respond_ping Action

Responds to a ping request with custom MOTD, version, and icon. Use this action when a ping trigger has hold_response: true and you want to respond to the ping request with custom ping data. See ping for more information.

Only modifies the ping response for the fields specified in the action configuration. Any fields not specified will use the existing ping response for that field.

Configuration

action:
  - respond_ping:
      ping: ${ping}                         # Ping event (default: ${ping})
      use_cached_motd: true                 # Use cached MOTD if available
      use_backend_motd: false               # Use live backend MOTD (pings `${ping.server}`)
      motd: "<yellow>Custom MOTD</yellow>"  # Custom MOTD (MiniMessage format)
      version_name: "Custom Version"        # Version name
      protocol_version: -1                  # Protocol version
      icon: "/path/to/icon.png"             # Server icon (64x64 PNG)

Configuration fields

Field	Default	Description
`ping`	`${ping}`	The ping event object
`use_cached_motd`	`false`	If `true`, uses cached MOTD if available
`use_backend_motd`	`false`	If `true`, uses live backend MOTD (pings `${ping.server}`). Requires `ping.server` to be set (done by ping trigger).
`motd`	-	Custom MOTD in MiniMessage format. Used when cached and backend MOTD are not used. Supports variables.
`version_name`	-	Version name to display. Supports variables.
`protocol_version`	-	Protocol version (use `-1` to show version name text to clients)
`icon`	-	Server icon file path or base64 string (must be 64x64 PNG)

MOTD cache and virtual hosts

To use use_cached_motd: true, you must configure virtual_host in the server configuration. The MOTD cache is organized by virtual host, and the cached MOTD is retrieved based on the client's virtual host from the ping request.

Server configuration:

servers:
  survival:
    virtual_host: play.example.com  # Virtual host for this server

How it works:

MOTD is cached automatically when:
- A server is stopped by the plugin (via stop or restart actions)
- Periodically at the interval specified in motd_cache_interval setting
When use_cached_motd: true is used, the action retrieves the cached MOTD based on the client's virtual host from the ping request (${ping.player.virtual_host}).
MOTD priority: cached (if use_cached_motd and cache hit) → backend (if use_backend_motd and ping succeeds) → motd (custom).

See Servers for server configuration details and Settings for MOTD cache interval configuration.

Example

rules:
  respond_ping:
    triggers:
      - ping:
          hold_response: true  # Hold the ping response
    conditions:
      mode: all
      checks:
        - server_status:
            server: survival
            status: offline  # Only respond if server is offline
    action:
      - respond_ping:
          ping: ${ping}  # Ping event
          use_cached_motd: true  # Use cached MOTD
          protocol_version: -1  # Force version name display as text
          version_name: "<blue>◉ Sleeping"  # Version name

This rule will respond to ping requests with a cached MOTD and custom version name when the server is offline.