OpenChestSorter

Open an ordinary chest. It organizes itself.

OpenChestSorter is a small, fast Paper plugin that sorts ordinary chest contents the moment a player opens the chest.

No sneak-click. No command. No client mod. No resource pack. Just cleaner storage with the normal Minecraft chest experience.

It is built for servers that want quality-of-life features to feel like they belong in vanilla Minecraft, including mixed Java and Bedrock communities using Geyser/Floodgate.

Server-Side Storage Suite

OpenChestSorter works especially well with:

Plugin	What it adds
StorageWorkbench	Craft from nearby chests through a vanilla-compatible storage crafting menu.
ExpandedChests	Large paged storage blocks with their own built-in sorting controls.

Together, they give storage rooms a clear job:

Storage problem	Plugin that handles it
Ordinary chests get messy.	OpenChestSorter sorts them the moment players open them.
Crafting needs too much inventory juggling.	StorageWorkbench crafts from nearby storage.
Bulk materials need more space than double chests.	ExpandedChests adds large paged storage with its own sort buttons.

The plugins can be installed together or separately. No client mod or resource pack is required.

The Experience

Before	After
Players need to remember a special sneak-click action.	Players simply open the chest.
Materials are scattered across random slots.	Similar items merge and sort into a clean order.
Bedrock players can be left out by client-side mods.	Sorting runs on the Paper server with vanilla inventory behavior.
Visual feedback is missing.	A small player-colored particle burst appears above the chest.
Another player's open chest can be rearranged unexpectedly.	Sorting is skipped by default if someone else is already viewing that chest.

Features

Feature	Details
Automatic chest sorting	Sorts ordinary single and double chests when opened.
No special interaction	Players do not need to crouch, click a button, or run a command.
Safe stack merging	Uses Bukkit ItemStack#isSimilar, so renamed, damaged, enchanted, and custom items do not merge with unlike stacks.
Practical default order	Groups common item categories, then sorts by material id.
Optional name sorting	Switch to name sorting in the config if that fits your server better.
Multiplayer-aware behavior	Multiple players can open the same chest. Sorting is skipped by default when another player is already viewing it.
Player-colored particles	A lightweight vanilla DUST effect appears once above the chest, with a stable color per player.
Admin testing command	Operators can sort the chest they are looking at with /ocs sort.
ExpandedChests-safe	ExpandedChests storage is intentionally left to ExpandedChests' own sorting buttons.
Standalone-first design	Works by itself; companion plugins are optional.
Server-side only	No client mod, no resource pack, no custom UI, no custom packets.

Compatibility

Target	Support
Platform	Paper
Minecraft versions	1.21.x and 26.1.x
Java for 1.21.x servers	Java 21
Java for 26.1.x servers	Java 25 or newer
Client-side install	Not required
Resource pack	Not required
Dependencies	None
Optional companions	StorageWorkbench, ExpandedChests
Geyser/Floodgate	Designed around server-side inventory changes and vanilla particles.

OpenChestSorter is a server-side Paper plugin. It is not a Fabric, Forge, or NeoForge client mod.

OpenChestSorter sorts ordinary single and double chests only. If you also use ExpandedChests, those large paged storages keep their own built-in sort controls instead of being rearranged by this plugin. This separation is intentional: ordinary chests stay automatic, expanded storage stays page-aware.

Commands

Players do not need commands for normal sorting.

Admin commands:

Command	Permission	Description
/ocs status	openchestsorter.admin	Shows plugin status and active settings.
/ocs reload	openchestsorter.admin	Reloads the plugin config.
/ocs sort	openchestsorter.admin	Sorts the chest the player is looking at. Useful for testing.

Permissions

Permission	Default	Purpose
openchestsorter.use	Everyone	Allows automatic sorting when opening chests.
openchestsorter.admin	Operators	Allows admin commands.

Installation

1. Stop the Paper server.
2. Back up the server folder, especially world, world_nether, world_the_end, plugins, and config files.
3. Disable other chest-sorting plugins while testing, such as SimpleAutoSort.
4. Copy open-chest-sorter-1.0.2.jar into the server plugins folder.
5. Start the server.
6. Adjust plugins/OpenChestSorter/config.yml if needed.

Default configuration

enabled: true
sort-on-open: true
skip-when-other-viewers: true
notify-player: true

sort-effect:
  enabled: true
  particles: 14
  spread: 0.35

sort-mode: category_then_name
merge-similar-stacks: true
debug-logging: false

Performance

OpenChestSorter is intentionally simple:

• No background world scanning.
• No scheduled inventory sweeps.
• No database.
• No network calls.
• No telemetry.
• Sorting only runs when a supported chest is opened.
• The default effect is one small particle burst per open.

An ordinary chest has 27 slots and a double chest has 54 slots, so sorting work stays small and predictable.

Safety

OpenChestSorter does not generate chunks, edit blocks, rewrite world files, migrate world data, use a database, or make external network calls.

It does move items inside chest inventories, so test it before installing on a valuable live world.

Recommended rollout:

1. Make a full server backup.
2. Test on a copied world or separate test server.
3. Disable other chest-sorting plugins while testing.
4. Test single chests.
5. Test double chests.
6. Test named, enchanted, damaged, and custom items.
7. Test two players opening the same chest.
8. Install on the live server only after the copied-world test looks correct.

Companion Plugin Compatibility

OpenChestSorter is designed to coexist with StorageWorkbench.

OpenChestSorter reacts to normal chest inventory opens. StorageWorkbench uses its own storage crafting menu and reads nearby chest inventories directly. The plugins do not share UI state, and opening the StorageWorkbench crafting menu does not open chest inventories through OpenChestSorter.

OpenChestSorter is also designed to sit beside ExpandedChests. It intentionally ignores expanded storage blocks because ExpandedChests owns its own paged GUI and full-storage sorting controls.

Known Limitations

• Only ordinary single and double chests are sorted.
• Other containers and custom plugin GUIs are intentionally ignored.
• Sorting while another player already views the same chest is skipped by default to avoid rearranging their open screen.

License

OpenChestSorter is released under the MIT License.