TAB Plugin and LuckPerms: Set Up Rank Prefixes in Tablist and Nametags

Rank prefixes tell players at a glance who is staff and who has a supporter rank. The TAB plugin can show them in the tablist and above heads, using either the prefixes stored in LuckPerms or styles you write per group in groups.yml. This guide covers both approaches, rank sorting and the fixes for missing prefixes.

How TAB finds a player's group

Primary group from LuckPerms

By default, TAB asks your permission plugin for each player's primary group, refreshing every second. That group name is then matched against entries in groups.yml. If no entry matches, the _DEFAULT_ section applies.

Group by permission node

If you prefer, set assign-groups-by-permissions: true and give players nodes like tab.group.admin. TAB then picks the highest group from primary-group-finding-list.

Option one: use LuckPerms prefixes

The default placeholders

The stock groups.yml already sets tabprefix and tagprefix to %luckperms-prefix%. Set a prefix in LuckPerms, for example /lp group admin meta setprefix 100 "&c&lADMIN &c", and it appears in TAB after the next refresh.

When this approach fits

It is ideal when chat, tablist and nametags should all match, because you only manage prefixes in one place.

Option two: style ranks in groups.yml

Per-group entries

Write formatting directly for each group when you want the tablist to look different from chat:

owner:
  tabprefix: '&4&lOWNER &c'
  tagprefix: '&4&lOWNER &c'
admin:
  tabprefix: '&c&lADMIN &c'
  tagprefix: '&c&lADMIN &c'
vip:
  tabprefix: '&6VIP &e'
  tagprefix: '&6VIP &e'

In-game commands

You can also set values without editing files, for example /tab group vip tabprefix "&6VIP &e". Add -w world or -s server to limit a value to one world or server.

Sorting ranks in the tablist

The GROUPS sorting type

In config.yml, list your groups in order under sorting-types, such as GROUPS:owner,admin,mod,helper,vip,default. Players are then ordered by rank before anything else.

Matching names exactly

Sorting fails quietly when names differ. If LuckPerms calls the group Admin and your list says admin with case-sensitive sorting on, they will not match.

Fixing missing prefixes

Check what TAB actually sees

Run /tab parse <player> %luckperms-prefix%. If the output is empty, the issue is in LuckPerms, not TAB. /tab dump <player> creates a detailed report of the player's group and applied properties.

Nametag length and other plugins

Another plugin that edits scoreboard teams, such as an older nametag plugin, can overwrite TAB's nametags. Remove the conflicting feature or plugin. More fixes are in the troubleshooting guide.

TabPlugin Editorial Team

We run test servers on Paper, Folia and Velocity and update these guides whenever TAB changes. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.