HUD

hud.yml keeps text on players' screens while they play, without ever taking their controls: a level and world corner, a "spawn · safe zone" banner, a low-health warning, and notices that slide in when something happens (a kill, a level-up, the first join).

• It never shakes while players walk or jump, and keeps its place while they sprint.
• It steps aside while a screen is open, while a cinematic plays, while dead and in spectator mode.
• Each player can turn it off in /settings (Show HUD); the choice is kept across restarts.
• One display per line of text and nothing layered: a corner of three lines costs the client three entities.

widgets:
  low_health:
    anchor: above-hotbar
    when: "health() < 7"
    every: 5
    text: "{error}❤ {letters}Low health {letters_black}· {error}find cover"
  level:
    anchor: top-left
    every: 20
    text:
      - "{primary}✦ {letters}Level{letters_black}: {info}%player_level%"
      - "{primary}♦ {letters}World{letters_black}: {info}%player_world%"
notices:
  kill:
    event: kill
    group: kill
    text: "{error}⚔ {letters}You defeated {highlight}%victim%"
  level_up:
    event: level-up
    moment: true
    text: "{highlight}&lLEVEL %level%"

The example file ships with every entry enabled: false: turn on the ones you want. Besides the vitals card it ships a small kit of designs (status bar, level bar, minimap, profile, side panel, low-health and spawn banners) in hud/: edit them freely.

Widgets

A widget stays on screen. Its text is read again every every ticks, so placeholders stay current.

A widget whose condition stops holding slides out, and slides back in when it holds again.

Notices

A notice slides in when its event happens, stays a few seconds and slides away. Newer notices stand nearest the edge; past five at one anchor the oldest leaves early.

A death notice waits for the player to respawn.

Any menu or screen action can show one too:

actions:
  - "[HUD] {success}+50 {letters}coins;group:coins;seconds:4"
  - "[MOMENT] {highlight}&lJACKPOT"

Sidebars and boss bars

scoreboards.yml and bossbars.yml write each sidebar and boss bar twice: a design drawn on the HUD, and the vanilla words. A player whose client draws the HUD (Java 1.20.2 or newer) and who keeps it on in /settings sees the design, and no vanilla bar takes the top of their screen. Everyone else (Bedrock through Geyser, older clients, a player who turned the HUD off) gets the vanilla sidebar or boss bar. Each player is checked twice a second, so turning the HUD off swaps the form at once.

scoreboards:
  main:
    priority: 0
    every: 20
    design: sidebar
    title: '{primary}&lPROFILE'
    lines:
      - '  {letters_black}· {info}{icon:book} {letters}Name{letters_black}: {info}%player_name%'
      - '{muted}{server-ip}'
bossbars:
  event:
    design: event_bar
    text: '{primary}✦ {letters}Double coins this weekend!'
    color: PURPLE
    overlay: PROGRESS
    progress: '%player_health% / 20'

Another plugin's sidebar (a duel, an event) still shows over this one while it lasts. Other plugins can make the same choice with %player_hud%, true when a HUD is drawn for the player. Both files are editable in the browser through the web editor.

Anchors

Positions are measured on a 16:9 window at the default field of view of 70. A wider field of view draws everything a little nearer the centre, never off screen; a 4:3 window can cut the side anchors.

/screensadmin check lists anything in hud.yml, scoreboards.yml and bossbars.yml that does not read (an unknown event or anchor, a condition with a typo), and the file reloads by itself within two seconds of being saved. It is also editable in the browser through the web editor.