Always format

Always format is FeatherMC’s one-call text formatter. Give it a string that uses legacy color codes, MiniMessage, or a mix of both, and it returns an Adventure Component that renders correctly everywhere the server accepts components — chat, the tab list, sign lines, book pages, boss bars, and kick / shutdown / restart messages.

FeatherMC uses it for its own messages. Your plugin can use it on any text:

import dev.feathermc.feather.Feather;
import net.kyori.adventure.text.Component;

Component msg = Feather.format("&6Welcome &lback&r&6, <green>have fun!");
player.sendMessage(msg);

Feather.format(...) is a convenience for dev.feathermc.feather.text.AlwaysFormat.format(String). Both are pure text handling (just Adventure under the hood), so they also work on plain Paper and are safe to bundle — see Supporting Paper too.

What it accepts

Input	Example	Result
Legacy colors / formats	&a, &l, &o, §c	green, bold, italic, red
Legacy hex (Bungee)	&#ff8800	that exact color
Legacy hex (Spigot)	&x&f&f&8&8&0&0	that exact color
MiniMessage tags	<red>, <bold>, <underlined>	colors and formats
MiniMessage gradients	<gradient:#ff0000:#0000ff>text</gradient>	a smooth gradient
MiniMessage rainbow	<rainbow>text</rainbow>	rainbow text
New line	\n (or a real line break)	a line break

Legacy codes and MiniMessage can be combined in one string — legacy is translated to MiniMessage first, then the whole thing is parsed, so gradients and the rest work alongside & codes.

Examples

// Legacy
Feather.format("&cError: &7something went wrong");

// MiniMessage + gradient
Feather.format("<gradient:#f9a825:#e65100><bold>FeatherMC</bold></gradient>");

// Mixed, with a line break
Feather.format("&6Server restarting\n<gray>back in a minute");

// A sign (4 lines via \n), tab header, or a kick reason - all the same call:
sign.line(0, Feather.format("<gradient:#00e5ff:#2979ff>Spawn</gradient>"));
player.sendPlayerListHeader(Feather.format("&b&lMyServer\n<gray>welcome"));
event.disallow(Result.KICK_BANNED, Feather.format("&cYou are banned\n<gray>appeal at /discord"));

Just the MiniMessage string

If you want the translated MiniMessage string rather than a component (for example to store it), use AlwaysFormat.toMiniMessage(String):

String mm = dev.feathermc.feather.text.AlwaysFormat.toMiniMessage("&a&lHi");
// -> "<green><bold>Hi"

Notes

• Unknown or malformed markup never throws: the text is returned as-is instead.
• For the full MiniMessage tag reference, see the Component API and the MiniMessage format.

Full Javadoc