Protocol

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Heads up!

This article is about the protocol for the latest stable release of Minecraft computer edition (1.12.1, protocol 338). For the computer edition pre-releases, see Pre-release protocol. For Pocket Edition, see Pocket Edition Protocol Documentation.

This page presents a dissection of the current Minecraft protocol.

If you're having trouble, check out the FAQ or ask for help in the IRC channel #mcdevs on chat.freenode.net (More Information).

Note: While you may use the contents of this page without restriction to create servers, clients, bots, etc… you still need to provide attribution to #mcdevs if you copy any of the contents of this page for publication elsewhere.

The changes between versions may be viewed at Protocol History.

Contents

Definitions

The Minecraft server accepts connections from TCP clients and communicates with them using packets. A packet is a sequence of bytes sent over the TCP connection. The meaning of a packet depends both on its packet ID and the current state of the connection. The initial state of each connection is Handshaking, and state is switched using the packets Handshake and Login Success.

Data types

All data sent over the network (except for VarInt and VarLong) is big-endian, that is the bytes are sent from most significant byte to least significant byte. The majority of everyday computers are little-endian, therefore it may be necessary to change the endianness before sending data over the network.


Name Size (bytes) Encodes Notes
Boolean 1 Either false or true True is encoded as 0x01, false as 0x00.
Byte 1 An integer between -128 and 127 Signed 8-bit integer, two's complement
Unsigned Byte 1 An integer between 0 and 255 Unsigned 8-bit integer
Short 2 An integer between -32768 and 32767 Signed 16-bit integer, two's complement
Unsigned Short 2 An integer between 0 and 65535 Unsigned 16-bit integer
Int 4 An integer between -2147483648 and 2147483647 Signed 32-bit integer, two's complement
Long 8 An integer between -9223372036854775808 and 9223372036854775807 Signed 64-bit integer, two's complement
Float 4 A single-precision 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point number
Double 8 A double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point number
String (n) ≥ 1
≤ (n×3) + 3 		A sequence of Unicode scalar values UTF-8 string prefixed with its size in bytes as a VarInt. Maximum length of n characters, which varies by context. The encoding used on the wire is regular UTF-8, not Java's "slight modification". However, the length of the string for purposes of the length limit is its number of UTF-16 code units, that is, scalar values > U+FFFF are counted as two. Up to n × 3 bytes can be used to encode a UTF-8 string comprising n code units when converted to UTF-16, and both of those limits are checked. Maximum n value is 32767. The + 3 is due to the max size of a valid length VarInt.
Text Component Varies See Text formatting#Text components Encoded as a NBT Tag, with the type of tag used depending on the case:
  • As a String Tag: For components only containing text (no styling, no events etc.).
  • As a Compound Tag: Every other case.
JSON Text Component ≥ 1
≤ (262144×3) + 3 		See Text formatting#Text components The maximum permitted length when decoding is 262144, but the Notchian server since 1.20.3 refuses to encode longer than 32767. This may be a bug.
Identifier ≥ 1
≤ (32767×3) + 3 		See Identifier below Encoded as a String with max length of 32767.
VarInt ≥ 1
≤ 5 		An integer between -2147483648 and 2147483647 Variable-length data encoding a two's complement signed 32-bit integer; more info in their section
VarLong ≥ 1
≤ 10 		An integer between -9223372036854775808 and 9223372036854775807 Variable-length data encoding a two's complement signed 64-bit integer; more info in their section
Entity Metadata Varies Miscellaneous information about an entity See Entity_metadata#Entity Metadata Format
Slot Varies An item stack in an inventory or container See Slot Data
NBT Varies Depends on context See NBT
Position 8 An integer/block position: x (-33554432 to 33554431), z (-33554432 to 33554431), y (-2048 to 2047) x as a 26-bit integer, followed by z as a 26-bit integer, followed by y as a 12-bit integer (all signed, two's complement). See also the section below.
Angle 1 A rotation angle in steps of 1/256 of a full turn Whether or not this is signed does not matter, since the resulting angles are the same.
UUID 16 A UUID Encoded as an unsigned 128-bit integer (or two unsigned 64-bit integers: the most significant 64 bits and then the least significant 64 bits)
BitSet Varies See #BitSet below A length-prefixed bit set.
Fixed BitSet (n) ceil(n / 8) See #Fixed BitSet below A bit set with a fixed length of n bits.
Optional X 0 or size of X A field of type X, or nothing Whether or not the field is present must be known from the context.
Array of X count times size of X Zero or more fields of type X The count must be known from the context.
X Enum size of X A specific value from a given list The list of possible values and how each is encoded as an X must be known from the context. An invalid value sent by either side will usually result in the client being disconnected with an error or even crashing.
Byte Array Varies Depends on context This is just a sequence of zero or more bytes, its meaning should be explained somewhere else, e.g. in the packet description. The length must also be known from the context.
ID or X size of VarInt + (size of X or 0) See #ID or X below Either a registry ID or an inline data definition of type X.
ID Set Varies See #ID Set below Set of registry IDs specified either inline or as a reference to a tag.
Sound Event Varies See #Sound Event below Parameters for a sound event.

