Plugin reloading

Formally, the CommandAPI does not support plugin reloading. This includes, but is not limited to:

  • The /reload command which reloads all plugins on the server
  • Plugin reloading plugins, such as PlugMan
  • Any form of plugin enabling/disabling process for plugins which register commands via the CommandAPI

In general, using the /reload command is not advised. Here's some useful resources from various Bukkit/Spigot/Paper developers:

The CommandAPI is not like normal Bukkit/Spigot/Paper plugins. It directly accesses all of the nitty-gritty Vanilla Minecraft code to convert and expose Minecraft's internal command framework into a Bukkit-API friendly interface for you to use. As the CommandAPI hooks directly into Vanilla Minecraft code, and /reload is a Bukkit feature, using /reload can cause Vanilla Minecraft's internal system to become unstable. If you are having issues with /reload, seriously reconsider shutting your server down correctly and restarting it, instead of running /reload.

Despite this, there is one way to get reloading to work using the onDisable() method in your plugin. If you register a command in your onLoad() or onEnable() method, by unregistering the command in your onDisable() method, this allows the CommandAPI to properly register the command again when the server reloads.

Developer's Note:

Despite the fact that you can do this, I cannot stress enough that this is not recommended, due to the fact that functions/tags in datapacks do not work with /reload, even if you unregister the command.

Example - Allowing a command to work with /reload

In this example, we add support for reloading the server via /reload by unregistering the command in the onDisable() method. Note that force-unregistering is not required for this:

public class MyPlugin extends JavaPlugin {

    @Override
    public void onEnable() {
        new CommandAPICommand("ping")
            .executes((sender, args) -> {
                sender.sendMessage("Pong!");
            })
            .register();
    }

    @Override
    public void onDisable() {
        CommandAPI.unregister("ping");
    }

}