Installing Sponge

Overview

Recall that there are two official variants of Sponge (coremod and SpongeVanilla) — they both run Sponge plugins identically (that’s the goal), but how either work behind the scenes (the code) differs. This is better explained in the Choosing an Implementation page.

Instructions for both are listed on this page.

You will also need to install Java. To recap, Java 8 is recommended, but Java 7 should work too.

Installing Sponge (coremod)

Note

If you use (or are planning to use) a game server host, they may have a control panel that can install Sponge for you.

Single Player / In-Game LAN Servers

  1. Download the Minecraft Forge installer from the Minecraft Forge website. The latest version, or any version that’s newer than the one listed in the filename of the Sponge download, should work.
  2. Run the provided Forge installer. A new Forge profile will be created in the Minecraft launcher.
  3. Open the Minecraft launcher, and select the new Forge profile.
  4. Click “Options” and click “Open Game Dir”.
  5. Download the Sponge coremod from the Sponge website and put it into the mods folder. Create the folder if it does not yet exist.
  6. Sponge should work in both in single player and if you open your world to LAN.

Next, learn how you can create and use a launch-script, how to configure Sponge and how to manage your server (including installing plugins).

Dedicated Servers

Note

If you already have a Forge server, just put the Sponge mod into your mods folder. Remember to update your Forge version if it’s older than the one that sponge requires.

Via GUI

  1. Download the Minecraft Forge installer from the Minecraft Forge website. The latest version, or any version that’s newer than the one listed in the filename of the Sponge download, should work.
  2. Run the provided Forge installer, select “Install Server”, choose an empty folder to place the server’s files, and then click OK.
  3. Download the Sponge coremod from the Sponge website and put it into the mods folder in your server directory. Create the folder if it does not yet exist.
  4. You may now launch the server via command or launch script java -jar forge-version-XYZ.jar.
  5. Set up Port Forwarding to ensure others can connect.

Next, learn how you can configure Sponge and how to how to manage your server (including installing plugins).

Headless (Command-line)

If you are installing the server on your personal computer or via remote deskop, we recommend using the steps listed above instead.

However, if you are working via command line or SSH, run the following commands where you want to put the server’s files (after downloading the Sponge coremod):

  1. java -jar sponge.jar install
  2. java -jar sponge.jar run

Or you can do both in one go:

  • java -jar sponge.jar go

Next, learn how you can configure Sponge and how to how to manage your server (including installing plugins).

Tip

Community member Joe_Schmo2840 has provided a tutorial video for installing Sponge (coremod).

Installing SpongeVanilla

SpongeVanilla only works as a dedicated server.

  1. Download the SpongeVanilla .jar from the Sponge website.
  2. Run it via command line: java -jar spongevanilla-whatever.jar
  3. Set up Port Forwarding to ensure others can connect.

Warning

Don’t double-click the .jar file!