Identifier

Identifiers are a namespaced location, in the form of minecraft:thing. If the namespace is not provided, it defaults to minecraft (i.e. thing is minecraft:thing). Custom content should always be in its own namespace, not the default one. Both the namespace and value can use all lowercase alphanumeric characters (a-z and 0-9), dot (.), dash (-), and underscore (_). In addition, values can use slash (/). The naming convention is lower_case_with_underscores. More information. For ease of determining whether a namespace or value is valid, here are regular expressions for each:

  • Namespace: [a-z0-9.-_]
  • Value: [a-z0-9.-_/]

VarInt and VarLong

Variable-length format such that smaller numbers use fewer bytes. These are very similar to Protocol Buffer Varints: the 7 least significant bits are used to encode the value and the most significant bit indicates whether there's another byte after it for the next part of the number. The least significant group is written first, followed by each of the more significant groups; thus, VarInts are effectively little endian (however, groups are 7 bits, not 8).

VarInts are never longer than 5 bytes, and VarLongs are never longer than 10 bytes. Within these limits, unnecessarily long encodings (e.g. 81 00 to encode 1) are allowed.

Pseudocode to read and write VarInts and VarLongs: 

private static final int SEGMENT_BITS = 0x7F;
private static final int CONTINUE_BIT = 0x80;

public int readVarInt() {
    int value = 0;
    int position = 0;
    byte currentByte;

    while (true) {
        currentByte = readByte();
        value |= (currentByte & SEGMENT_BITS) << position;

        if ((currentByte & CONTINUE_BIT) == 0) break;

        position += 7;

        if (position >= 32) throw new RuntimeException("VarInt is too big");
    }

    return value;
}

public long readVarLong() {
    long value = 0;
    int position = 0;
    byte currentByte;

    while (true) {
        currentByte = readByte();
        value |= (long) (currentByte & SEGMENT_BITS) << position;

        if ((currentByte & CONTINUE_BIT) == 0) break;

        position += 7;

        if (position >= 64) throw new RuntimeException("VarLong is too big");
    }

    return value;
}

public void writeVarInt(int value) {
    while (true) {
        if ((value & ~SEGMENT_BITS) == 0) {
            writeByte(value);
            return;
        }

        writeByte((value & SEGMENT_BITS) | CONTINUE_BIT);

        // Note: >>> means that the sign bit is shifted with the rest of the number rather than being left alone
        value >>>= 7;
    }
}

public void writeVarLong(long value) {
    while (true) {
        if ((value & ~((long) SEGMENT_BITS)) == 0) {
            writeByte(value);
            return;
        }

        writeByte((value & SEGMENT_BITS) | CONTINUE_BIT);

        // Note: >>> means that the sign bit is shifted with the rest of the number rather than being left alone
        value >>>= 7;
    }
}

Warning.png Note Minecraft's VarInts are identical to LEB128 with the slight change of throwing a exception if it goes over a set amount of bytes.

Warning.png Note that Minecraft's VarInts are not encoded using Protocol Buffers; it's just similar. If you try to use Protocol Buffers Varints with Minecraft's VarInts, you'll get incorrect results in some cases. The major differences:

  • Minecraft's VarInts are all signed, but do not use the ZigZag encoding. Protocol buffers have 3 types of Varints: uint32 (normal encoding, unsigned), sint32 (ZigZag encoding, signed), and int32 (normal encoding, signed). Minecraft's are the int32 variety. Because Minecraft uses the normal encoding instead of ZigZag encoding, negative values always use the maximum number of bytes.
  • Minecraft's VarInts are never longer than 5 bytes and its VarLongs will never be longer than 10 bytes, while Protocol Buffer Varints will always use 10 bytes when encoding negative numbers, even if it's an int32.

Sample VarInts:

Value Hex bytes Decimal bytes
0 0x00 0
1 0x01 1
2 0x02 2
127 0x7f 127
128 0x80 0x01 128 1
255 0xff 0x01 255 1
25565 0xdd 0xc7 0x01 221 199 1
2097151 0xff 0xff 0x7f 255 255 127
2147483647 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x07 255 255 255 255 7
-1 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x0f 255 255 255 255 15
-2147483648 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x08 128 128 128 128 8

Sample VarLongs:

Value Hex bytes Decimal bytes
0 0x00 0
1 0x01 1
2 0x02 2
127 0x7f 127
128 0x80 0x01 128 1
255 0xff 0x01 255 1
2147483647 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x07 255 255 255 255 7
9223372036854775807 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x7f 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 127
-1 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x01 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 255 1
-2147483648 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0xf8 0xff 0xff 0xff 0xff 0x01 128 128 128 128 248 255 255 255 255 1
-9223372036854775808 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x80 0x01 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 128 1

Position

Note: What you are seeing here is the latest version of the Data types article, but the position type was different before 1.14.

64-bit value split into three signed integer parts:

  • x: 26 MSBs
  • z: 26 middle bits
  • y: 12 LSBs

For example, a 64-bit position can be broken down as follows:

Example value (big endian): 01000110000001110110001100 10110000010101101101001000 001100111111

  • The red value is the X coordinate, which is 18357644 in this example.
  • The blue value is the Z coordinate, which is -20882616 in this example.
  • The green value is the Y coordinate, which is 831 in this example.

