Pre-release protocol

This page documents the changes from the last stable Minecraft release (currently 1.8.8, protocol 47) to the current pre-release (currently 15w35e, protocol 66). Note that this page contains bleeding-edge information that may not be completely or correctly documented.

One who wishes to commandeer the merging of this into Protocol when an update is made must be sure to respect any changes that may have occurred to the respective packets there.

Packets

ID	Name	Doc Links
Handshaking serverbound
0x00	Handshake	Current	Pre
Play clientbound
0x00	Keep Alive	Current	(unchanged)
0x01	Join Game	Current	(unchanged)
0x02	Chat Message	Current	(unchanged)
0x03	Time Update	Current	(unchanged)
0x04	Entity Equipment	Current	Pre
0x05	Spawn Position	Current	(unchanged)
0x06	Update Health	Current	(unchanged)
0x07	Respawn	Current	(unchanged)
0x08	Player Position And Look	Current	(unchanged)
0x09	Held Item Change	Current	(unchanged)
0x0A	Use Bed	Current	(unchanged)
0x0B	Animation	Current	(unchanged)
0x0C	Spawn Player	Current	Pre
0x0D	Collect Item	Current	(unchanged)
0x0E	Spawn Object	Current	Pre
0x0F	Spawn Mob	Current	Pre
0x10	Spawn Painting	Current	(unchanged)
0x11	Spawn Experience Orb	Current	(unchanged)
0x12	Entity Velocity	Current	(unchanged)
0x13	Destroy Entities	Current	(unchanged)
0x14	Entity	Current	(unchanged)
0x15	Entity Relative Move	Current	(unchanged)
0x16	Entity Look	Current	(unchanged)
0x17	Entity Look And Relative Move	Current	(unchanged)
0x18	Entity Teleport	Current	(unchanged)
0x19	Entity Head Look	Current	(unchanged)
0x1A	Entity Status	Current	Pre
0x1B	Attach Entity	Current	(unchanged)
0x1C	Entity Metadata	Current	(unchanged)
0x1D	Entity Effect	Current	(unchanged)
0x1E	Remove Entity Effect	Current	(unchanged)
0x1F	Set Experience	Current	(unchanged)
0x20	Entity Properties	Current	Pre
0x21	Chunk Data	Current	Pre
0x22	Unload Chunk		Pre
0x22 0x23	Multi Block Change	Current	(unchanged)
0x23 0x24	Block Change	Current	(unchanged)
0x24 0x25	Block Action	Current	(unchanged)
0x25 0x26	Block Break Animation	Current	(unchanged)
0x26	Map Chunk Bulk	Current
0x27	Explosion	Current	(unchanged)
0x28	Effect	Current	(unchanged)
0x29	Sound Effect	Current	(unchanged)
0x2A	Particle	Current	(unchanged)
0x2B	Change Game State	Current	(unchanged)
0x2C	Spawn Global Entity	Current	(unchanged)
0x2D	Open Window	Current	(unchanged)
0x2E	Close Window	Current	(unchanged)
0x2F	Set Slot	Current	(unchanged)
0x30	Window Items	Current	(unchanged)
0x31	Window Property	Current	(unchanged)
0x32	Confirm Transaction	Current	(unchanged)
0x33	Update Sign	Current	(unchanged)
0x34	Maps	Current	Pre
0x35	Update Block Entity	Current	(unchanged)
0x36	Sign Editor Open	Current	(unchanged)
0x37	Statistics	Current	(unchanged)
0x38	Player List Item	Current	(unchanged)
0x39	Player Abilities	Current	(unchanged)
0x3A	Tab-Complete	Current	(unchanged)
0x3B	Scoreboard Objective	Current	(unchanged)
0x3C	Update Score	Current	(unchanged)
0x3D	Display Scoreboard	Current	(unchanged)
0x3E	Teams	Current	(unchanged)
0x3F	Plugin Message	Current	(unchanged)
0x40	Disconnect	Current	(unchanged)
0x41	Server Difficulty	Current	(unchanged)
0x42	Combat Event	Current	Pre
0x43	Camera	Current	(unchanged)
0x44	World Border	Current	(unchanged)
0x45	Title	Current	(unchanged)
0x46	Set Compression	Current	(unchanged)
0x47	Player List Header/Footer	Current	(unchanged)
0x48	Resource Pack Send	Current	(unchanged)
0x49	Update Entity NBT	Current
0x49	Boss Bar		Pre
0x4A	Set Cooldown		Pre
Play serverbound
0x00	Keep Alive	Current	(unchanged)
0x01	Chat Message	Current	(unchanged)
0x02	Use Entity	Current	Pre
0x03	Player	Current	(unchanged)
0x04	Player Position	Current	(unchanged)
0x05	Player Look	Current	(unchanged)
0x06	Player Position And Look	Current	(unchanged)
0x07	Player Digging	Current	Pre
0x08	Use Item		Pre
0x08 0x09	Player Block Placement	Current	Pre
0x09 0x0A	Held Item Change	Current	(unchanged)
0x0A 0x0B	Animation	Current	Pre
0x0B 0x0C	Entity Action	Current	Pre
0x0C 0x0D	Steer Vehicle	Current	(unchanged)
0x0D 0x0E	Close Window	Current	(unchanged)
0x0E 0x0F	Click Window	Current	(unchanged)
0x0F 0x10	Confirm Transaction	Current	(unchanged)
0x10 0x11	Creative Inventory Action	Current	(unchanged)
0x11 0x12	Enchant Item	Current	(unchanged)
0x12 0x13	Update Sign	Current	Pre
0x13 0x14	Player Abilities	Current	(unchanged)
0x14 0x15	Tab-Complete	Current	(unchanged)
0x15 0x16	Client Settings	Current	Pre
0x16 0x17	Client Status	Current	Pre
0x17 0x18	Plugin Message	Current	(unchanged)
0x18 0x19	Spectate	Current	(unchanged)
0x19 0x1A	Resource Pack Status	Current	(unchanged)
Status clientbound
0x00	Response	Current	(unchanged)
0x01	Pong	Current	(unchanged)
Status serverbound
0x00	Request	Current	(unchanged)
0x01	Ping	Current	(unchanged)
Login clientbound
0x00	Disconnect	Current	(unchanged)
0x01	Encryption Request	Current	(unchanged)
0x02	Login Success	Current	(unchanged)
0x03	Set Compression	Current	(unchanged)
Login serverbound
0x00	Login Start	Current	(unchanged)
0x01	Encryption Response	Current	(unchanged)

