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🗂ī¸ Project Structure

You installed the plugin last chapter. Now let's look at how CraftEngine's files are organized, then create the workspace for this tutorial with a single command.

The plugin folder​

Open plugins/CraftEngine/ and you'll see:

CraftEngine
generated
libs
resources
translations
commands.yml
config.yml

The resources/ folder is where everything you create lives.

What's a "pack"​

In CraftEngine, your work is organized into packs. A pack is a folder under resources/ containing:

  • configuration/ — your .yml config files. Items, blocks, furniture — all defined here
  • resourcepack/ — model files (.json), texture files (.png), sound files (.ogg). Same structure as a vanilla Minecraft resource pack
  • pack.yml — the pack's identity card: what it's called, who made it, what namespace it uses

💡 Folder names starting with . (like .hidden_pack) are ignored by CraftEngine and won't be loaded.

You can have multiple packs (tutorial, my_weapons, furniture_pack) — CraftEngine merges them together. This tutorial uses a single pack called tutorial.

What's a namespace​

A namespace is like a surname. Everything in Minecraft has an ID like minecraft:diamond — minecraft is the vanilla namespace, diamond is the thing's name.

Your creations need their own namespace so they don't collide with vanilla items. This tutorial uses tutorial as the namespace, so your item IDs look like tutorial:xxx.

Namespaces only allow lowercase letters, digits, -, _, ., /. No uppercase, no spaces.

💡 Quick quiz: which IDs are valid?

  1. MyFirst:golden_sword
  2. minecraft:steel furnace
  3. abcd-efgh:1122.3344
  4. craftengine:happy$crafting
  5. test:tutorial_book
  1. ❌ uppercase not allowed
  2. ❌ spaces not allowed
  3. ✅ digits, hyphens, and dots are all valid
  4. ❌ $ is not a valid character
  5. ✅ lowercase and underscores are valid

Step 1: create a pack with a command​

Don't create folders by hand. CraftEngine has a command that generates the full pack structure for you.

In-game, run:

/ce resource create tutorial

What this does:

  • tutorial = the pack name and folder name. The namespace defaults to this too
  • Auto-generates pack.yml (with namespace tutorial, author, version, etc.)
  • Auto-creates the configuration/ folder and the full subfolder tree under resourcepack/

You'll see a success message. Now open plugins/CraftEngine/resources/tutorial/ — all the subfolders are already there:

tutorial
configuration
resourcepack
pack.yml

⚠ī¸ If you get "pack already exists", the tutorial folder is already there. Delete it first or pick a different name.

💡 You can open pack.yml to take a look — namespace, author, and version are already filled in. No changes needed.

Step 2: create a config file​

The pack is ready. Now create your first config file under configuration/. You'll need it for the next chapter.

What editor to use​

You need a plain text editor. VS Code is recommended (free, with syntax highlighting).

Option A: file manager​

Open the configuration folder, right-click → New → Text Document, rename to items.yml.

⚠ī¸ The filename must be items.yml, not items.yml.txt. Windows hides file extensions by default — you might think you've renamed to .yml when it's actually .yml.txt. To check: click "View" in File Explorer → check "File name extensions", then verify the extension is really .yml.

Option B: command line​

# Navigate to the configuration directory
cd plugins/CraftEngine/resources/tutorial/configuration

# Linux / Mac
touch items.yml

# Windows PowerShell
ni items.yml

Once created, open it with VS Code or a command-line editor (nano items.yml) and you're ready to write configs.

Step 3: how configs get loaded​

Every .yml and .json file under configuration/ gets loaded. You can put everything in one file, or split across many — CraftEngine reads and merges them all.

You could organize by type:

configuration
items.yml
blocks.yml
furniture.yml

Or by theme:

configuration
weapons.yml
materials.yml
decorations.yml

However you split them is fine. This tutorial keeps it simple — everything in items.yml. We'll create new files later for blocks and furniture.

💡 You can also use subfolders under configuration/, like configuration/weapons/ or configuration/blocks/. CraftEngine scans all subdirectories recursively — every .yml and .json inside gets loaded.

How to apply your changes​

After editing configs or resource pack files, tell CraftEngine to reload:

What you changedCommand
.yml configs (items, names, properties)/ce reload config
Recipes/ce reload recipe
Texture files (.png) or model files (.json)/ce reload all
Not sure which/ce reload all (safest)

⚠ī¸ This is the most important reminder in the entire tutorial: if you change a texture and only run /ce reload config, nothing will happen. Texture changes must rebuild the resource pack — that means all. "Why didn't my texture change show up?" — 99% of the time it's because you ran config.

Running /ce reload with no argument defaults to config.

AI-assisted config editing​

CraftEngine provides a VS Code AI Skill that can auto-complete, validate configs, and explain field meanings. Once installed, the AI assists you in real time while editing .yml files in VS Code.

đŸ“Ļ Skill download: not yet available

Ready? Next chapter — your first item.