Encoded as follows: 

((x & 0x3FFFFFF) << 38) | ((z & 0x3FFFFFF) << 12) | (y & 0xFFF)

And decoded as: 

val = read_long();
x = val >> 38;
y = val << 52 >> 52;
z = val << 26 >> 38;

Note: The above assumes that the right shift operator sign extends the value (this is called an arithmetic shift), so that the signedness of the coordinates is preserved. In many languages, this requires the integer type of val to be signed. In the absence of such an operator, the following may be useful: 

if x >= 1 << 25 { x -= 1 << 26 }
if y >= 1 << 11 { y -= 1 << 12 }
if z >= 1 << 25 { z -= 1 << 26 }

Fixed-point numbers

Some fields may be stored as fixed-point numbers, where a certain number of bits represent the signed integer part (number to the left of the decimal point) and the rest represent the fractional part (to the right). Floating point numbers (float and double), in contrast, keep the number itself (mantissa) in one chunk, while the location of the decimal point (exponent) is stored beside it. Essentially, while fixed-point numbers have lower range than floating point numbers, their fractional precision is greater for higher values.

Prior to version 1.9 a fixed-point format with 5 fraction bits and 27 integer bits was used to send entity positions to the client. Some uses of fixed point remain in modern versions, but they differ from that format.

Most programming languages lack support for fractional integers directly, but you can represent them as integers. The following C or Java-like pseudocode converts a double to a fixed-point integer with n fraction bits: 

 x_fixed = (int)(x_double * (1 << n));

And back again: 

 x_double = (double)x_fixed / (1 << n);

Bit sets

The types BitSet and Fixed BitSet represent packed lists of bits. The Notchian implementation uses Java's BitSet class.

BitSet

Bit sets of type BitSet are prefixed by their length in longs.

Field Name Field Type Meaning
Length VarInt Number of longs in the following array. May be 0 (if no bits are set).
Data Array of Long A packed representation of the bit set as created by BitSet.toLongArray.

The ith bit is set when (Data[i / 64] & (1 << (i % 64))) != 0, where i starts at 0.

Fixed BitSet

Bit sets of type Fixed BitSet (n) have a fixed length of n bits, encoded as ceil(n / 8) bytes. Note that this is different from BitSet, which uses longs.

Field Name Field Type Meaning
Data Byte Array (n) A packed representation of the bit set as created by BitSet.toByteArray, padded with zeroes at the end to fit the specified length.

The ith bit is set when (Data[i / 8] & (1 << (i % 8))) != 0, where i starts at 0. This encoding is not equivalent to the long array in BitSet.

Registry references

ID or X

Represents a data record of type X, either inline, or by reference to a registry implied by context.

Field Name Field Type Meaning
ID VarInt 0 if value of type X is given inline; otherwise registry ID + 1.
Value Optional X Only present if ID is 0.

ID Set

Represents a set of IDs in a certain registry (implied by context), either directly (enumerated IDs) or indirectly (tag name).

Field Name Field Type Meaning
Type VarInt Value used to determine the data that follows. It can be either:
  • 0 - Represents a named set of IDs defined by a tag.
  • Anything else - Represents an ad-hoc set of IDs enumerated inline.
Tag Name Optional Identifier The registry tag defining the ID set. Only present if Type is 0.
IDs Optional Array of VarInt An array of registry IDs. Only present if Type is not 0.
The size of the array is equal to Type - 1.

Registry data

These types are commonly used in conjuction with ID or X to specify custom data inline.

Sound Event

Describes a sound that can be played.

Name Type Description
Sound Name Identifier
Has Fixed Range Boolean Whether this sound has a fixed range, as opposed to a variable volume based on distance.
Fixed Range Optional Float The maximum range of the sound. Only present if Has Fixed Range is true.


Other definitions

Term Definition
Player When used in the singular, Player always refers to the client connected to the server.
Entity Entity refers to any item, player, mob, minecart or boat etc. See the Minecraft Wiki article for a full list.
EID An EID — or Entity ID — is a 4-byte sequence used to identify a specific entity. An entity's EID is unique on the entire server.
XYZ In this document, the axis names are the same as those shown in the debug screen (F3). Y points upwards, X points east, and Z points south.
Meter The meter is Minecraft's base unit of length, equal to the length of a vertex of a solid block. The term “block” may be used to mean “meter” or “cubic meter”.
Global palette A table/dictionary/palette mapping nonnegative integers to block states. The block state IDs can be constructed from this table by multiplying what the Minecraft Wiki calls “block IDs” by 16 and adding the metadata/damage value (or in most programming languages block_id << 4 | metadata).
Notchian The official implementation of vanilla Minecraft as developed and released by Mojang.

Packet format

Without compression

Field Name Field Type Notes
Length VarInt Length of packet data + length of the packet ID
Packet ID VarInt
Data Byte Array Depends on the connection state and packet ID, see the sections below

With compression

Once a Set Compression packet (with a non-negative threshold) is sent, zlib compression is enabled for all following packets. The format of a packet changes slighty to include the size of the uncompressed packet.

Compressed? Field Name Field Type Notes
No Packet Length VarInt Length of Data Length + compressed length of (Packet ID + Data)
No Data Length VarInt Length of uncompressed (Packet ID + Data) or 0
Yes Packet ID Varint zlib compressed packet ID (see the sections below)
Data Byte Array zlib compressed packet data (see the sections below)

The length given by the Packet Length field is the number of bytes that remain in that packet, including the Data Length field.