New/modified data types

Entity Metadata

Format is now:

Name	Type	Meaning
Index	Unsigned Byte	Unique index key, if this is 0xFF then the its the end of the metadata and no more is read
Type	Unsigned Type	The type of the index, see the table below

Type ID	Meaning
0	Byte
1	VarInt
2	Float
3	String
4	Chat
5	Slot
6	Boolean
7	Vector3F (3 floats)
8	Position
9	Bool, if true then its followed by Position
10	Direction (VarInt)
11	Bool, if true then its followed by UUID

Entity	Index	Type	Meaning
Entity	0	Byte	Unknown
Entity	1	VarInt	Unknown
Entity	2	String	Unknown
Entity	3	Boolean	Unknown
Entity	4	Boolean	Unknown
Living extends Entity	5	Byte	Unknown
Living extends Entity	6	Float	Unknown
Living extends Entity	7	VarInt	Unknown
Living extends Entity	8	Boolean	Unknown
Living extends Entity	9	VarInt	Unknown
Insentient extends Living	10	Byte	Unknown
Slime extends Insentient	11	VarInt	Unknown
AreaEffectCloud extends Entity	5	Float	Unknown
AreaEffectCloud extends Entity	6	VarInt	Unknown
AreaEffectCloud extends Entity	7	Boolean	Unknown
AreaEffectCloud extends Entity	8	VarInt	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	10	Byte	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	11	Vector3F	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	12	Vector3F	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	13	Vector3F	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	14	Vector3F	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	15	Vector3F	Unknown
ArmorStand extends Living	16	Vector3F	Unknown
Minecart extends Entity	5	VarInt	Unknown
Minecart extends Entity	6	VarInt	Unknown
Minecart extends Entity	7	Float	Unknown
Minecart extends Entity	8	VarInt	Unknown
Minecart extends Entity	9	VarInt	Unknown
Minecart extends Entity	10	Boolean	Unknown
Shulker extends Golem	11	Direction	Unknown
Shulker extends Golem	12	Option Position	Unknown
Shulker extends Golem	13	Byte	Unknown
Item extends Entity	5	Slot	Unknown
Ageable extends Creature	11	Boolean	Unknown
Sheep extends Animal	12	Byte	Unknown
Rabbit extends Animal	12	VarInt	Unknown
TNTPrimed extends Entity	5	VarInt	Unknown
Villager extends Ageable	12	VarInt	Unknown
Arrow extends Entity	5	Byte	Unknown
TameableAnimal extends Animal	12	Byte	Unknown
TameableAnimal extends Animal	13	Optional UUID	Unknown
Ocelot extends TameableAnimal	14	VarInt	Unknown
Fireworks extends Entity	5	Slot	Unknown
Spider extends Monster	11	Byte	Unknown
EnderCrystal extends Entity	5	Option Position	Unknown
TippedArrow extends Arrow	6	VarInt	Unknown
ItemFrame extends Hanging	5	Slot	Unknown
ItemFrame extends Hanging	6	VarInt	Unknown
Bat extends Ambient	11	Byte	Unknown
Skeleton extends Monster	11	VarInt	Unknown
Skeleton extends Monster	12	Boolean	Unknown
Witch extends Monster	11	Boolean	Unknown
MinecartCommandBlock extends Minecart	11	String	Unknown
MinecartCommandBlock extends Minecart	12	Chat	Unknown
Wither extends Monster	11	VarInt	Unknown
Wither extends Monster	12	VarInt	Unknown
Wither extends Monster	13	VarInt	Unknown
Wither extends Monster	14	VarInt	Unknown
MinecartFurnace extends Minecart	11	Boolean	Unknown
