Highlights
This release requires Minecraft 26.1 and Java 25. Upgrading from 1.x requires a fresh installation due to storage and configuration changes.

What's New
Minecraft 26.1 & Java 25

• Updated to Paper API 26.1 and Java 25 compiler target.
• Updated bStats, JaCoCo, and all dependencies to versions compatible with Java 25.

Database Refactor — Jaloquent ORM

• Replaced raw JDBC with the Jaloquent ORM library for all database access.
• MySQL storage now uses a proper connection pool with cleaner query building.
• Added automatic schema migration system — the database updates itself on startup.
• Tax history is now stored in a dedicated tax_history table.
• YAML stats backend retained as the default for servers that don't use MySQL.

Tax History Command

• New /eztax history subcommand: paginated transaction history for any player.
• eztax.command.history — view your own history.
• eztax.command.history.others — view another player's history as an admin.

EzSeasons Integration

• Optional integration with the EzSeasons plugin via soft-dependency.
• When a season resets, EzTax logs a summary containing the season dates and tax totals collected.

Startup Log Improvements

• Cleaner, structured startup output — no more double [EzTax] prefixes.
• Jaloquent internal log spam suppressed on startup.
• Each subsystem now reports its active state on a single line: Storage: MySQL (table: tax_history), Economy: X via Vault, Permissions: X via Vault.
• Final confirmation line: EzTax v2.0.0 enabled.

Vault Hook

• Improved economy and permissions provider detection logging.
• Transaction tax economy wrapper activation and deactivation is now logged explicitly.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed shading of Micrometer and Prometheus libraries bundled with Jaloquent to prevent NoClassDefFoundError on server startup.

Developer / Build

• Maven Shade Plugin upgraded to 3.6.2.
• JaCoCo upgraded to 0.8.14 (Java 25 support).
• GitHub Pages documentation site added (just-the-docs theme).
• CI workflow now clones and installs MockBukkit from source before building, since the dev build is not published to any Maven repository.

Added

• Implemented group-based taxing functionality, allowing tax rates to be set per permission group using /eztax settaxrate <rate> [group].
• Added new command messages for group-specific tax rate setting in messages.yml and language files.

Fixed

• Updated all message placeholders from legacy {placeholder} format to MiniMessage <placeholder> format in messages.yml and all language files (messages_en.yml, messages_de.yml, messages_es.yml, etc.) to ensure proper placeholder replacement.
• Corrected the placeholder documentation comment in messages.yml to reflect the new format.

Changed

• Improved message formatting consistency across all language files to use MiniMessage standards.

• Added option to tax on the deposit side instead of withdraw side of Vault.
  
• Improved autocomplete for /eztax runwealthtax
• Added dedicated message key for manual wealth tax runs in messages.yml