GUI Customization

The graphical interface of ChatColor is fully customizable via the gui/gui.yml file. This allows you to change everything from titles and item materials to the exact layout of the menus.

📂 Configuration File: gui/gui.yml

The file is divided into several main sections:

1. titles

Define the titles for each page of the GUI. MiniMessage formatting is supported.

yaml 
titles:
  main: "ChatColor"
  solid: "Solid Colors"
  gradient: "Gradients"
  pattern: "Patterns"

2. layouts

Control the size of the inventory and where items are placed.

  • main: The category selection menu.

    • size: Must be a multiple of 9 (e.g., 27, 54).
    • filler-slots: Slots that will be filled with the filler item.
    • solid-slot, gradient-slot, pattern-slot, reset-slot: Specific slots for category buttons.

  • selector: The menu showing the actual colors/gradients/patterns.

    • size: Usually 54.
    • content-slots: Number of slots used for displaying entries.
    • nav-row-start: The row where navigation buttons start.

3. items

Customize the appearance of button items.

yaml 
items:
  solid:
    material: LIME_DYE
    name: "Solid Colors"
    lore:
      - "Browse and apply solid colors"
  reset:
    material: BARRIER
    name: "Reset Color"

4. status

These messages are appended to the lore of color items based on the player's status.

  • selected: Shown if the player currently has this color active.
  • click-to-apply: Shown if the player has access but hasn't selected it.
  • has-access: General access indicator.
  • no-access: Shown if the player lacks the required permission.

🛠️ Tips for Customization

  1. Filler Items: Change filler.material and filler.name to match your server's theme.
  2. Navigation: You can change the materials for next-page, previous-page, and back-menu items in the items section.
  3. MiniMessage: Use the MiniMessage Viewer to preview your titles and lore before applying them.
  4. Live Reload: /color reload re-reads gui.yml, so you can iterate on a layout without restarting. Menus already open keep the old layout until reopened.

Controlling What Appears

Two things filter the selector menus, and they are configured elsewhere:

  • show-standard-colors / show-standard-gradients / show-standard-patterns in config.yml skip loading the bundled entries entirely, which is how you present a purely custom palette without deleting anything from colors.yml. Because they are never loaded, they also stop working in /color set and the API — not just in the GUI. Custom colors are unaffected.
  • chatcolor.gui.solid / .gradient / .pattern hide whole categories from the main menu per player.

Individual entries a player lacks permission for are still displayed, marked with the no-access status lore, so players can see what is available to unlock. Remove the entry from colors.yml if you want it hidden entirely.