Ghast extends Flying	11	Boolean	Unknown
EnderDragon extends Insentient	11	VarInt	Unknown
Pig extends Animal	12	Boolean	Unknown
Horse extends Animal	12	Byte	Unknown
Horse extends Animal	13	VarInt	Unknown
Horse extends Animal	14	VarInt	Unknown
Horse extends Animal	15	Optional UUID	Unknown
Horse extends Animal	16	VarInt	Unknown
Creeper extends Monster	11	VarInt	Unknown
Creeper extends Monster	12	Boolean	Unknown
Creeper extends Monster	13	Boolean	Unknown
Zombie extends Monster	11	Boolean	Unknown
Zombie extends Monster	12	Boolean	Unknown
Zombie extends Monster	13	Boolean	Unknown
Guardian extends Monster	11	Byte	Unknown
Guardian extends Monster	12	VarInt	Unknown
Blaze extends Monster	11	Byte	Unknown
Wolf extends TameableAnimal	14	Float	Unknown
Wolf extends TameableAnimal	15	Boolean	Unknown
Wolf extends TameableAnimal	16	VarInt	Unknown
IronGolem extends Golem	11	Byte	Unknown
Boat extends Entity	5	VarInt	Unknown
Boat extends Entity	6	VarInt	Unknown
Boat extends Entity	7	Float	Unknown
WitherSkull extends Fireball	5	Boolean	Unknown

Handshaking

Clientbound

No changes so far.

Serverbound

Handshake

This causes the server to switch into the target state.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x00	Handshaking	Server	Protocol Version	VarInt	See protocol version numbers (currently 47 58)
			Server Address	String	hostname or IP, e.g. localhost or 127.0.0.1
			Server Port	Unsigned Short	default is 25565
			Next State	VarInt	1 for status, 2 for login

Play

Clientbound

Entity Equipment

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x04	Play	Client	Entity ID	VarInt	Entity's EID
			Slot	Short VarInt	Equipment slot. 0: main hand, 1: off hand, 1–4 2–5: armor slot (2: boots, 3: leggings, 4: chestplate, 5: helmet)
			Item	Slot	Item in slot format

Spawn Player

This packet is sent by the server when a player comes into visible range, not when a player joins.

This packet must be sent after the Player List Item (Play, 0x38, clientbound) packet that adds the player data for the client to use when spawning a player. The tab includes skin/cape data.

Servers can, however, safely spawn player entities for players not in visible range. The client appears to handle it correctly.

When in online-mode the UUIDs must be valid and have valid skin blobs, in offline-mode UUID v3 is used.

For NPCs UUID v2 should be used. Note:

<+Grum> i will never confirm this as a feature you know that :)

In an example UUID, xxxxxxxx-xxxx-Yxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx, the UUID version is specified by Y. So, for UUID v3, Y will always be 3, and for UUID v2, Y will always be 2.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0C	Play	Client	Entity ID	VarInt	Player's EID
			Player UUID	UUID
			X	Int	Player X as a Fixed-Point number
			Y	Int	Player Y as a Fixed-Point number
			Z	Int	Player Z as a Fixed-Point number
			Yaw	Angle
			Pitch	Angle
			Current Item	Short	The item the player is currently holding. Note that this should be 0 for “no item”, unlike -1 used in other packets.
			Metadata	Metadata