If Data Length is set to zero, then the packet is uncompressed; otherwise it is the size of the uncompressed packet.

If compressed, the uncompressed length of (Packet ID + Data) must be equal to or over the threshold set in the packet Set Compression, otherwise the receiving party will disconnect.

Compression can be disabled by sending the packet Set Compression with a negative Threshold, or not sending the Set Compression packet at all.

Handshaking

Clientbound

There are no clientbound packets in the Handshaking state, since the protocol immediately switches to a different state after the client sends the first packet.

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 338 in Minecraft 1.12.1)
Server Address String (255) Hostname or IP, e.g. localhost or 127.0.0.1, that was used to connect. The Notchian server does not use this information.
Server Port Unsigned Short Default is 25565. The Notchian server does not use this information.
Next State VarInt Enum 1 for status, 2 for login

Legacy Server List Ping

Warning.png This packet uses a nonstandard format. It is never length-prefixed, and the packet ID is an Unsigned Byte instead of a VarInt.

While not technically part of the current protocol, legacy clients may send this packet to initiate Server List Ping, and modern servers should handle it correctly.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0xFE Handshaking Server Payload Unsigned Byte always 1 (0x01)

See Server List Ping#1.6 for the details of the protocol that follows this packet.

Play

Clientbound

Spawn Object

Sent by the server when a vehicle or other object is created.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x00 Play Client Entity ID VarInt EID of the object
Object UUID UUID
Type Byte The type of object (see Entities#Objects)
X Double
Y Double
Z Double
Pitch Angle
Yaw Angle
Data Int Meaning dependent on the value of the Type field, see Object Data for details.
Velocity X Short Same units as Entity Velocity. Always sent, but only used when Data is greater than 0 (except for some entities which always ignore it; see Object Data for details).
Velocity Y Short
Velocity Z Short

Spawn Experience Orb

Spawns one or more experience orbs.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x01 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
X Double
Y Double
Z Double
Count Short The amount of experience this orb will reward once collected

Spawn Global Entity

With this packet, the server notifies the client of thunderbolts striking within a 512 block radius around the player. The coordinates specify where exactly the thunderbolt strikes.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x02 Play Client Entity ID VarInt The EID of the thunderbolt
Type Byte Enum The global entity type, currently always 1 for thunderbolt
X Double
Y Double
Z Double

Spawn Mob

Sent by the server when a mob entity is spawned.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x03 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Entity UUID UUID
Type VarInt The type of mob. See Entities#Mobs
X Double
Y Double
Z Double
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 Entity Metadata

Spawn Painting

This packet shows location, name, and type of painting.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x04 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Entity UUID UUID
Title String (13) Name of the painting. Max length 13
Location Position Center coordinates (see below)
Direction Byte Enum Direction the painting faces (North = 2, South = 0, West = 1, East = 3)

Calculating the center of an image: given a (width × height) grid of cells, with (0, 0) being the top left corner, the center is (max(0, width / 2 - 1), height / 2). E.g. (1, 0) for a 2×1 painting, or (1, 2) for a 4×4 painting.

List of paintings by coordinates in paintings_kristoffer_zetterstrand.png (where x and y are in pixels from the top left and width and height are in pixels or 16ths of a block):

Name x y width height
Kebab 0 0 16 16
Aztec 16 0 16 16
Alban 32 0 16 16
Aztec2 48 0 16 16
Bomb 64 0 16 16
Plant 80 0 16 16
Wasteland 96 0 16 16
Pool 0 32 32 16
Courbet 32 32 32 16
Sea 64 32 32 16
Sunset 96 32 32 16
Creebet 128 32 32 16
Wanderer 0 64 16 32
Graham 16 64 16 32
Match 0 128 32 32
Bust 32 128 32 32
Stage 64 128 32 32
Void 96 128 32 32
SkullAndRoses 128 128 32 32
Wither 160 128 32 32
Fighters 0 96 64 32
Pointer 0 192 64 64
Pigscene 64 192 64 64
BurningSkull 128 192 64 64
Skeleton 192 64 64 48
DonkeyKong 192 112 64 48

The Minecraft Wiki article on paintings also provides a list of painting names to the actual images.

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 packet that adds the player data for the client to use when spawning a player. If the Player List Item for the player spawned by this packet is not present when this packet arrives, Notchian clients will not spawn the player entity. The Player List Item packet includes skin/cape data.

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

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x05 Play Client Entity ID VarInt Player's EID
Player UUID UUID See below for notes on offline mode and NPCs
X Double
Y Double
Z Double
Yaw Angle
Pitch Angle
Metadata Entity Metadata

When in online mode, the UUIDs must be valid and have valid skin blobs.

In offline mode, UUID v3 is used with the String OfflinePlayer:<player name>, encoded in UTF-8 (and case-sensitive).

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.

