Staff Chat Module

Purpose and behavior#

Staff Chat is a private channel for staff. Every online player with steward.staff-chat.use receives every Staff Chat message. Each message is also saved to Steward's Staff Chat history and written to the server console log.

There are two ways to send:

• /sc <message> (alias /staffchat <message>) sends one message without changing modes.
• /sc with no message toggles Staff Chat mode. While the mode is on, the staff member's normal chat messages are cancelled before public broadcast and sent to Staff Chat instead.

Staff Chat mode can also be toggled from the Staff Control panel, where the button shows Staff Chat Mode: On or Off, and from the Staff Chat tool in Staff Mode hotbar slot 7.

Messages are formatted as a bold gold [Staff] tag, the sender's name in aqua, and the message in white. Hovering the sender's name shows the send time. Messages are trimmed, blank messages are rejected, and messages are limited to 256 characters.

Mode persistence#

The set of players with the mode on is written atomically to steward/data/staff-chat-toggles.json before the change takes effect. A write failure rolls the toggle back and tells the actor that no change was made.

When a player with the mode on reconnects, Steward reminds them that their chat is still routed to staff. If the player no longer holds steward.staff-chat.use, whether at join or when they next chat, the mode is silently cleared and their message is sent publicly as normal.

History#

Every sent message (sender UUID, sender name, text, and time) is appended as one JSON line to steward/history/staff-chat.jsonl. Appending means the file is never rewritten, and a damaged line is skipped at load without hiding the rest. The file keeps every message; Steward does not prune it.

/schistory [page] shows the history in chat, 10 messages per page. Page 1 is the most recent messages, each page reads oldest to newest, and clickable « Older and Newer » links move between pages. The most recent 5,000 messages are loaded into memory at server start and are available in game; older messages remain in the file.

If a message cannot be saved, it is still delivered, and the sender is told that it was not saved to history.

Mutes#

The Staff Chat listener is registered before public mute enforcement, so a muted staff member with the mode on can still reach Staff Chat, and /sc <message> is a command that mutes never block. Mutes continue to block the muted player's public chat.

Permissions#

Limitations#

• In game, /schistory reaches only the most recent 5,000 messages. Older messages must be read from steward/history/staff-chat.jsonl.
• The history file grows without limit; archive or trim it manually while the server is stopped.
• Messages are sent as system messages, so they are not signed and cannot be reported through Mojang's chat reporting.
• Recipients are checked when each message is sent. A permission change takes effect on the next message.

Runtime operating checklist#

• Send with /sc <message> and /staffchat <message> and confirm only staff and the console receive it.
• Toggle the mode from the command, the control panel, and the Staff Mode tool; confirm normal chat is routed privately while on and publicly while off.
• Mute a staff member with the mode on and confirm Staff Chat still works while public chat is blocked after toggling off.
• Reconnect and restart with the mode on and confirm it is restored and the reminder appears.
• Revoke the permission while the mode is on and confirm the next chat message is public and the mode is cleared.
• Send messages, restart, and confirm /schistory shows them in order with working page links; confirm players without steward.staff-chat.history cannot run it.