Spawn Object

Sent by the server when an object/vehicle is created.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0E	Play	Client	Entity ID	VarInt	EID of the object
			Object UUID	UUID
			Type	Byte	The type of object (See Entities#Objects)
			X	Int	X position as a Fixed-Point number
			Y	Int	Y position as a Fixed-Point number
			Z	Int	Z position as a Fixed-Point number
			Pitch	Angle
			Yaw	Angle
			Data	Object Data
			Info	Int	Depends on Type; see Object Data#Meaning of int field
			Velocity X	Short
			Velocity Y	Short
			Velocity Z	Short

Spawn Mob

Sent by the server when a mob entity is spawned.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0F	Play	Client	Entity ID	VarInt
			Entity UUID	UUID
			Type	Unsigned Byte	The type of mob. See Entities#Mobs
			X	Int	X position as a Fixed-Point number
			Y	Int	Y position as a Fixed-Point number
			Z	Int	Z position as a Fixed-Point number
			Yaw	Angle
			Pitch	Angle
			Head Pitch	Angle
			Velocity X	Short	Same units as Entity Velocity
			Velocity Y	Short	Same units as Entity Velocity
			Velocity Z	Short	Same units as Entity Velocity
			Metadata	Metadata

Entity Status

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x1A	Play	Client	Entity ID	Int
			Entity Status	Byte	See below

Entity Status	Meaning
1	Sent when resetting a mob spawn minecart's timer — appears to be unused by the client
2	Living Entity hurt
3	Living Entity dead
4	Iron Golem throwing up arms
6	Wolf/Ocelot/Horse taming — Spawn “heart” particles
7	Wolf/Ocelot/Horse tamed — Spawn “smoke” particles
8	Wolf shaking water — Trigger the shaking animation
9	(of self) Eating accepted by server
10	Sheep eating grass
10	Play TNT ignite sound
11	Iron Golem handing over a rose
12	Villager mating — Spawn “heart” particles
13	Spawn particles indicating that a villager is angry and seeking revenge
14	Spawn happy particles near a villager
15	Witch animation — Spawn “magic” particles
16	Play zombie converting into a villager sound
17	Firework exploding
18	Animal in love (ready to mate) — Spawn “heart” particles
19	Reset squid rotation
20	Spawn explosion particle — works for some living entities
21	Play guardian sound — works for every entity
22	Enables reduced debug for players
23	Disables reduced debug for players
24–28	Sets op permission level 0–4 for players

Entity Properties

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name		Field Type		Notes
0x20	Play	Client	Entity ID		VarInt
			Number Of Properties		Int		Number of elements in the following array
			Property	Key	Array	String	See below
				Value		Double	See below
				Number Of Modifiers		VarInt	Number of elements in the following array
				Modifiers		Array of Modifier Data	See Attribute#Modifiers

Known Key values:

Key	Default	Min	Max	Label
generic.maxHealth	20.0	0.0	Double.MaxValue 1024.0	Max Health
generic.followRange	32.0	0.0	2048.0	Follow Range
generic.knockbackResistance	0.0	0.0	1.0	Knockback Resistance
generic.movementSpeed	0.699999988079071	0.0	Double.MaxValue 1024.0	Movement Speed
generic.attackDamage	2.0	0.0	Double.MaxValue 2048.0	Attack Damage
generic.attackSpeed	4.0	0.0	1024.0	Attack Speed
horse.jumpStrength	0.7	0.0	2.0	Jump Strength
zombie.spawnReinforcements	0.0	0.0	1.0	Spawn Reinforcements Chance

Modifier Data structure:

Field Name	Field Type	Notes
UUID	UUID
Amount	Double
Operation	Byte

Chunk Data

Chunks are not unloaded by the client automatically. To unload chunks, send this packet with Ground-Up Continuous=true and no 16^3 chunks (eg. Primary Bit Mask=0) send an Unload Chunk packet with the chunk's X and Z coordinates. The server does not send skylight information for nether-chunks, it's up to the client to know if the player is currently in the nether. You can also infer this information from the primary bitmask and the amount of uncompressed bytes sent.

