op, /deop, /whitelist
4 Everything, including /stop

The default is 4, so a plain /op PlayerName gives full control. Lower it before opping moderators who should not be able to shut the server down.

op-permission-level=4
spawn-protection=16
white-list=false
enforce-whitelist=false
server.properties — the permission settings that matter

op-permission-level is the level recorded against a player in ops.json at the moment you op them — it is a default for newly created ops, not a server-wide ceiling. Changing it does not touch operators who are already in the file: they keep the level already stored for them. Permission level is per-player — edit the level field on any entry in ops.json (then restart) to give one operator a different level from the rest.

2. Where to Type Commands

Location Slash needed? Notes
Server console No — type op Steve Always runs at permission level 4
In-game chat Yes — type /op Steve Requires op, and the right level
Command block Yes Needs the command_blocks_work game rule to be true — it is true by default
Datapack function No Runs at level 2 by default 
op YourUsername
Granting your first operator — from the console, no slash

Grant your first op from the console

You cannot op yourself in-game before you are an op. Open the Console tab in your GameServerKings panel and run the line above. From then on you can manage everything from chat.

3. Operator & Player Management

Command What it does
/op <player> Grant operator status
/deop <player> Revoke operator status
/kick <player> [reason] Disconnect a player
/ban <player> [reason] Ban by account
/ban-ip <player|address> Ban an IP address
/banlist [players|ips] Show active bans
/pardon <player> Unban an account
/pardon-ip <address> Unban an IP
/list [uuids] List online players
/whitelist add <player> Add to the whitelist
/whitelist remove <player> Remove from the whitelist
/whitelist on / off Enable or disable the whitelist
/whitelist list Show whitelisted players
/whitelist reload Re-read whitelist.json after editing by hand
/setidletimeout <minutes> Auto-kick players idle beyond N minutes (0 disables)
/transfer <host> [port] [players] Move players to another server (1.20.5+)

Turning the whitelist on does not kick anyone

/whitelist on only blocks new connections from non-whitelisted players. Anyone already online stays until they disconnect. Set enforce-whitelist=true in server.properties if you want existing non-whitelisted players removed on reload.

4. Player State & Items

Command What it does
/gamemode <mode> [player] survival, creative, adventure, spectator
/defaultgamemode <mode> Mode applied to players joining for the first time
/give <player> <item> [count] Give an item, e.g. /give Steve minecraft:diamond 64
/clear [player] [item] [count] Clear inventory, or just one item
/item replace <target> <slot> with <item> Overwrite a specific inventory or armour slot
/item modify <target> <slot> <modifier> Apply an item modifier from a datapack
/loot give <player> <source> Generate loot-table drops directly into an inventory
/loot spawn <pos> <source> Drop loot-table items in the world
/effect give <player> <effect> [sec] [amp] Apply a status effect
/effect clear <player> [effect] Remove effects
/enchant <player> <enchantment> [level] Enchant the held item
/experience add <player> <n> [levels|points] Grant XP — /xp is the legacy alias
/experience query <player> <levels|points> Read a player's XP
/attribute <target> <attribute> … Modify a base attribute such as max health
/kill [target] Kill a player or entity
/damage <target> <amount> [type] Deal a precise amount of typed damage (1.19.4+)
/ride <target> mount <vehicle> Force an entity to ride another (1.19.4+)
/ride <target> dismount Dismount
/spectate <target> [player] Force a spectator to follow an entity

5. World, Time & Weather

Command What it does
/time set <day|noon|night|midnight> Jump to a time of day
/time set <ticks> Set exact time — 0 is dawn, 6000 noon, 18000 midnight
/time add <ticks> Advance time
/weather <clear|rain|thunder> [seconds] Set the weather
/difficulty <peaceful|easy|normal|hard> Change difficulty
/gamerule <rule> [value] Read or set a gamerule (see below)
/setworldspawn [pos] Set the world spawn point
/spawnpoint <player> [pos] Set an individual player's spawn
/worldborder set <blocks> [seconds] Resize the world border
/worldborder center <x> <z> Recentre the border
/worldborder damage <amount> Damage dealt outside the border
/worldborder warning distance <n> Warning distance
/seed Show the world seed
/locate structure <id> Find the nearest structure
/locate biome <id> Find the nearest biome
/place structure <id> [pos] Place a structure, feature or jigsaw (1.19+)
/fillbiome <from> <to> <biome> Overwrite the biome in a region (1.19.3+)
/forceload add <from> [to] Keep chunks loaded permanently
/forceload remove <from> [to] Stop force-loading
/tick freeze / unfreeze Pause or resume the game tick (1.20.3+)
/tick step <ticks> Advance a frozen world by N ticks
/tick rate <n> Change ticks per second — default 20
/tick query Report current tick rate and load

Gamerules worth knowing:

