Direct answer
Spigot tick-inactive-villagers controls whether villagers continue ticking when outside the normal entity activation range. This can affect trading and farm mechanics.
How to check it
- In a controlled test, walk away from a village and check whether workstations, restocking and breeders behave as expected; compare with a nearby-villager profiler sample.
- Record the original configuration or test conditions, capture a profile or a repeatable observation, and identify the affected world or player group.
- Make the measurement under the same player count and workload you will later use to verify the change.
What to change
If villager AI dominates MSPT, first reduce pathological crowding or excessive workstations. Only change inactive ticking if you accept that distant villagers may make different progress.
Always test trading restocks and iron farms; a small MSPT win can create a large gameplay regression.
Software and version notes
Check the active version and generated configuration before copying paths or values. Different forks and mod loaders may implement this behavior differently.
This article is written for Paper / compatible servers. Configuration keys and defaults can move between versions. The source material checked for this page includes PaperMC spigot.yml reference. If your server is Folia, Leaf, Purpur, Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, or another fork/loader, do not assume a Paper-only setting exists or behaves identically.
Verify the result
Repeat the same test with the same software build, player count and world activity. Compare the targeted symptom and any spark measurements, then check that intended game mechanics still work. If the change does not produce a reproducible improvement, revert to the recorded baseline.