See also: SMP Map Format

Changes in 1.9:

• Block array prefixed with list of block state IDs possible within the chunk.
• Block array values replaced with list indices of block state IDs.
• Block array element size varies depending on number of possible elements. (e.g. up to 15 possible states = nibble, up to 255 possible states = byte, etc.)
• No longer sent to unload chunks.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x21	Play	Client	Chunk X	Int	Chunk X coordinate
			Chunk Z	Int	Chunk Z coordinate
			Ground-Up Continuous	Boolean	This is true if the packet represents all sections in this vertical column, where the Primary Bit Mask specifies exactly which sections are included, and which are air
			Primary Bit Mask	Unsigned Short Int	Bitmask with 1 for every 16x16x16 section whose data follows in the compressed data
			Size	VarInt	Size of Data
			Data	Chunk

Unload Chunk

Tells the client to unload a chunk.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x22	Play	Client	Chunk X	Int	Chunk X coordinate
			Chunk Z	Int	Chunk Z coordinate

Multi Block Change

Fired whenever 2 or more blocks are changed within the render distance.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name		Field Type		Notes
0x22 0x23	Play	Client	Chunk X		Int		Chunk X coordinate
			Chunk Z		Int		Chunk Z coordinate
			Record Count		VarInt		Number of elements in the following array, i.e. the number of blocks affected
			Record	Horizontal Position	Array	Unsigned Byte	The 4 most significant bits (0xF0) encode the X coordinate, relative to the chunk. The 4 least significant bits (0x0F) encode the Z coordinate, relative to the chunk.
				Y Coordinate		Unsigned Byte
				Block ID		VarInt	The new block ID for the block. id << 4 | data

Block Change

Fired whenever a block is changed within the render distance.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x23 0x24	Play	Client	Location	Position	Block Coordinates
			Block ID	VarInt	The new block ID for the block. id << 4 | data

Block Action

This packet is used for a number of things:

• Chests opening and closing
• Pistons pushing and pulling
• Note blocks playing
• Updating beacons

See Also: Block Actions

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x24 0x25	Play	Client	Location	Position	Block Coordinates
			Byte 1	Unsigned Byte	Varies depending on block — see Block Actions
			Byte 2	Unsigned Byte	Varies depending on block — see Block Actions
			Block Type	VarInt	The block type for the block

Block Break Animation

0–9 are the displayable destroy stages and each other number means that there is no animation on this coordinate.

You can also set an animation to air! The animation will still be visible.

If you need to display several break animations at the same time you have to give each of them a unique Entity ID.

Also if you set the coordinates to a special block like water etc. it won't show the actual break animation but some other interesting effects. (Water will lose it's transparency)

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x25 0x26	Play	Client	Entity ID	VarInt	EID for the animation
			Location	Position	Block Position
			Destroy Stage	Byte	0–9 to set it, any other value to remove it

Map Chunk Bulk

Replaced by multiple Chunk Data packets.

Maps

Updates a rectangular area on a map.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name		Field Type		Notes
0x34	Play	Client	Item Damage		VarInt		The damage value (map ID) of the map being modified
			Scale		Byte		From 0 for a fully zoomed-in map (1 block per pixel) to 4 for a fully zoomed-out map (16 blocks per pixel)
			Tracking Position		Boolean		Specifies whether the icons are shown
			Icon Count		VarInt		Number of elements in the following array
			Icon	Direction And Type	Array	Byte	0xF0 = Direction, 0x0F = Type
				X		Byte
				Z		Byte
			Columns		Byte		Number of columns updated
			Rows		Optional Byte		Only if Columns is more than 0; number of rows updated
			X		Optional Byte		Only if Columns is more than 0; x offset of the westernmost column
			Z		Optional Byte		Only if Columns is more than 0; z offset of the northernmost row
			Length		Optional VarInt		Only if Columns is more than 0; length of the following array
			Data		Optional Array of Unsigned Byte		Only if Columns is more than 0; see Map item format

Combat Event

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name		Field Type	Notes
0x42	Play	Client	Event		VarInt	Determines the layout of the remaining packet
			Event	Field Name
			0: enter combat	no fields	no fields
			1: end combat	Duration	VarInt
				Entity ID	Int
			2: entity dead	Player ID	VarInt
				Entity ID	Int
				Message	String Chat

Update Entity NBT

Was only used to update boss bars, replaced by Boss Bar accordingly.

