How To Add Emotes To RPEmotes in FiveM (Complete Guide)

RPEmotes is one of the most popular emote menu resources for FiveM roleplay servers. It gives players access to hundreds of animations — from simple gestures to full character interactions — and it supports custom emote additions that server owners and players can configure themselves. If you're trying to expand your emote library beyond the defaults, here's exactly how the process works.

What Is RPEmotes and How Does It Handle Custom Emotes?

RPEmotes is an open-source FiveM resource built around GTA V's native animation system. It reads animation dictionaries directly from the game files and presents them through a searchable, categorized menu. The resource supports custom emote definitions added through configuration files, meaning you don't need to modify core scripts to expand the emote list.

Custom emotes are registered by pointing RPEmotes to an animation dictionary (often shortened to "animDict") and an animation name — two strings that tell GTA V exactly which movement to play. Every animation in the game has these identifiers, and custom animations added via resource packs follow the same structure.

The Two Main Ways To Add Emotes

1. Adding Emotes Through the Configuration File

The standard method for server owners involves editing the config.lua or the dedicated emotes config file that ships with RPEmotes. Inside this file, each emote entry follows a consistent structure:

["emote_name"] = { label = "Display Name", animDict = "animation_dictionary", anim = "animation_name", prop = {}, options = {} }, 

Key fields explained:

To add a new emote, you insert a new block following this format, save the file, and restart the resource on the server. The emote will then appear in the menu under whatever category you assign it to.

2. Adding Emotes via External Emote Packs (Custom Animations)

If you want emotes that don't exist in GTA V's base animation files, you'll need a custom animation pack — typically a .ycd file (the GTA V animation format) packaged as a FiveM resource. The process involves:

1. Adding the animation resource to your server's resources folder
2. Starting the resource in server.cfg using ensure resource_name
3. Referencing the new animDict in the RPEmotes config, exactly as you would with a native animation

The animDict name must exactly match what's defined inside the .ycd resource. A mismatch — even a capitalization difference — will cause the emote to fail silently or freeze the character.

Common Variables That Affect How This Works 🎮

Getting emotes to work correctly isn't always straightforward. Several factors shape the outcome:

Server permissions and access level — Some servers restrict config editing to server owners or admins. If you're a player rather than an admin, you may only be able to use emotes already added by the server team, not add new ones yourself.

RPEmotes version — The resource has been updated and forked multiple times. The config structure in older versions differs slightly from newer builds. Always match your edits to the version running on your server.

FiveM streaming limits — Custom animation packs consume streaming memory. Servers with many custom resources may hit limits that cause some animations to fail to load, regardless of how correctly the config is written.

Animation dictionary availability — Native GTA V animDicts aren't always loaded into memory by default. Some emotes require the dictionary to be explicitly requested before the animation plays. RPEmotes handles this for most standard cases, but custom or rarely used dictionaries may need additional handling in the script.

Prop and attachment options — Emotes that involve props (holding objects, wearing items) require correctly defined bone indices and offset coordinates. An incorrect bone ID will attach the prop to the wrong part of the body, or cause it not to appear at all.

What Can Go Wrong and How To Diagnose It

The most frequent issues when adding emotes:

• Emote doesn't appear in menu — Usually a syntax error in the config file. LUA is whitespace-sensitive in some contexts; a missing comma or bracket breaks the entire config.
• Character freezes or T-poses — The animDict name is wrong, or the dictionary isn't loading before the animation call.
• Emote plays but looks wrong — Incorrect animation flags (e.g., missing loop flag on a looping animation, or wrong blending options).
• Props not appearing — Wrong bone index or offset values in the prop table.

The FiveM server console and client F8 console both surface resource errors in real time — checking those immediately after a failed emote attempt usually points directly at the problem. ⚙️

How Player Profiles and Server Setups Create Different Experiences

A server owner with full resource access and LUA familiarity can add a working custom emote in under ten minutes. A player on someone else's server has no pathway to add emotes without admin involvement. A developer building a custom RPEmotes fork might be working with a modified config structure entirely.

Even within server administration, the experience varies. A server running a lightly modified default RPEmotes build will behave predictably. One running a heavily customized or community-forked version may have renamed fields, different category systems, or altered loading logic that makes standard guides only partially applicable.

The version of RPEmotes you're working with, your role on the server, and the specific type of emote you're trying to add — native animation, custom animation pack, or prop-based emote — each pull the process in a meaningfully different direction. 🎭

What works cleanly in one setup may require additional steps, different syntax, or server-side changes in another.