VeinMiner mines an entire ore vein as soon as you break a single block of it. Instead of hitting diamond ore fifteen times, you hit it once and the connected blocks follow on their own. The plugin runs entirely on the server; players need no mod and no client setting. The screenshots come from a test server running Paper 1.21.1 and VeinMiner 2.x: a diamond vein of fifteen blocks, a diamond pickaxe, a single break.

Requirements

Install VeinMiner in the panel under Plugins → Browser. The Modrinth search shows two variants of the same project: the plugin 2.x as a JAR file for Paper, Purpur and Folia, and the older data pack 1.x. This guide covers the plugin 2.x; the assistant in the panel detects the installed variant and shows it in its header. After the restart, /veinminer settings maxChain without a value prints the current setting, which confirms that the plugin is running.

The management commands belong to a moderation group. Operators may do everything; for everyone else the nodes veinminer.settings, veinminer.blocks, veinminer.groups and veinminer.toggle decide who may change settings, block lists, groups and the server-wide switch. Regular players only need veinminer.use, and only if you enable permissionRestricted. How groups and nodes work is explained in LuckPerms: set up permissions.

How mining works

Right after installation the rule is: every break with the matching tool triggers the vein. needCorrectTool is true, mustSneak is false, and maxChain allows up to 100 blocks per trigger. The search walks through all directly adjacent blocks of the same type (searchRadius 1), block by block, until the vein ends or the limit is reached.

A diamond vein of fifteen blocks before mining, the diamond pickaxe in hand
A diamond vein of fifteen blocks before mining, the diamond pickaxe in hand

In the example the vein is exposed as a wall of five by three diamond ore blocks. The player breaks exactly one block in the middle.

Breaking one block makes the whole vein shatter at once, the diamonds fly out of the wall
Breaking one block makes the whole vein shatter at once, the diamonds fly out of the wall

All fourteen remaining blocks break in the same moment; the diamonds and experience orbs fly out of the wall. The pickaxe loses one durability point per block (durabilityDecrease true), so a tool about to break will not survive a large vein.

The diamonds lie collected in front of the player, the wall behind them is empty
The diamonds lie collected in front of the player, the wall behind them is empty

Afterwards the diamonds lie in front of the player and the wall is empty. With mergeItemDrops true the items drop as one stack at the position of the first block, which saves entities on a busy server.

Settings: assistant or console

For VeinMiner 2.x the server panel ships an assistant with two presets that apply the values through the running server console and leave block and tool groups untouched:

  • Balanced (recommended): at most 64 blocks per trigger, 1 tick delay between blocks, 20 ticks cooldown, sneaking required, correct tool required, individual drops.
  • Performance (many players): at most 32 blocks, 2 ticks delay, 40 ticks cooldown, merged drops.

Both presets switch off VeinMiner's built-in auto-updater because updates run through the panel's plugin management. How to open the assistant is described in Plugin assistants in the panel.

You can set the same values by hand, with a slash in game and without it in the panel console:

/veinminer settings mustSneak true
/veinminer settings maxChain 64
/veinminer settings cooldown 20
/veinminer settings delay 1

mustSneak is the most important setting on a building server: when it is true, the vein only breaks if the player sneaks while mining. Anyone who wants to work on a stone wall without taking half of it down simply stands upright. cooldown and delay are given in ticks; 20 ticks are one second.

Blocks and groups

Which blocks VeinMiner treats as a vein is defined in groups. Each group links a list of blocks to the tools that may trigger them. /veinminer blocks shows the blocks that apply to all tools; /veinminer presets loads ready-made groups, for example for ores or wood. You create your own group like this:

/veinminer groups create ores diamond_ore
/veinminer groups edit ores add-block deepslate_diamond_ore
/veinminer groups edit ores add-tool diamond_pickaxe

With that, a diamond vein only breaks with a diamond pickaxe. Put leaves or logs into a group with the axe, and better leave stone out entirely, otherwise whole walls vanish while tunnelling.

Common mistakes

  • More breaks away than intended while building. Set mustSneak true or remove the block from the group. The assistant's presets already require sneaking.
  • The server stutters on large veins. Lower maxChain and raise delay; the "Performance" preset spreads the mining over more ticks.
  • The pickaxe suddenly broke. Every block costs durability. Warn players or set durabilityDecrease false, then a vein costs only one point.
  • The assistant shows "Data pack 1.x". The 2.x presets do not apply; configure the data pack in game as an operator with /function veinminer:_config.
  • VeinMiner reports an update in the console. That is the built-in updater. Updates run through the plugin management; autoUpdate false ends the message.
  • VeinMiner should be off for a while. /veinminer toggle switches the plugin off and on server-wide without losing the settings.

Further guides

How plugins get into the panel and are updated is shown in Install and manage plugins. Whether a large vein really causes lag is something you measure with spark: profile lag before changing the settings.

Sources

VeinMiner: view an example

Our own captures from a demonstration environment. The version and setup shown may differ from your server.

An exposed diamond vein before mining. The pickaxe is ready.
An exposed diamond vein before mining. The pickaxe is ready.

VeinMiner 2.4.4 · Paper 1.21.1 · 2026-09-14

A single break triggers the whole vein: the remote blocks break too.
A single break triggers the whole vein: the remote blocks break too.

VeinMiner 2.4.4 · Paper 1.21.1 · 2026-09-14

The diamonds lie collected in front of the player; the vein is gone.
The diamonds lie collected in front of the player; the vein is gone.

VeinMiner 2.4.4 · Paper 1.21.1 · 2026-09-14

  1. One diamond vein, one pickaxe.
  2. One block is mined. The whole vein follows.
  3. The drops lie collected in front of you.