Boss Bar

This packet replaces Update Entity NBT packet which has been removed.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name		Field Type	Notes
0x49	Play	Client	UUID		UUID	Unique ID for this bar
			Action		VarInt	Determines the layout of the remaining packet
			Action	Field Name
			0: add	Title	Chat
				Health	Float	From 0 to 1. Values greater than 1 do not crash the client, and start rendering part of a second health bar at around 1.5
				Color	VarInt	Color ID (see below)
				Dividers	VarInt	Number of dividers rendered in the bar
				Flags	Unsigned Byte	Bit mask: 0x1 should darken sky, 0x2: is dragon bar
			1: remove	no fields	no fields	Removes this boss bar
			2: update health	Health	Float	as above
			3: update title	Title	Chat
			4: update style	Color	VarInt	Color ID (see below)
				Dividers	VarInt	as above
			5: update flags	Flags	Unsigned Byte	as above

ID	Color
0	Pink(ish)
1	Cyan
2	Red
3	Lime
4	Yellow
5	Purple
6	White

Set Cooldown

Applies a cooldown period to an item type.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x4A	Play	Client	Item ID	VarInt	ID of the item to apply a cooldown to.
			Cooldown Ticks	VarInt	Number of ticks to apply a cooldown for.

Serverbound

Use Entity

This packet is sent from the client to the server when the client attacks or right-clicks another entity (a player, minecart, etc).

A Notchian server only accepts this packet if the entity being attacked/used is visible without obstruction and within a 4-unit radius of the player's position.

Note that middle-click in creative mode is interpreted by the client and sent as a Creative Inventory Action packet instead.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x02	Play	Server	Target	VarInt
			Type	VarInt	0: interact, 1: attack, 2: interact at
			Target X	Optional Float	Only if Type is interact at
			Target Y	Optional Float	Only if Type is interact at
			Target Z	Optional Float	Only if Type is interact at
			Hand	Optional VarInt	Only if Type is interact or interact at; 0: main hand, 1: off hand

Player Digging

Sent when the player mines a block. A Notchian server only accepts digging packets with coordinates within a 6-unit radius of the player's position.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x07	Play	Server	Status	Byte	The action the player is taking against the block (see below)
			Location	Position	Block position
			Face	Byte	The face being hit (see below)

Status can be one of seven values:

Meaning	Value
Started digging	0
Cancelled digging	1
Finished digging	2
Drop item stack	3
Drop item	4
Shoot arrow / finish eating	5
Swap item in Hand	6

Notchian clients send a 0 (started digging) when they start digging and a 2 (finished digging) once they think they are finished. If digging is aborted, the client simply sends a 1 (cancel digging).

Status code 4 (drop item) is a special case. In-game, when you use the Drop Item command (keypress 'q'), a dig packet with a status of 4, Location set to 0/0/0, and Face set to 0, is sent from client to server. Status code 3 is similar, but drops the entire stack.

Status code 5 (shoot arrow / finish eating) is also a special case. Location is set to 0/0/0 like above, but the face field is set to 255.

Status code 6 is another special case. Used to swap or assign an item to the second hand. Location is set to 0/0/0 and Face is set to 0.

The Face field can be one of six values, representing the face being hit:

Value	0	1	2	3	4	5
Offset	-Y	+Y	-Z	+Z	-X	+X

Use Item

Sent when pressing the Use Item key (default: right click) with an item in hand.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x08	Play	Server	Hand	VarInt	Hand used for the animation

Player Block Placement

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x08 0x09	Play	Server	Location	Position	Block position
			Face	Byte VarInt	The face on which the block is placed (see above)
			Held Item	Slot
			Hand	VarInt	The hand from which the block is placed; 0: main hand, 1: off hand
			Cursor Position X	Byte	The position of the crosshair on the block
			Cursor Position Y	Byte
			Cursor Position Z	Byte

In normal operation (i.e. placing a block), this packet is sent once, with the values set normally.

This packet has a special case where X, Y, Z, and Direction are all -1. (Note that Y is unsigned so set to 255.) This special packet indicates that the currently held item for the player should have its state updated such as eating food, pulling back bows, using buckets, etc.

Special note on using buckets: When using buckets, the Notchian client might send two packets: first a normal and then a special case. The first normal packet is sent when you're looking at a block (e.g. the water you want to scoop up). This normal packet does not appear to do anything with a Notchian server. The second, special case packet appears to perform the action — based on current position/orientation and with a distance check — it appears that buckets can only be used within a radius of 6 units.

Held Item Change

Sent when the player changes the slot selection.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x09 0x0A	Play	Server	Slot	Short	The slot which the player has selected (0–8)

Animation

Sent when the player's arm swings

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0A 0x0B	Play	Server	Hand	VarInt	Hand used for the animation

Entity Action

Sent at least when crouching, leaving a bed, or sprinting. To send action animation to client use 0x28. The client will send this with Action ID = 3 when “Leave Bed” is clicked.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0B 0x0C	Play	Server	Entity ID	VarInt	Player ID
			Action ID	VarInt	The ID of the action, see below
			Jump Boost	VarInt	Horse jump boost. Ranged from 0 -> 100.