Animation (clientbound)

Sent whenever an entity should change animation.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x06 Play Client Entity ID VarInt Player ID
Animation Unsigned Byte Animation ID (see below)

Animation can be one of the following values:

ID Animation
0 Swing main arm
1 Take damage
2 Leave bed
3 Swing offhand
4 Critical effect
5 Magic critical effect

Statistics

Sent as a response to Client Status 0x04 (id 1).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x07 Play Client Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Statistic Name Array String (32767) https://gist.github.com/Alvin-LB/8d0d13db00b3c00fd0e822a562025eff
Value VarInt The amount to set it to

Block Break Animation

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

Block break animations can still be applied on air; the animation will remain visible although there is no block being broken. However, if this is applied to a transparent block, odd graphical effects may happen, including water losing its transparency. (An effect similar to this can be seen in normal gameplay when breaking ice blocks)

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

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x08 Play Client Entity ID VarInt Entity ID of the entity breaking the block
Location Position Block Position
Destroy Stage Byte 0–9 to set it, any other value to remove it

Update Block Entity

Sets tile entity associated with the block at the given location.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x09 Play Client Location Position
Action Unsigned Byte The type of update to perform, see below
NBT Data NBT Tag Data to set. May be a TAG_END (0), in which case the block entity at the given location is removed (though this is not required since the client will remove the block entity automatically on chunk unload or block removal)

Action field:

  • 1: Set data of a mob spawner (everything except for SpawnPotentials: current delay, min/max delay, mob to be spawned, spawn count, spawn range, etc.)
  • 2: Set command block text (command and last execution status)
  • 3: Set the level, primary, and secondary powers of a beacon
  • 4: Set rotation and skin of mob head
  • 5: Set type of flower in flower pot
  • 6: Set base color and patterns on a banner
  • 7: Set the data for a Structure tile entity
  • 8: Set the destination for a end gateway
  • 9: Set the text on a sign
  • 10: Declare a shulker box, no data appears to be sent and the client seems to do fine without this packet. Perhaps it is a leftover from earlier versions?
  • 11: Set the color of a bed

Block Action

This packet is used for a number of actions and animations performed by blocks, usually non-persistent.

See Block Actions for a list of values.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0A Play Client Location Position Block coordinates
Action ID (Byte 1) Unsigned Byte Varies depending on block — see Block Actions
Action Param (Byte 2) Unsigned Byte Varies depending on block — see Block Actions
Block Type VarInt The block type ID for the block, not including metadata/damage value. This must match the block at the given coordinates.

Block Change

Fired whenever a block is changed within the render distance.

Warning.png Changing a block in a chunk that is not loaded is not a stable action. The Notchian client currently uses a shared empty chunk which is modified for all block changes in unloaded chunks; while in 1.9 this chunk never renders in older versions the changed block will appear in all copies of the empty chunk. Servers should avoid sending block changes in unloaded chunks and clients should ignore such packets.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0B Play Client Location Position Block Coordinates
Block ID VarInt The new block state ID for the block as given in the global palette (When reading data: type = id >> 4, meta = id & 15, when writing data: id = type << 4 | (meta & 15))

Boss Bar

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0C Play Client UUID UUID Unique ID for this bar
Action VarInt Enum 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 a Notchian client, and start rendering part of a second health bar at around 1.5.
Color VarInt Enum Color ID (see below)
Division VarInt Enum Type of division (see below)
Flags Unsigned Byte Bit mask. 0x1: should darken sky, 0x2: is dragon bar (used to play end music)
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 Enum Color ID (see below)
Dividers VarInt Enum as above
5: update flags Flags Unsigned Byte as above
ID Color
0 Pink
1 Blue
2 Red
3 Green
4 Yellow
5 Purple
6 White
ID Type of division
0 No division
1 6 notches
2 10 notches
3 12 notches
4 20 notches

Server Difficulty

Changes the difficulty setting in the client's option menu

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0D Play Client Difficulty Unsigned Byte 0: peaceful, 1: easy, 2: normal, 3: hard

Tab-Complete (clientbound)

The server responds with a list of auto-completions of the last word sent to it. In the case of regular chat, this is a player username. Command names and parameters are also supported. The client sorts these alphabetically before listing them.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0E Play Client Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Matches Array of String (32767) One eligible command, note that each command is sent separately instead of in a single string, hence the need for Count

Chat Message (clientbound)

Identifying the difference between Chat/System Message is important as it helps respect the user's chat visibility options. See processing chat for more info about these positions.

Warning.png Game info accepts json formatting but does not display it, although the deprecated §-based formatting works. This is not an issue when using the Title packet, so prefer that packet for displaying information in that slot. See MC-119145 for more information.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0F Play Client JSON Data Chat Limited to 32767 bytes
Position Byte 0: chat (chat box), 1: system message (chat box), 2: game info (above hotbar).

Multi Block Change

Fired whenever 2 or more blocks are changed within the same chunk on the same tick.

Warning.png Changing blocks in chunks not loaded by the client is unsafe (see note on Block Change).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x10 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 Y coordinate of the block
Block ID VarInt The new block state ID for the block as given in the global palette (When reading data: type = id >> 4, meta = id & 15, when writing data: id = type << 4 | (meta & 15))

To decode the position into a world position: 

worldX = (horizPos >> 4 & 15) + (chunkX * 16);
worldY = vertPos;
worldZ = (horizPos & 15) + (chunkZ * 16);

Confirm Transaction (clientbound)

A packet from the server indicating whether a request from the client was accepted, or whether there was a conflict (due to lag). If the packet was not accepted, the client must respond with a serverbound confirm transaction packet.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x11 Play Client 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 number is an incrementing integer (starting at 0) with separate counts for each window ID.
Accepted Boolean Whether the action was accepted

Close Window (clientbound)

This packet is sent from the server to the client when a window is forcibly closed, such as when a chest is destroyed while it's open.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x12 Play Client Window ID Unsigned Byte This is the ID of the window that was closed. 0 for inventory.

