Players do not need to install anything. The mod is entirely server-side, everything it shows is delivered through the vanilla tab list and vanilla chat. Anyone on a matching Minecraft version can join with a stock client.

The challenge

Every entity that can be killed counts exactly once toward your total. On 26.2 that's 87 mobs with the default settings.

Three mobs are excluded out of the box, because most servers don't want them blocking a completion:

Ender Dragon · Giant · Illusioner

Change any of that in-game. nothing here is fixed.

Features

Progress tracking

• Unique-mob progress per player, counted once per mob type
• Total mob kills, PvP kills, and deaths with a breakdown of how each player died
• Play time

Tab list integration

• Server name header, plus a #1 <player> leader banner that updates live
• Per-player stats beside each name, progress, deaths, PvP kills, mob kills
• Fully templated with & colour codes and placeholders; every line can be changed or turned off
• Refreshes are event-driven and rate-limited, not polled on a timer

Dimension checklists

• missing splits what's left into Overworld / Nether / End / Other
• Done mobs are greyed out, excluded mobs are struck through, you can see the whole set at once
• Any mob can be moved between groups if your server's progression differs

Leaderboards & announcements

• Top-N closest to finishing, and a separate deaths board
• First-kill announcements: "Steve hunted their first Warden! [61/86]"
• Announce to the whole server, or privately to the player who got the kill

AFK flagging

• Automatic movement-based detection with a configurable threshold
• /nolifetracker afk pins the state manually either way

Built to not lose your data

• A file that fails to parse is moved aside as <name>.corrupt-<timestamp> and defaults are used, rather than taking the server down with it
• Progress lives inside the world save, so each world keeps its own challenge and a world backup carries the stats with it

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader 0.19.3+ on your server (Minecraft 26.2, Java 25+).
2. Drop NoLife Tracker and Fabric API into the server's mods/ folder.
3. Start the server.

Config files are generated on first start, fully commented. There is nothing you must configure.

Commands

Everything is under /nolifetracker. Run it with no arguments for the in-game command list.

Everyone

Moderators (permission level 2)

Admins (permission level 3)

Configuration

Everything lives in config/nolifetracker/config.json, and every setting is also reachable through /nolifetracker config changes made in-game are written back to the file immediately, so the two can never drift apart.

How the mob list is decided

This is the part worth understanding,

The list is rebuilt from the entity registry at every server start, using Minecraft's own SpawnGroup classification. Everything that isn't a living mob like arrows, boats, minecarts, item frames, TNT, displays, experience orbs. is filed by vanilla under MISC; everything else falls into one of the living categories. That's a stable property of the game, so new mobs are picked up on their own.

A handful of genuine mobs are also MISC, because they're built or summoned rather than spawned: the golems, bosses, the summon-only horses, and villagers. Those are listed explicitly in forceIncludeMobs.

Because "did I miss a mob?" is nearly impossible to answer by eye, there are two safety nets:

1. Every start logs exactly what changed.

[nolifetracker] Challenge set: 86 mobs (2 added, 0 removed since last start).
[nolifetracker]   now counted: minecraft:foo, minecraft:bar

2. /nolifetracker audit reports every MISC entity the classifier couldn't place.

Things worth knowing

Kill attribution is strict. A kill counts when the player deals the killing blow. A mob finished off by your tamed wolf, an iron golem, or fall damage after a knockback does not count. This is deliberate. So it's worth telling your players up front.

AFK detection is position-based. Standing still while mining, fishing, or looking around will eventually flag you as AFK. /nolifetracker afk pins the state either way until you toggle it back.

Play time comes from vanilla statistics, not a separate timer, so it survives crashes and restarts.

Data and upgrading

Progress is stored in <world>/nolifetracker/player_stats.json inside the world save, not the server directory. Each world keeps its own challenge, and a world backup carries the stats with it.