Action ID can be one of the following values:

ID	Action
0	Crouch
1	Uncrouch
2	Leave bed
3	Start sprinting
4	Stop sprinting
5	Jump with horse
6	Open inventory

“Open inventory” is now sent via the Client Status packet.

Steer Vehicle

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0C 0x0D	Play	Server	Sideways	Float	Positive to the left of the player
			Forward	Float	Positive forward
			Flags	Unsigned Byte	Bit mask. 0x1: jump, 0x2: unmount

Close Window

This packet is sent by the client when closing a window.

Note, Notchian clients send a close window message with Window ID 0 to close their inventory even though there is never an Open Window message for the inventory.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0D 0x0E	Play	Server	Window ID	Unsigned Byte	This is the ID of the window that was closed. 0 for inventory.

Click Window

This packet is sent by the player when it clicks on a slot in a window.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0E 0x0F	Play	Server	Window ID	Unsigned Byte	The ID of the window which was clicked. 0 for player inventory.
			Slot	Short	The clicked slot number, see below
			Button	Byte	The button used in the click, see below
			Action Number	Short	A unique number for the action, implemented by Notchian as a counter, starting at 1. Used by the server to send back a Confirm Transaction.
			Mode	Byte	Inventory operation mode, see below
			Clicked item	Slot	The clicked slot. Has to be empty (item ID = -1) for drop mode.

See Inventory#Windows for further information about how slots are indexed.

When right-clicking on a stack of items, half the stack will be picked up and half left in the slot. If the stack is an odd number, the half left in the slot will be smaller of the amounts.

The distinct type of click performed by the client is determined by the combination of the Mode and Button fields.

Mode	Button	Slot	Trigger
0	0	Normal	Left mouse click
	1	Normal	Right mouse click
1	0	Normal	Shift + left mouse click
	1	Normal	Shift + right mouse click (identical behavior)
2	0	Normal	Number key 1
	1	Normal	Number key 2
	2	Normal	Number key 3
	⋮	⋮	⋮
	8	Normal	Number key 9
3	2	Normal	Middle click
4	0	Normal*	Drop key (Q) (* Clicked item is different, see above)
	1	Normal*	Ctrl + Drop key (Ctrl-Q) (drops full stack)
	0	-999	Left click outside inventory holding nothing (no-op)
	1	-999	Right click outside inventory holding nothing (no-op)
5	0	-999	Starting left mouse drag (or middle mouse)
	4	-999	Starting right mouse drag
	1	Normal	Add slot for left-mouse drag
	5	Normal	Add slot for right-mouse drag
	2	-999	Ending left mouse drag
	6	-999	Ending right mouse drag
6	0	Normal	Double click

Starting from version 1.5, “painting mode” is available for use in inventory windows. It is done by picking up stack of something (more than 1 item), then holding mouse button (left, right or middle) and dragging held stack over empty (or same type in case of right button) slots. In that case client sends the following to server after mouse button release (omitting first pickup packet which is sent as usual):

1. packet with mode 5, slot -999, button (0 for left | 4 for right);
2. packet for every slot painted on, mode is still 5, button (1 | 5);
3. packet with mode 5, slot -999, button (2 | 6);

If any of the painting packets other than the “progress” ones are sent out of order (for example, a start, some slots, then another start; or a left-click in the middle) the painting status will be reset.

The server will send back a Confirm Transaction packet. If the click was not accepted, the client must reflect that packet before sending more Click Window packets, otherwise the server will reject them silently. The Notchian server also sends a Window Items packet for the open window and Set Slot packets for the clicked and cursor slot, but only when the click was not accepted, probably to resynchronize client and server.

Confirm Transaction

<SpaceManiac> noooo idea why the serverbound confirm transaction packet exists
<SpaceManiac> I think it's sent as a response to the clientbound confirm transaction in some situations, but it's fuzzy

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x0F 0x10	Play	Server	Window ID	Byte	The ID of the window that the action occurred in
			Action Number	Short	Every action that is to be accepted has a unique number. This field corresponds to that number.
			Accepted	Boolean	Whether the action was accepted

Creative Inventory Action

While the user is in the standard inventory (i.e., not a crafting bench) in Creative mode, the player will send this packet.

