The Sift Plugin: Explore a Fan-Made Sift Dimension on Your Server

This post is for server owners who saw the Sift announced and want their players exploring something like it before Mojang releases it. By the end you will know what the free fan-made plugin The Sift adds, what it needs, and how to install it on a VPS, a Pterodactyl panel or Multicraft.

What The Sift plugin is (and what it is not)#

The Sift is a free Spigot plugin by Skilleed, released on SpigotMC on 29 September 2026. It adds a whole extra dimension to your server, inspired by the Sift that Mojang announced at Minecraft LIVE. If you missed that announcement, our post on the Sift as Minecraft's first new dimension in over 14 years covers what has been shown so far.

Be clear with your players about one thing: this is a fan creation. The plugin page states that it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Mojang Studios or Microsoft. When the official dimension arrives it will look and play differently, so treat this plugin as a fun preview world, not as a copy of the real update.

The Sift | New Minecraft's Dimension Free A fan-made plugin that adds a separate Sift-inspired dimension with biomes, creatures, dungeons, bosses and an amethyst portal, with no client mods. On SpigotMC

What players get in the dimension#

The plugin builds a separate world (called the_sift by default) and fills it with its own content. According to the resource page, it includes:

• Four biomes: Pink Meadows, Frost Forest, Red Spires and Shattered Peaks.
• Its own atmosphere: a turquoise sky, coloured fog and custom music.
• Eleven creatures: peaceful ones such as the Bulb, Loomer and Glimmerwing, and hostile ones such as the Shardling, Prismite and Thornback.
• Dungeons: the page lists Crimson Keep, Frozen Hollow and Sky Sanctum.
• Five bosses: Prism Warden, Spire Tyrant, Frost Matriarch, Storm Wisp and The Sifter.
• 37 custom items: blocks, tools, armour, food and keys with their own textures.
• A progression path: the dimension has its own advancement tab that follows players from the first visit to the endgame.

The part most owners will care about: players do not install anything. Custom blocks use note block states drawn by a resource pack, and the plugin builds and serves that pack itself.

Who this plugin suits#

• Survival and SMP servers that want a fresh place to explore and a reason for players to log in this autumn.
• Event servers that want a themed "Sift week" with boss fights and dungeon runs.
• Owners who avoid modded setups. It has no dependencies and, per the page, uses no NMS code, which usually makes updates less painful.

It suits minigame networks less, since it is a full survival dimension rather than a mode with arenas.

Check versions and Java before installing#

The plugin is moving fast, and its pages are not fully in step yet:

• The overview and the 1.2.0 update notes (2 October 2026) say one jar now supports Minecraft 1.20 to 26.3 on Spigot and Paper.
• The Documentation tab still lists Spigot or Paper 26.3 or newer and Java 25 or newer as requirements.

Our reading is that the documentation has not caught up with 1.2.0 yet. Run the Java version your Minecraft version needs, and if you are on an older release, test on a copy of your server first. The documentation also says the plugin uses only the Spigot API, so any fork on 26.3 or newer should work.

Install The Sift step by step#

The setup is short: back up, add the jar, start the server, then restart once more. The second restart matters because the plugin writes datapacks on first start, and their effects (biomes, sky, music) only load after the next restart. The plugin also serves its resource pack from a built-in web server on TCP port 8163 by default, so that port has to be reachable.

Before the first boot is also a good moment to tidy your permissions. If you use LuckPerms, our guide to setting up LuckPerms groups and ranks shows where to add the nodes listed below.

Get the resource pack to your players#

The pack is generated as thesift-pack.zip and the plugin offers it to players. Everything lives in plugins/TheSift/config.yml:

resource-pack:
  required: false
  port: 8163
  public-host: ""
  url: ""

• Using the built-in web server: keep the port open and set public-host to the domain or IP your players connect with.
• Hosting it yourself: upload the zip to any host that gives a direct download link and put that link in url. The plugin then skips its web server, so no extra port is needed. This is the easier option on most panels.
• Players who declined the pack can run /sift pack to get it again.

Open the portal to the Sift#

Players reach the dimension through a portal, much like the Nether:

1. Build an upright frame of Blocks of Amethyst, at least 2 wide and 3 tall inside (up to 21 by default). Corners are optional.
2. Craft a Sift Catalyst from 4 Amethyst Shards and 1 Ender Pearl.
3. Right-click the inside of the frame with the catalyst. A turquoise swirl fills it.
4. Stand in the portal for about 3 seconds (instant in creative). The first trip builds a linked portal on the other side.

Links are permanent, mobs and items can pass through, and breaking a frame block closes the portal. The frame block, maximum size, delay and return world are set under portal: in the config.

Commands and permissions to know#

Admin commands are op only by default. Two parent nodes save time: thesift.admin grants every admin node, and thesift.player grants the player nodes (thesift.pack, thesift.portal.create, thesift.portal.use and thesift.boss). Removing thesift.portal.create from default players is a simple way to keep the dimension closed until an event starts.

Tune the world for your server#

The config also controls how the dimension generates and how hard it is:

• world.name and world.seed (0 means random).
• custom-blocks.mode: note (default) or instrument. The documentation explains that note stops normal note blocks from being tuned on the server, while instrument keeps vanilla note blocks working with a possible small visual flicker. Music servers and redstone builders will want instrument.
• structures.shrine-spacing, dungeon-spacing and ruins-chance for how often structures appear.
• mobs: per-creature natural spawning, max per player, health, damage and speed.

The Sift is a whole new world, so exploring it causes chunk generation like any other. Pregenerating it before you open it to players helps, and our guide to pregenerating with Chunky and finding lag with spark walks through that.

What to keep in mind#

• It is days old. At the time of writing the page shows 385 downloads and no ratings yet, so test it on a copy of your server before a big launch.
• Support runs through the author's Discord, linked from the SpigotMC page, and the discussion thread.
• Version 1.2.0 added bStats metrics, which you can turn off.
• When Mojang's Sift arrives in 2027, plan how you will retire or keep this world, since the two will not be the same.