How to Configure Velocity Modern Forwarding

Direct answer

Modern forwarding passes UUID, IP and skin information from Velocity using a shared secret. Configure one forwarding mode consistently on the proxy and every backend; do not mix modern with legacy forwarding.

Recommended procedure

Set player-info-forwarding-mode = "modern" in velocity.toml and keep the generated forwarding.secret secure.
On Paper backends set online-mode=false in server.properties and settings.bungeecord=false in spigot.yml.
In config/paper-global.yml enable proxies.velocity, copy the same secret into its secret setting and match proxies.velocity.online-mode to the proxy online-mode.

What to change

# velocity.toml
player-info-forwarding-mode = "modern"
# paper-global.yml (on backend)
proxies:
  velocity:
    enabled: true
    online-mode: true # match proxy setting
    secret: "COPY_SECRET_FROM_FORWARDING_FILE"

Keep backend ports inaccessible to public clients through host firewall rules or private interfaces.
Restart proxy and backends and connect through Velocity; test that direct external backend connections are blocked.

How to verify the result

Confirm stable player UUIDs, correct skin/IP forwarding and that a direct backend login from outside the trusted proxy cannot succeed.

Version and compatibility notes

Modern forwarding supports Java 1.13+ in the official guide; older protocols and some modded backends need different handling. Never treat the shared secret as a replacement for network isolation.

Official references

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