Getting started

Choose BungeeCord or Velocity, verify the jar, run it as the proxy, and make the first safe configuration change.

Leviathan is a fork, not a plugin. The download is a complete proxy jar; it replaces the BungeeCord or Velocity jar in your start command. The first boot writes configuration next to the jar, not under plugins/.

Before you start

Java	JDK 17+ for BungeeCord and the root build; Velocity 1.3 requires JDK 25
Backend	An existing Minecraft backend/server address and a working proxy configuration
Host	A normal user is enough; no root, sudo, or firewall mutation is required
Edition	Free Trial needs no key; Premium needs a license and product credentials

Back up the existing proxy directory first. Leviathan creates its own config, but it still needs your backend topology and forwarding setup to be correct.

Choose the fork

Download the Velocity jar for Velocity and the BungeeCord jar for BungeeCord. They are not interchangeable. The Free Trial artifacts are versioned 1.0.0; the public release line is 1.3.

Free Trial artifacts

Leviathan-Bungee-Free-Trial-1.0.0.jar
5b0e1478d164b330010c5c1df46011f2985e79ceda495d67aa807d25176389ac

Leviathan-Velocity-Free-Trial-1.0.0.jar
05a0e8e868b5d9a22ac50a936aa65ed37198495de03f8f7e9a5c453699291378

Verify

Download the jars and SHA256SUMS into one directory, then run:

verify · macOS / Linux

# Compare against the published SHA256SUMS.
shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS
# Linux
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS

A mismatch is not a releaseDelete the file and download it again. Do not “test it anyway” on a proxy that faces the public internet.

Run

Start the jar in a fresh proxy directory. The process stays in the foreground; use your normal service manager. The jar creates leviathan.yml and aleviathan/ directory beside itself.

first boot · shell

# Use the fork that matches your network.
java -jar Leviathan-Velocity-Free-Trial-1.0.0.jar
java -jar Leviathan-Bungee-Free-Trial-1.0.0.jar

# First boot writes leviathan.yml and ./leviathan/ beside the jar.

The proxy’s existing backend configuration still applies. Leviathan sits in the Netty connection path before the backend; it does not replace your backend configuration.

First boot

Read the startup log for the distribution edition and configuration validation.
Connect with a real client and run /leviathan status from console or with leviathan.admin.
Keep the defaults until you know your real join rate; then tune attack.trigger-cps with margin above that rate.
If players are wrongly blocked, remove the blacklist entry or use the IP/name whitelist rather than disabling the gate.

The default gate is intentionally conservative but not one-size-fits-all. Every network has a different baseline. See Operations for reading the status fields before tuning.

Premium

A Premium deployment uses the same jar layout and the same protection core, then adds the Spiky license fields and, optionally, AbyssLink. The license is fail-open: a missing or rejected entitlement disables Premium features but does not stop the core gate.

Read Premium licensing before pasting any credential into a config file. Never commit a license key, product API key, fingerprint, or PEM private key.