Open Window

This is sent to the client when it should open an inventory, such as a chest, workbench, or furnace. This message is not sent anywhere for clients opening their own inventory.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x13 Play Client Window ID Unsigned Byte A unique id number for the window to be displayed. Notchian server implementation is a counter, starting at 1.
Window Type String (32) The window type to use for display. See Inventory for a list.
Window Title Chat The title of the window
Number Of Slots Unsigned Byte Number of slots in the window (excluding the number of slots in the player inventory). Always 0 for non-storage windows (e.g. Workbench, Anvil).
Entity ID Optional Int EntityHorse's EID. Only sent when Window Type is “EntityHorse”

See Inventory for further information.

Window Items

The inventory slots

Sent by the server when items in multiple slots (in a window) are added/removed. This includes the main inventory, equipped armour and crafting slots.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x14 Play Client Window ID Unsigned Byte The ID of window which items are being sent for. 0 for player inventory.
Count Short Number of elements in the following array
Slot Data Array of Slot

See inventory windows for further information about how slots are indexed.

Window Property

This packet is used to inform the client that part of a GUI window should be updated.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x15 Play Client Window ID Unsigned Byte
Property Short The property to be updated, see below
Value Short The new value for the property, see below

The meaning of the Property field depends on the type of the window. The following table shows the known combinations of window type and property, and how the value is to be interpreted.

Window type Property Value
Furnace 0: Fire icon (fuel left) counting from fuel burn time down to 0 (in-game ticks)
1: Maximum fuel burn time fuel burn time or 0 (in-game ticks)
2: Progress arrow counting from 0 to maximum progress (in-game ticks)
3: Maximum progress always 200 on the notchian server
Enchantment Table 0: Level requirement for top enchantment slot The enchantment's xp level requirement
1: Level requirement for middle enchantment slot
2: Level requirement for bottom enchantment slot
3: The enchantment seed Used for drawing the enchantment names (in SGA) clientside. The same seed is used to calculate enchantments, but some of the data isn't sent to the client to prevent easily guessing the entire list (the seed value here is the regular seed bitwise and 0xFFFFFFF0).
4: Enchantment ID shown on mouse hover over top enchantment slot The enchantment id (set to -1 to hide it)
5: Enchantment ID shown on mouse hover over middle enchantment slot
6: Enchantment ID shown on mouse hover over bottom enchantment slot
7: Enchantment level shown on mouse hover over the top slot The enchantment level (1 = I, 2 = II, 6 = VI, etc.), or -1 if no enchant
8: Enchantment level shown on mouse hover over the middle slot
9: Enchantment level shown on mouse hover over the bottom slot
Beacon 0: Power level 0-4, controls what effect buttons are enabled
1: First potion effect Potion effect ID for the first effect, or -1 if no effect
2: Second potion effect Potion effect ID for the second effect, or -1 if no effect
Anvil 0: Repair cost The repair's cost in xp levels
Brewing Stand 0: Brew time 0 – 400, with 400 making the arrow empty, and 0 making the arrow full
1: Fuel time 0 - 20, with 0 making the arrow empty, and 20 making the arrow full

Set Slot

Sent by the server when an item in a slot (in a window) is added/removed.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x16 Play Client Window ID Byte The window which is being updated. 0 for player inventory. Note that all known window types include the player inventory. This packet will only be sent for the currently opened window while the player is performing actions, even if it affects the player inventory. After the window is closed, a number of these packets are sent to update the player's inventory window (0).
Slot Short The slot that should be updated
Slot Data Slot

To set the cursor (the item currently dragged with the mouse), use -1 as Window ID and as Slot.

This packet can only be used to edit the hotbar of the player's inventory if window ID is set to 0 (slots 36 through 44). If the window ID is set to -2, then any slot in the inventory can be used but no add item animation will be played.

Set Cooldown

Applies a cooldown period to all items with the given type. Used by the Notchian server with enderpearls. This packet should be sent when the cooldown starts and also when the cooldown ends (to compensate for lag), although the client will end the cooldown automatically.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x17 Play Client Item ID VarInt Numeric ID of the item to apply a cooldown to.
Cooldown Ticks VarInt Number of ticks to apply a cooldown for, or 0 to clear the cooldown.

Plugin Message (clientbound)

Main article: Plugin channels

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/

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x18 Play Client Channel String (20) Name of the plugin channel used to send the data
Data Byte Array Any data, depending on the channel. MC| channels are documented here. The length of this array must be inferred from the packet length.

