Accepting the Minecraft EULA

Why a fresh Minecraft server stops on the first boot, and the one click that fixes it.

Every Minecraft server has to agree to Mojang's End User Licence Agreement before it will run. This is Mojang's requirement, not ours — it applies to every host and to servers you run at home.

So the first boot of a brand new server always stops. That is expected, and it takes one click to move past.

What you will see

The console prints one of two messages, depending on the server build.

Vanilla and most older builds stop with:

You need to agree to the EULA in order to run the server.
Go to eula.txt for more info.

Newer Forge and NeoForge builds, and some modpacks, ask interactively instead and wait for an answer:

[main/WARN] [minecraft/Eula]: Failed to load eula.txt
[main/INFO] [minecraft/Eula]: By answering 'true' to this prompt you are
indicating your agreement to Minecraft's EULA
EULA:

The difference matters more than it looks. In the first case the server has already exited. In the second it is still running, sitting on that prompt, waiting.

The one-click fix

When the panel spots either message it opens a window titled EULA acceptance required. Press I accept the EULA and it does the right thing for your situation:

• if the server exited, it writes eula=true into eula.txt and starts the server
• if the server is waiting on the prompt, it answers true in the console so the boot continues without a restart

Either way the file is saved, so you will not be asked again on later boots.

Doing it by hand

If you would rather not use the window, or you closed it:

1. Open the Files tab
2. Open eula.txt in the server's main folder
3. Change eula=false to eula=true
4. Save, then start the server

If the file is not there at all, create it with a single line: eula=true. The Failed to load eula.txt warning in the console means exactly that — the file was missing.

What you are agreeing to

The short version: you may run a Minecraft server, you may accept donations and sell cosmetic perks, but you may not sell gameplay advantages or pretend to be an official Mojang service.

The full text is on minecraft.net/eula and it is short enough to read. Accepting it is your decision as the server owner — we cannot accept it on your behalf, which is why this step exists at all.

If it keeps asking

Two things worth checking.

The file is in the wrong folder. eula.txt belongs next to the server jar, in the main directory. If your modpack starts from a subfolder, that is where the file has to be.

Something overwrites it. A few modpack start scripts regenerate configuration on every boot. If eula.txt reverts to false after each restart, that is the cause — check the pack's start script rather than the file.

Still looping? Open a ticket from Help centre with the server ID and the last twenty lines of console output.