Set up an economy and shop (Vault)

An in-game economy lets players trade, buy blocks, and fund events. It relies on three building blocks: Vault (the bridge), an economy provider, and a shop plugin.

Cause / The problem

Without Vault, each plugin manages its own currency and balances don’t sync between them. The shop and jobs plugins, for instance, would use two separate accounts.

Solution

1. Install Vault in the plugins/ folder. It’s an API: no player uses it directly, but other plugins depend on it. On startup, check the Vault enabled line in the console.
2. Add an economy provider. EssentialsX (the EssentialsXEconomy module) is the most common:

   # plugins/Essentials/config.yml
   starting-balance: 100.0
   currency-symbol: "$"

   Other options: XConomy, TNE. Only one provider at a time.
3. Install a shop plugin compatible with Vault. Common examples: ShopGUI+, EconomyShopGUI, or EssentialsX’s /shop. Prices and stock are defined in a YAML file per category.
4. Give a starting balance. New players automatically receive starting-balance. To adjust an existing player:

   /bal give <username> 100

5. Wire up income sources. Jobs Reborn, Quests, or mob drops feed the balance through Vault. Check that each plugin shows [Vault] hooked in its logs.
6. Debug common issues:
   • Economy response: FAILURE → two providers are fighting over Vault. Disable one.
   • Balances reset to zero after restart → storage (MySQL/LiteSQL) isn’t configured, or the file is read-only.
   • /pay doesn’t work → the command plugin doesn’t declare Vault as a soft dependency.

Back up the economy file regularly (often plugins/Essentials/userdata/) to avoid any balance loss.