What WorldEdit Does

WorldEdit is a server-side building tool that lets operators edit the world at scale without placing blocks one at a time. You can select a rectangular region and fill it with any block, copy and paste structures, rotate builds, replace one block type with another across a large area, and generate spheres, cylinders, or pyramids in seconds. It is the standard tool for building spawns, arenas, and map terrain on servers of all sizes.

WorldEdit runs entirely server-side. Players do not need to install any client mod to use it. The server processes every operation and sends the resulting block changes to the client normally. For large operations, this means the server CPU does the heavy lifting, which is why it matters to have fast hardware underneath.

FAWE vs Standard WorldEdit

There are two versions to choose from. The original WorldEdit is maintained by EngineHub and works on Paper, Spigot, Fabric, and Forge. Fast Async WorldEdit (FAWE) is a performance-focused fork that runs edit operations asynchronously so the server does not freeze while processing large selections. FAWE also adds extra features like brushes, advanced patterns, and chunk operations.

For most servers, FAWE is the better choice because large fills and copies on standard WorldEdit can cause noticeable lag spikes. FAWE offloads that work to background threads. However, FAWE is a separate project and may occasionally lag behind the latest Minecraft versions. If you are on the latest Paper release and FAWE does not yet support it, use standard WorldEdit temporarily and switch to FAWE once it catches up. Standard WorldEdit is available at enginehub.org and FAWE at spigotmc.org.

Downloading and Installing WorldEdit

Go to the appropriate download page, grab the latest stable JAR for your server version, and upload it to your plugins/ folder. Then restart the server. WorldEdit creates its config under plugins/WorldEdit/ on first boot. No additional dependencies are required for either version.

Confirm the plugin loaded by running plugins in the console. WorldEdit should appear green. If you installed FAWE and it shows in red, the most common cause is a Minecraft version mismatch. Check the FAWE release notes for the specific versions it supports. For standard WorldEdit, also ensure you did not accidentally install both at the same time as they will conflict.

Giving Yourself Access with the Wand

WorldEdit requires the worldedit.wand permission and op status or explicit permission via LuckPerms to use most commands. If you are an op, you already have access. To get the selection wand (a wooden axe by default), run:

//wand

Left-click a block to set position 1, right-click to set position 2. This defines a cuboid region between the two corners. You will see confirmation messages in chat with the coordinates. Once you have a selection, you can run edit operations on it. To check the current selection size:

//size

Essential WorldEdit Commands

Here are the commands you will use most often. All WorldEdit commands start with // (double slash):

//set stone          - Fill selection with stone
//set 0             - Fill selection with air (delete blocks)
//replace dirt grass - Replace all dirt in selection with grass
//copy              - Copy the selection to clipboard
//paste             - Paste clipboard at your position
//rotate 90         - Rotate clipboard 90 degrees
//flip              - Mirror the clipboard
//undo              - Undo last WorldEdit operation
//redo              - Redo last undone operation
//sphere stone 10   - Generate a stone sphere, radius 10
//cyl stone 5 10    - Generate a stone cylinder, radius 5, height 10
//stack 3 north     - Stack selection 3 times northward

The //undo command is your safety net. WorldEdit keeps a configurable history (default 15 operations) per player. If a fill goes wrong, //undo reverses it immediately. For very large operations that would be difficult to undo, make a backup of the world folder first via SFTP before running the command.

Using WorldEdit for Spawn and Map Setup

The most common use case on a fresh server is building a spawn area. Pick a flat region, use //set to lay down your base material, use brushes to sculpt terrain, and use //copy and //paste to duplicate symmetrical structures like towers or pathways. The brushes system (accessed via /br on FAWE) lets you paint block types with a sphere radius directly onto the terrain as you walk, making organic shapes much faster to produce than a direct selection fill.

For competitive arenas, //copy and //paste with //rotate lets you build one corner and mirror it three times to create a symmetric layout quickly. When you need to regenerate an arena between matches, WorldEdit schematic files (saved with //schematic save name and loaded with //schematic load name then //paste) let you restore the original state in seconds.