Named Sound Effect

See also: #Sound Effect

Used to play a sound effect on the client. Custom sounds may be added by resource packs.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x19 Play Client Sound Name String (256) All sound effect names as of 1.12.1 can be seen here.
Sound Category VarInt Enum The category that this sound will be played from (current categories)
Effect Position X Int Effect X multiplied by 8 (fixed-point number with only 3 bits dedicated to the fractional part)
Effect Position Y Int Effect Y multiplied by 8 (fixed-point number with only 3 bits dedicated to the fractional part)
Effect Position Z Int Effect Z multiplied by 8 (fixed-point number with only 3 bits dedicated to the fractional part)
Volume Float 1 is 100%, can be more
Pitch Float Float between 0.5 and 2.0 by Notchian clients

Disconnect (play)

Sent by the server before it disconnects a client. The client assumes that the server has already closed the connection by the time the packet arrives.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1A Play Client Reason Chat Displayed to the client when the connection terminates.

Entity Status

Entity statuses generally trigger an animation for an entity. The available statuses vary by the entity's type (and are available to subclasses of that type as well).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1B Play Client Entity ID Int
Entity Status Byte Enum See below

See entities for a list of which statuses are valid for each type of entity.

Explosion

Sent when an explosion occurs (creepers, TNT, and ghast fireballs).

Each block in Records is set to air. Coordinates for each axis in record is int(X) + record.x

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1C Play Client X Float
Y Float
Z Float
Radius Float Currently unused in the client
Record Count Int Number of elements in the following array
Records Array of (Byte, Byte, Byte) Each record is 3 signed bytes long, each bytes are the XYZ (respectively) offsets of affected blocks.
Player Motion X Float X velocity of the player being pushed by the explosion
Player Motion Y Float Y velocity of the player being pushed by the explosion
Player Motion Z Float Z velocity of the player being pushed by the explosion

Unload Chunk

Tells the client to unload a chunk column.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1D Play Client Chunk X Int Block coordinate divided by 16, rounded down
Chunk Z Int Block coordinate divided by 16, rounded down

It is legal to send this packet even if the given chunk is not currently loaded.

Change Game State

Used for a wide variety of game state things, from whether to bed use to gamemode to demo messages.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1E Play Client Reason Unsigned Byte See below
Value Float Depends on Reason

Reason codes:

Reason Effect Value
0 Invalid Bed Would be used to switch between messages, but the only used message is 0 for invalid bed
1 End raining
2 Begin raining
3 Change gamemode 0: Survival, 1: Creative, 2: Adventure, 3: Spectator
4 Exit end 0: Immediately send Client Status of respawn without showing end credits; 1: Show end credits and respawn at the end (or when esc is pressed). 1 is sent if the player has not yet received the "The end?" achievement, while if they do have it 0 is used.
5 Demo message 0: Show welcome to demo screen, 101: Tell movement controls, 102: Tell jump control, 103: Tell inventory control
6 Arrow hitting player Appears to be played when an arrow strikes another player in Multiplayer
7 Fade value The current darkness value. 1 = Dark, 0 = Bright, Setting the value higher causes the game to change color and freeze
8 Fade time Time in ticks for the sky to fade
10 Play elder guardian mob appearance (effect and sound)

Keep Alive (clientbound)

The server will frequently send out a keep-alive, each containing a random ID. The client must respond with the same packet. If the client does not respond to them for over 30 seconds, the server kicks the client. Vice versa, if the server does not send any keep-alives for 20 seconds, the client will disconnect and yields a "Timed out" exception.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1F Play Client Keep Alive ID VarInt

Chunk Data

Main article: Chunk Format
See also: #Unload Chunk

The server only sends skylight information for chunk pillars in the Overworld, it's up to the client to know in which dimenison the player is currently located. You can also infer this information from the primary bitmask and the amount of uncompressed bytes sent. This packet also sends all block entities in the chunk (though sending them is not required; it is still legal to send them with Update Block Entity later).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x20 Play Client Chunk X Int Chunk coordinate (block coordinate divided by 16, rounded down)
Chunk Z Int Chunk coordinate (block coordinate divided by 16, rounded down)
Ground-Up Continuous Boolean See Chunk Format
Primary Bit Mask VarInt Bitmask with bits set to 1 for every 16×16×16 chunk section whose data is included in Data. The least significant bit represents the chunk section at the bottom of the chunk column (from y=0 to y=15).
Size VarInt Size of Data in bytes
Data Byte array See data structure in Chunk Format
Number of block entities VarInt Length of the following array
Block entities Array of NBT Tag All block entities in the chunk. Use the x, y, and z tags in the NBT to determine their positions.

Effect

Sent when a client is to play a sound or particle effect.

By default, the Minecraft client adjusts the volume of sound effects based on distance. The final boolean field is used to disable this, and instead the effect is played from 2 blocks away in the correct direction. Currently this is only used for effect 1023 (wither spawn) and effect 1028 (enderdragon death); it is ignored on other effects.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x21 Play Client Effect ID Int The ID of the effect, see below
Location Position The location of the effect
Data Int Extra data for certain effects, see below
Disable Relative Volume Boolean See above

Effect IDs:

