📗 Introduction

Hey there! Welcome to the CraftEngine docs!

What is CraftEngine

CraftEngine lets you add custom blocks, items, furniture, and recipes to your Minecraft server — no client mods required. Everything ships through the resource pack and runs server-side.

You define what you want in YAML config files. CraftEngine handles the rest: registering blocks, generating models, packing textures, and serving the resource pack to players.

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CraftEngine comes with a full block behavior API, letting you register custom block behaviors just like in Forge/Fabric. If you've been a mod developer, you'll feel right at home. We recommend PaperWeight as your development dependency.

Quick Start

New here? Follow the hands-on tutorial — you'll build your first item, block, and furniture in about 30 minutes.

→ Start the tutorial

Getting Help

• Premium users can verify via our Discord bot to access exclusive support channels
• Use the DeepWiki AI for self-service answers anytime
• Developers working on publicly available projects can get free support in the #api-help channel

How CraftEngine works

Unlike other plugins that hack around Bukkit limitations, CraftEngine takes a fundamentally different approach:

• Server-side modding — create new blocks that go beyond vanilla Minecraft's block limit
• ViaBackwards-style conversion — new blocks are translated into legacy block formats that players can still see
• Real block registration — registered as actual blocks, not fake placeholders. Datapacks, worldgen, and vanilla mechanics all work correctly

Curious about the implementation? The full source is on GitHub.

tip

Browse ☄️ Exclusive Features to see what only CraftEngine can do.

Check 🥕 Simply Better for features that exist elsewhere — but CraftEngine does them better.