Paid build

Tessera is available in two flavours:

• Free. Animates blocks in the bundled heads-<gridN>.ztsra resource out of the box. Anything else requires a MineSkin API key (subscription recommended) in config.yml so the plugin can bake new blocks on demand.
• Paid. Sold on LemonSqueezy. Identical animation surface, but two ergonomic differences for server admins:
  1. No MineSkin API key required. Bakes route through our backend server, with the same MineSkin subscription benefits.
  2. On-demand archive downloads. The /tessera archives command lets you browse and install pre-baked archives (for example at larger chunkGridSize values) without having to bake them yourself.

When to use each

• You're testing the plugin or just want full control over your MineSkin plan → free version.
  • Also recommended if you have a MineSkin subscription, since that will guarantee the fastest bake times for new blocks.
• You're running a production server and want to skip the MineSkin signup, don't want to wait for new block-bakes, or want larger pre-baked grid sizes without baking them yourself → paid version.

The bundled blocks render identically in both. Performance, configuration surface, and the rendering pipeline are unchanged.

Installing the paid build

1. Purchase Tessera on LemonSqueezy. You'll receive your license key by email immediately after checkout.

2. Download the jar (any build — paid and free use the same artifact) and drop it into plugins/, exactly as you would for the free build.

3. Open plugins/Tessera/config.yml (it's created on first start) and paste your license key into license.key:

   license:
     key: "38b1460a-5104-4067-a91d-77b872934d51"

4. /tessera reload or restart the server.

You do not need to set mineskin.apiKey once license.key is configured — uploads route through the Tessera backend. (Setting it anyway is fine; the plugin honours it and uses your MineSkin account directly instead.)

Everything in Configuration applies unchanged, including chunkGridSize, animation settings, and the materials allow-/deny-list.

/tessera archives

The paid version includes a /tessera archives subcommand (reference):

/tessera archives list
/tessera archives download <id>

list fetches a JSON index of available archives — each entry includes its id, name, target Minecraft version, target chunkGridSize, and size. download <id> streams the chosen archive into plugins/Tessera/heads/ and calls the addon-pack loader so the pack goes live without a restart.

License keys, sharing, and revocation

Your license key gates MineSkin uploads through our backend and access to /tessera archives. The first time a server calls the backend with your key it gets activated against your server's stable install ID — nothing for you to do, it happens transparently on the first block break.

Don't share the key — the backend logs every install ID that calls in with it, and a single key showing up across many distinct servers will get disabled from the LemonSqueezy dashboard. The next request after revocation fails with a 403.

If you run several of your own servers, that's fine; the backend treats multiple legitimate installs as a normal pattern. The flag is the distinct server count, not the request volume.

Free → paid migration

There is no migration step. You can switch between the two modes at any time by editing license.key in config.yml (set it to enable paid mode, blank it out to drop back to free) — the on-disk caches (plugins/Tessera/cache/heads-<gridN>/) and addon packs (plugins/Tessera/heads/) are read in both modes. Dropping back to free keeps the runtime cache intact but the /tessera archives command becomes a no-op.