PendingWhitelist
Every server owner knows the feeling. Your whitelist is on, someone tries to join, and the server quietly rejects them. That is the end of the story, right? Not anymore. PendingWhitelist turns those invisible rejections into actionable data, giving your staff a clear picture of who wanted in and when. If you have ever wondered whether a loyal player was locked out during a whitelist-only event, this plugin answers that question.
What PendingWhitelist Actually Does
At its core, PendingWhitelist is a lightweight companion to the vanilla whitelist system. When a non-whitelisted player attempts to connect, the join is rejected exactly as it always was. The difference is that the attempt is now recorded. Staff can review pending players, see how many times they tried, and decide whether to add them, ignore them, or remove the request entirely.
The plugin stores a surprising amount of useful detail for each rejected attempt:
- Player name and UUID
- Total attempt count
- First attempt timestamp
- Last attempt timestamp
All of this is saved locally in plugins/PendingWhitelist/pending.json, so no external database is needed. The standard whitelist.json is still handled by Paper, which keeps your existing workflow intact.
Supported Versions and Loaders
PendingWhitelist runs on Paper or Purpur for Minecraft 1.20.1 and newer, and it requires Java 21 or above. Bedrock support is optional but well integrated. If you run Floodgate, Bedrock players are tracked alongside Java players, and a dedicated command set lets you manage them separately. SkinsRestorer is also supported for offline-mode skin lookups, with player skin caching included.
How to Install PendingWhitelist for Minecraft
Installation is refreshingly simple, which is part of the appeal for busy admins:
- Stop the server.
- Place the PendingWhitelist JAR in your plugins folder.
- Start the server.
- Edit plugins/PendingWhitelist/config.yml if you want to tweak behavior.
- Run /wl to open the admin dashboard.
That is genuinely all it takes. If you prefer a faster route, the foxygame.net launcher bundles PendingWhitelist directly into its add-on catalog, so you can drop it into your setup without ever touching a downloads page or matching file versions by hand.
Managing Players Through the GUI
The Add Players GUI
Open it with /wl add and you get a clean, paginated view split into three sections: pending players, online players, and previously joined players. Bedrock players appear before Java players in the pending and online lists, which makes mixed-server management much less confusing. Left-click a player to whitelist them, or shift-click to add everyone on the current page at once.
The Whitelisted Players GUI
Use /wl remove to see everyone currently on the whitelist. Left-click removes a single player, while shift-click clears the whole page. It is a fast way to prune inactive accounts after a season reset.
Join Notifications for Staff
Anyone with the pendingwhitelist.admin permission can receive an in-game notification the moment a non-whitelisted player is rejected. These alerts include clickable actions, so your moderators can approve or dismiss a request without typing a single command. A configurable cooldown prevents a persistent player from spamming staff with repeated attempts.
Commands at a Glance
The command set is compact and memorable. /wl opens the dashboard, /wl pl lists pending players, and /wl rpl removes them from pending storage. For Bedrock, /wlb add handles whitelist additions when Floodgate is present. You can also toggle the whitelist with /wl on and /wl off, reload configuration with /wl reload, and check for updates with /wl version.
Configuration and Cleanup
The config file covers debug logging, chat page size, notification cooldowns, and automatic cleanup of old pending requests. That last option matters over time, since a busy server can accumulate hundreds of stale entries. After any change, run /wl reload to apply it without restarting.
Final Thoughts
PendingWhitelist fills a gap that most server owners never realized existed. Rejected joins are no longer dead ends. They become a manageable queue that staff can review, act on, and clear. Whether you run a small survival world or a large network with Bedrock crossplay, this plugin makes your whitelist smarter without complicating it. Download PendingWhitelist, run through the quick setup, and give your staff the visibility they have been missing.