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Deep Performance Tuning: spigot.yml

The spigot.yml file provides granular control over the most CPU-intensive components of the Minecraft engine: entity AI logic and item lifecycle management. Tuning these settings is an essential requirement for servers with high player populations or communities that use massive automated entity farms. By calibrating how the server “wakes up” mobs and how it aggregates dropped items, you can reclaim significant hardware resources while maintaining a high-fidelity gameplay experience.

Difficulty

Intermediate

Time

8 Minutes

Strategic Optimization Variables

To improve your server’s Ticks Per Second (TPS), we recommend applying the following modifications to your spigot.yml registry.

1. Entity Activation Range

This is the most impactful setting for performance. It dictates the physical distance (in blocks) a player must be from an entity for its AI logic to initialize. Entities outside this radius will remain stationary, consuming negligible CPU cycles.
  • animals: Set to 16 (Default 32).
  • monsters: Set to 24 (Default 32).
  • misc: Set to 8 (Default 16).

2. Physical Merge Radius

The merge radius logic instructs the server to “clump” dropped items and experience orbs together into a single stack. This reduces the total number of unique entities the server must track and calculate physics for.
  • item: Set to 4.0 (Default 2.5).
  • exp: Set to 6.0 (Default 3.0).

Technical Maintenance Registry

These settings manage the automatic purging of entities and inactive logic loops.
Technical VariableDefault ValueOptimized ValueStrategic Purpose
arrow-despawn-rate1200300Reduces projectile persistence from 60 seconds to 15 seconds.
item-despawn-rate60004000Purges “trash” items every 3.3 minutes to reclaim world memory.
tick-inactive-villagerstruefalsePrevents out-of-range villagers from performing expensive pathing math.
mob-spawn-range86Restricts spawns to areas players can actually observe.

Identifying Bottlenecks

If you have applied these optimizations and still experience server stuttering, we recommend using the Spark Profiler. This tool will help you identify if a specific world region or specialized entity (such as a massive villager trading hall) is circumventing these global limits.

Need Extra Help?

If you encounter any issues, our support team is ready to assist:

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Last Updated: January 2026 | Spigot: Efficiency maximized.