Java Edition protocol

This feature is exclusive to Java Edition.

 

Java Edition is one of the two updated versions of Minecraft which require a paid account to download, update and play. Most of the new development projects focus on either creating entirely new programs from scratch that interoperate with Minecraft (such as a bot or server) or modding projects that wrap the client or server and provide bug fixes, new features and enhancements to existing features.

Documentation

There are ongoing efforts to keep reverse engineered documentation updated, but it isn't as easy as it sounds. The protocol generally changes slightly with each release, and both the Client and Server classes get rearranged on each release. Below are links to the current documentation segments, which may or may not be completely up to date.

Protocol

• Protocol FAQ
  • Normal login sequence for a client
  • Normal ping sequence to a server
• Current protocol specification
  • Data types
  • Server List Ping
  • Encryption
  • Plugin channels
  • Registry data
  • Command data
  • Chat
  • Inventory
  • Slot data
  • Chunk format
  • Block actions
  • Object data
  • Entity metadata
  • Entity statuses
  • Particles
• Development version protocol specification
• Protocol version numbers
• Protocol history
• Proxies
• Minecraft Forge handshake specification

Mojang APIs

• Authentication
  • Microsoft Authentication Scheme
  • Legacy Mojang Authentication Scheme
  • Legacy Minecraft Authentication Scheme
• Mojang API
• Game files
• Realms API
• Snoop

Map Format

• Map Format Specification
  • Region Files

Vanilla Implementation

• Launching the game
• Debugging
• Data Generators

Miscellaneous

• NBT
• Text formatting
• RCON and Query protocol specifications

Tools & Mods

• Clients - third-party Java Edition clients
• Servers - third-party Java Edition servers
• Libraries - libraries to interface with Minecraft data files or network protocols
• Utilities - tools that interface with a client, server, or data files, such as proxies, bots, or inventory editors
• Wrappers - mods that override features in the client or server
• Generators - tools that extract data from Mojang to a readable format
• Decompilers - tools for decompiling Java Edition
• Burger - a tool that generates information for arbitrary Java Edition versions
  • Pokechu22's fork - where new version development is mostly done
  • Burger Vitrine - shows differences in data and protocol between arbitrary versions
  • PAaaS - shows differences in protocol and sounds for newer versions (1.8 and above)
• Code Snippets

Communities

• Minecraft Protocol (via Discord)
• #mcdevs (via irc.libera.chat).

For more info, see the Java Edition protocol category.

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