Gamerule Effect
keep_inventory true Keep items and XP on death
advance_time false Freeze time — was doDaylightCycle
advance_weather false Freeze weather — was doWeatherCycle
mob_griefing false Stop creepers and endermen altering blocks
fire_spread_radius_around_player 0 Fire stops spreading. Replaces doFireTick, which was removed in 1.21.11. Default 128 blocks; -1 is unlimited
spawn_phantoms false No phantoms — was doInsomnia
random_tick_speed <n> Crop and decay speed — default 3
show_death_messages false Hide death messages in chat
show_advancement_messages false Hide advancement spam — was announceAdvancements
players_sleeping_percentage <n> Share of players needed to skip night — default 100
max_entity_cramming <n> Entities stacked before crush damage — default 24, 0 disables
respawn_radius <n> Spread of the initial spawn area — default 10, was spawnRadius

Game rule names changed in 1.21.11

Java Edition 1.21.11 moved game rules into a registry and renamed every one of them from camelCase to snake_case — keepInventory became keep_inventory. Several were not simple case changes: doDaylightCycle → advance_time, doWeatherCycle → advance_weather, announceAdvancements → show_advancement_messages, spawnRadius → respawn_radius, naturalRegeneration → natural_health_regeneration, maxCommandChainLength → max_command_sequence_length. Three had their meaning inverted along with the rename, so a straight find-and-replace will get them backwards: disableRaids → raids, disableElytraMovementCheck → elytra_movement_check, and disablePlayerMovementCheck → player_movement_check — each now takes the opposite value to the rule it replaced. On 1.21.10 and earlier, keep using the old camelCase names.

random_tick_speed is a performance trap

Raising it makes crops grow faster, but the cost scales across every loaded chunk. Values above roughly 20 will visibly hurt tick rate on a busy server. /tick rate is a similar trap — lowering it slows the entire simulation, not just mobs. If you are chasing performance, see Managing your Minecraft server.

6. Teleporting & Building

Command What it does
/tp <target> Teleport yourself to a player
/tp <player> <target> Teleport one player to another
/teleport <target> <x> <y> <z> Teleport to coordinates
/teleport <target> <pos> facing <pos> Teleport and face a point
/spreadplayers <x> <z> <spread> <max> <teams> <targets> Scatter players randomly
/rotate <target> <rotation> Rotate an entity without moving it (1.21.2+)
/setblock <pos> <block> [mode] Place a single block
/fill <from> <to> <block> [mode] Fill a region — max 32,768 blocks
/clone <from> <to> <dest> [mode] Copy a region
/summon <entity> [pos] [nbt] Spawn an entity
/particle <name> [pos] Emit particles
/playsound <sound> <source> <player> Play a sound
/stopsound <target> [source] [sound] Stop a playing sound

Coordinates accept ~ for relative and ^ for directional — /tp ~ ~10 ~ lifts you ten blocks.

7. Scoreboards, Teams & Tags

These drive most minigames, and they are how you track state without a plugin.

Command What it does
/scoreboard objectives add <name> <criteria> [display] Create an objective
/scoreboard objectives list List objectives
/scoreboard objectives remove <name> Delete an objective
/scoreboard objectives setdisplay <slot> [name] Show it in the sidebar, list or below-name slot
/scoreboard players set <target> <objective> <n> Set a score
/scoreboard players add <target> <objective> <n> Add to a score
/scoreboard players get <target> <objective> Read a score
/scoreboard players reset <target> [objective] Clear scores
/scoreboard players operation <t> <obj> <op> <t2> <obj2> Arithmetic between scores
/scoreboard players enable <target> <objective> Allow a trigger objective to be used
/team add <name> [display] Create a team
/team join <name> [members] Add members
/team leave <members> Remove members
/team modify <name> <option> <value> Set colour, friendly fire, nametag visibility
/team empty <name> / /team remove <name> Clear or delete
/tag <targets> add <name> Tag entities for later selection
/tag <targets> remove <name> / list Manage tags
/trigger <objective> [add|set <n>] The one scoreboard command non-ops can run
/teammsg <message> Message your team — alias /tm
/bossbar add <id> <name> Create a boss bar
/bossbar set <id> <value|max|color|players…> Configure it
/bossbar list / /bossbar remove <id> Manage boss bars

8. Advanced: execute, Data & Functions

/execute is the most powerful command in the game — it runs another command as, at, or conditional on something else.

execute as @a at @s run tp ~ ~10 ~
execute as @e[type=zombie] run tag @s add tracked
execute if score Steve deaths matches 5.. run kick Steve
execute store result score Steve ping run data get entity Steve ping
Reading /execute
Subcommand What it changes
as <targets> Who runs the command
at <targets> Where it runs from
positioned <pos> / rotated <rot> Override position or rotation
facing <pos|entity> Point the execution direction
align <axes> / anchored <eyes|feet> Snap to block grid, or use eye height
in <dimension> Run in another dimension
on <relation> Hop to a related entity — vehicle, passenger, owner, attacker
if / unless Condition on block, blocks, entity, score, predicate, data, biome, dimension, loaded
store result|success Write the outcome into a score, NBT path or bossbar
run <command> The command to execute

NBT and data:

Command What it does
/data get <entity|block|storage> <target> [path] Read NBT
/data merge <target> <nbt> Merge NBT in
/data modify <target> <path> <set|append|insert…> Precise NBT edits
/data remove <target> <path> Delete an NBT path

Datapacks, functions and progression:

Command What it does
/function <namespace:name> Run a datapack function
/schedule function <name> <time> [append|replace] Run a function later
/schedule clear <name> Cancel a scheduled function
/datapack list [available|enabled] Show datapacks
/datapack enable <name> / disable <name> Toggle a datapack
/advancement grant <targets> <everything|only|from|through|until> Award advancements
/advancement revoke <targets> … Take them back
/recipe give <targets> <recipe|*> Unlock crafting recipes
/recipe take <targets> <recipe|*> Lock them again
/random value <range> / /random roll <range> Random numbers for map logic (1.20.2+)
/return <value> / /return fail / /return run <cmd> Return a value from a function (1.20.2+)

Target selectors are where the real power is

@a all players, @p nearest, @r random, @s self, @e all entities — each accepts filters: @e[type=zombie,distance=..10,limit=5,sort=nearest]. Combined with /execute this replaces a surprising amount of what people install plugins for.

Newer and specialist commands. These are the least-known part of the command set — most were added recently and several are aimed at map and datapack authors rather than day-to-day moderation.

Command What it does Level
/waypoint Manage waypoints shown on the locator bar 2
/dialog Show a dialog window to clients 2
/stopwatch Create and modify real-time stopwatches 2
/swing Swing an entity's hands 2
/fetchprofile Fetch a player profile 2
/test Manage and run GameTests 2
/version Report the server version —
/posteffect Add or remove post-processing effects on players 2

/publish and /unpublish do not work on a dedicated server

Both open or close a single-player world to the local network, so they exist only in the integrated server built into the game client. Running them on your hosted server returns an error — this is expected, not a broken install. /posteffect is also newer than most current server builds, so check your version if it is unrecognised.

9. Server Operations & Messaging

Command What it does
/save-all [flush] Force a world save
/save-off Pause saving — use before an external backup
/save-on Resume saving
/stop Shut down cleanly
/reload Reload datapacks, loot tables and functions
/say <message> Broadcast as the server
/msg <player> <message> Private message (aliases: /tell, /w)
/tellraw <player> <json> Send formatted JSON text
/title <player> <title|subtitle|actionbar> <json> On-screen titles
/me <action> Emote
/help [command] List commands, or show one command's syntax
/debug start|stop|function Profile a tick sample
/perf start|stop Record a performance snapshot
/jfr start|stop Java Flight Recorder profiling for deep analysis

Always pair /save-off with /save-on

Running /save-off and forgetting to re-enable it means hours of progress live only in memory — a crash loses all of it. The safe manual sequence is below. Scheduled backups on the GSK panel handle this for you.

save-off
save-all flush
# copy your world folder now, then:
save-on
Safe manual backup sequence

10. Bedrock Edition Differences

Bedrock dedicated servers use permissions.json with three tiers — visitor, member, operator — rather than Java's numeric levels, and ops are granted with op <player> from the console or by editing that file.

Most gameplay commands carry over (/gamemode, /give, /time set, /weather, /tp, /kill, /effect, /scoreboard, /tag, /execute), but Java-only commands do not exist there — including /advancement, /attribute, /debug, /fetchprofile, /fillbiome, /forceload, /jfr, /posteffect, /publish, /random, /return, /rotate, /stopwatch, /swing, /test, /tick, /unpublish and /waypoint. Bedrock's /execute also uses a different syntax before 1.19.30.

Bedrock adds a few of its own, such as /clearspawnpoint for removing a player's spawn. Moderation is usually handled by allowlist (allowlist.json) or an add-on layer, since Bedrock has no native /ban.

If you are running both editions together, see Setting up CrossPlay for Minecraft.

11. FAQ

How do I make myself an admin on my Minecraft server?

Open your server console and run op YourUsername with no slash. You cannot op yourself from in-game chat, because doing so already requires operator permission. Once opped, /op works from chat for everyone else.

Why does my command say "You do not have permission to use this command"?

Either you are not an operator, or op-permission-level in server.properties is set below the level that command needs. /stop requires level 4; /ban and /op need level 3; /gamemode and /give need level 2. Restart the server after changing that value.

Do I type a slash in the server console?

No. The console runs commands directly — type op Steve, not /op Steve. The slash is only needed in in-game chat and in command blocks.

How do I stop losing my items when I die?

Run /gamerule keep_inventory true (/gamerule keepInventory true on 1.21.10 and earlier). It applies to every player on the server and persists across restarts, since gamerules are saved with the world.

Why did /whitelist on not kick the players already online?

The whitelist only filters new connections. Existing players stay until they disconnect. Set enforce-whitelist=true in server.properties to have non-whitelisted players removed when the whitelist reloads.

What is /execute actually for?

It runs a command from someone else's perspective, or only when a condition holds. execute as @a at @s run tp ~ ~10 ~ lifts every player ten blocks from wherever they individually stand — one command instead of one per player. Combined with /scoreboard and target selectors it is how most vanilla minigames are built.

Can I run commands automatically on a schedule?

Yes, three ways without a plugin: a datapack function on a tick cycle, /schedule function for a one-off delay, or a command block on a redstone clock. For plugin-based scheduling, see How to install plugins for Java.

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