Spawner Miner
Few things feel better in survival Minecraft than finally clearing a dungeon and staring at the cage that has been hurling zombies at you for the last ten minutes. For years, that spawner was a decoration you could not take with you. Spawner Miner changes that. This lightweight add-on lets you break a mob spawner with a Silk Touch pickaxe and carry it home, mob data and all.
What Spawner Miner Does
The core idea is simple: mine a spawner with Silk Touch and collect it as an item, with its stored spawner data intact. That means the zombie spawner you just harvested still spawns zombies when you place it back down, not pigs, not nothing. The add-on respects the entity type the spawner was originally bound to, so your mob farm plans survive the move.
What makes Spawner Miner stand out is what happens when things go wrong. If the server cannot preserve that data, the plugin leaves the spawner in place rather than silently converting it into an empty spawner. You never lose a spawner to a quiet bug or an unsupported world. That safety-first behavior is exactly why server owners trust it on live worlds.
Supported Versions and Loaders
Spawner Miner is built for modern Minecraft, covering the 1.20.x and 1.21.x release lines, and it runs as a server-side plugin on Paper and Spigot. Because it is server-side, vanilla clients can join without installing anything. If you run a hybrid or plugin-based setup, check the project page for the exact build that matches your server jar before you download Spawner Miner.
Commands and Permissions
Setup is deliberately minimal. There is one command and a small permission set, which keeps configuration arguments to a minimum on busy servers.
- /spawnerminer reload reloads settings. Permission: spawnerminer.admin.
- Tab completion suggests reload to admins, so you do not have to memorize syntax.
- spawnerminer.use controls who can collect spawners. It is enabled by default.
If you want to restrict spawner harvesting to trusted players or a specific rank, revoke spawnerminer.use from your default group and grant it only where it belongs. Everything else keeps working out of the box.
Configuration
The config file is short and readable. The main toggle is require-silk-touch, which decides whether a Silk Touch pickaxe is mandatory for collecting a spawner. Leave it on for a balanced survival experience, or turn it off on creative-style or event servers where players should grab spawners with any tool.
You can also customize messages in config.yml, which is handy for translating the add-on or matching your server's chat style. After editing, run /spawnerminer reload to apply changes without restarting. No downtime, no lost ticks.
A Faster Way to Install
If you would rather skip manual jar placement, the foxygame.net launcher offers a one-click install for Spawner Miner, dropping the correct build straight into your server folder. Its add-on catalog also keeps version compatibility in check, so you are less likely to pair the wrong build with your Minecraft release.
How to Install Spawner Miner
Installation takes about a minute on a standard Paper or Spigot server.
- Download Spawner Miner for Minecraft from the official project page and confirm the build matches your server version.
- Stop the server, then drop the jar into your plugins folder.
- Start the server once so config.yml generates.
- Edit config.yml to set require-silk-touch and your messages.
- Run /spawnerminer reload or restart to apply everything.
Once it is running, test it in a safe area: place a spawner, mine it with Silk Touch, and confirm the item keeps its mob type. If the data cannot be preserved, the block stays put, which is your signal to check version compatibility.
Final Thoughts
Spawner Miner solves a small, specific annoyance without bloating your plugin list. It preserves spawner data, refuses to create empty spawners when it cannot, and gives admins clean permissions and a single reload command. Whether you are building a mob farm empire or just want to relocate a dungeon cage, this add-on earns its place in your plugins folder.