Clicking in the creative inventory menu is quite different from non-creative inventory management. Picking up an item with the mouse actually deletes the item from the server, and placing an item into a slot or dropping it out of the inventory actually tells the server to create the item from scratch. (This can be verified by clicking an item that you don't mind deleting, then severing the connection to the server; the item will be nowhere to be found when you log back in.) As a result of this implementation strategy, the "Destroy Item" slot is just a client-side implementation detail that means "I don't intend to recreate this item.". Additionally, the long listings of items (by category, etc.) are a client-side interface for choosing which item to create. Picking up an item from such listings sends no packets to the server; only when you put it somewhere does it tell the server to create the item in that location.

This action can be described as “set inventory slot”. Picking up an item sets the slot to item ID -1. Placing an item into an inventory slot sets the slot to the specified item. Dropping an item (by clicking outside the window) effectively sets slot -1 to the specified item, which causes the server to spawn the item entity, etc.. All other inventory slots are numbered the same as the non-creative inventory (including slots for the 2×2 crafting menu, even though they aren't visible in the vanilla client).

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x10 0x11	Play	Server	Slot	Short	Inventory slot
			Clicked Item	Slot

Enchant Item

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x11 0x12	Play	Server	Window ID	Byte	The ID of the enchantment table window sent by Open Window
			Enchantment	Byte	The position of the enchantment on the enchantment table window, starting with 0 as the topmost one

Update Sign

This message is sent from the client to the server when the “Done” button is pushed after placing a sign.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x12 0x13	Play	Server	Location	Position	Block Coordinates
			Line 1	Chat String	First line of text in the sign
			Line 2	Chat String	Second line of text in the sign
			Line 3	Chat String	Third line of text in the sign
			Line 4	Chat String	Fourth line of text in the sign

Player Abilities

The latter 2 bytes are used to indicate the walking and flying speeds respectively, while the first byte is used to determine the value of 4 booleans.

The vanilla client sends this packet when the player starts/stops flying with the second parameter changed accordingly. All other parameters are ignored by the vanilla server.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x13 0x14	Play	Server	Flags	Byte	Bit mask. 0x08: damage disabled (god mode), 0x04: can fly, 0x02: is flying, 0x01: is Creative
			Flying Speed	Float
			Walking Speed	Float

Tab-Complete

Sent when the user presses tab while writing text.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x14 0x15	Play	Server	Text	String	All text behind the cursor
			Has Position	Boolean
			Looked At Block	Optional Position	The position of the block being looked at. Only sent if Has Position is true

Client Settings

Sent when the player connects, or when settings are changed.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x15 0x16	Play	Server	Locale	String	e.g. en_GB
			View Distance	Byte	Client-side render distance, in chunks
			Chat Mode	Byte VarInt	0: enabled, 1: commands only, 2: hidden
			Chat Colors	Boolean	“Colors” multiplayer setting
			Displayed Skin Parts	Unsigned Byte	Skin parts, see note below
			Main Hand	VarInt	0: Left, 1: Right

Displayed Skin Parts flags:

• Bit 0 (0x01): Cape enabled
• Bit 1 (0x02): Jacket enabled
• Bit 2 (0x04): Left Sleeve enabled
• Bit 3 (0x08): Right Sleeve enabled
• Bit 4 (0x10): Left Pants Leg enabled
• Bit 5 (0x20): Right Pants Leg enabled
• Bit 6 (0x40): Hat enabled

The most significant bit (bit 7, 0x80) appears to be unused.

Client Status

Sent when the client is ready to complete login and when the client is ready to respawn after death.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x16 0x17	Play	Server	Action ID	VarInt	See below

Action ID values:

Action ID	Action
0	Perform respawn
1	Request stats
2	Taking Inventory achievement Open Inventory

Plugin Message

Mods and plugins can use this to send their data. Minecraft itself uses a number of plugin channels. These internal channels are prefixed with MC|.

More documentation on this: http://dinnerbone.com/blog/2012/01/13/minecraft-plugin-channels-messaging/

Note that the data length is known from the packet length, so there is no need for a length member being sent.

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x17 0x18	Play	Server	Channel	String	Name of the plugin channel used to send the data
			Data	Byte Array	Any data, depending on the channel. MC| channels are documented here.

Spectate

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x18 0x19	Play	Server	Target Player	UUID

Resource Pack Status

Packet ID	State	Bound To	Field Name	Field Type	Notes
0x19 0x1A	Play	Server	Hash	String	The hash sent in the Resource Pack Send packet.
			Result	VarInt	0: successfully loaded, 1: declined, 2: failed download, 3: accepted

Status

Clientbound

No changes so far.

Serverbound

No changes so far.

Login

Clientbound

No changes so far.

Serverbound

No changes so far.