ID Name Data
Sound
1000 Dispenser dispenses
1001 Dispenser fails to dispense
1002 Dispenser shoots
1003 Ender eye launched
1004 Firework shot
1005 Iron door opened
1006 Wooden door opened
1007 Wooden trapdoor opened
1008 Fence gate opened
1009 Fire extinguished
1010 Play record Special case, see below for more info
1011 Iron door closed
1012 Wooden door closed
1013 Wooden trapdoor closed
1014 Fence gate closed
1015 Ghast warns
1016 Ghast shoots
1017 Enderdragon shoots
1018 Blaze shoots
1019 Zombie attacks wood door
1020 Zombie attacks iron door
1021 Zombie breaks wood door
1022 Wither breaks block
1023 Wither spawned
1024 Wither shoots
1025 Bat takes off
1026 Zombie infects
1027 Zombie villager converted
1028 Ender dragon death
1029 Anvil destroyed
1030 Anvil used
1031 Anvil landed
1032 Portal travel
1033 Chorus flower grown
1034 Chorus flower died
1035 Brewing stand brewed
1036 Iron trapdoor opened
1037 Iron trapdoor closed
Particle
2000 Spawns 10 smoke particles, e.g. from a fire Direction, see below
2001 Block break + block break sound Block ID
2002 Splash potion. Particle effect + glass break sound. Potion ID
2003 Eye of Ender entity break animation — particles and sound
2004 Mob spawn particle effect: smoke + flames
2005 Bonemeal particles How many particles to spawn (if set to 0, 15 are spawned)
2006 Dragon breath
2007 Instant splash potion Potion ID
3000 End gateway spawn
3001 Enderdragon growl

Smoke directions:

ID Direction
0 South-East
1 South
2 South-West
3 East
4 (Up or middle ?)
5 West
6 North-East
7 North
8 North-West

Play record: This is actually a special case within this packet. You can start/stop a record at a specific location. Use a valid Record ID to start a record (or overwrite a currently playing one), any other value will stop the record.

Particle

Displays the named particle

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x22 Play Client Particle ID Int See below
Long Distance Boolean If true, particle distance increases from 256 to 65536
X Float X position of the particle
Y Float Y position of the particle
Z Float Z position of the particle
Offset X Float This is added to the X position after being multiplied by random.nextGaussian()
Offset Y Float This is added to the Y position after being multiplied by random.nextGaussian()
Offset Z Float This is added to the Z position after being multiplied by random.nextGaussian()
Particle Data Float The data of each particle
Particle Count Int The number of particles to create
Data Array of VarInt Length depends on particle. "iconcrack" has length of 2, "blockcrack", and "blockdust" have lengths of 1, the rest have 0.

Particle IDs:

Particle Name Particle ID
explode 0
largeexplode 1
hugeexplosion 2
fireworksSpark 3
bubble 4
splash 5
wake 6
suspended 7
depthsuspend 8
crit 9
magicCrit 10
smoke 11
largesmoke 12
spell 13
instantSpell 14
mobSpell 15
mobSpellAmbient 16
witchMagic 17
dripWater 18
dripLava 19
angryVillager 20
happyVillager 21
townaura 22
note 23
portal 24
enchantmenttable 25
flame 26
lava 27
footstep 28
cloud 29
reddust 30
snowballpoof 31
snowshovel 32
slime 33
heart 34
barrier 35
iconcrack_(id)_(data) 36
blockcrack_(id+(data<<12)) 37
blockdust_(id) 38
droplet 39
take 40
mobappearance 41
dragonbreath 42
endrod 43
damageindicator 44
sweepattack 45
fallingdust 46

Join Game

See Protocol Encryption for information on logging in.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x23 Play Client Entity ID Int The player's Entity ID (EID)
Gamemode Unsigned Byte 0: Survival, 1: Creative, 2: Adventure, 3: Spectator. Bit 3 (0x8) is the hardcore flag.
Dimension Int Enum -1: Nether, 0: Overworld, 1: End; also, note that this is not a VarInt but instead a regular int.
Difficulty Unsigned Byte 0: peaceful, 1: easy, 2: normal, 3: hard
Max Players Unsigned Byte Was once used by the client to draw the player list, but now is ignored
Level Type String Enum (16) default, flat, largeBiomes, amplified, default_1_1
Reduced Debug Info Boolean If true, a Notchian client shows reduced information on the debug screen. For servers in development, this should almost always be false.

Map

Updates a rectangular area on a map item.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x24 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 = Type, 0x0F = Direction
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

For icons, a direction of 0 is a vertical icon and increments by 22.5° (360/16).

Types are based off of rows and columns in map_icons.png:

Icon type Result
0 White arrow (players)
1 Green arrow (item frames)
2 Red arrow
3 Blue arrow
4 White cross
5 Red pointer
6 White circle (off-map players)
7 Small white circle (far-off-map players)
8 Mansion
9 Temple
10-15 Unused (blue square)

Entity

This packet may be used to initialize an entity.

For player entities, either this packet or any move/look packet is sent every game tick. So the meaning of this packet is basically that the entity did not move/look since the last such packet.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x25 Play Client Entity ID VarInt

Entity Relative Move

This packet is sent by the server when an entity moves less then 8 blocks; if an entity moves more than 8 blocks Entity Teleport should be sent instead.

This packet allows at most 8 blocks movement in any direction, because short range is from -32768 to 32767. And 32768 / (128 * 32) = 8.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x26 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Delta X Short Change in X position as (currentX * 32 - prevX * 32) * 128
Delta Y Short Change in Y position as (currentY * 32 - prevY * 32) * 128
Delta Z Short Change in Z position as (currentZ * 32 - prevZ * 32) * 128
On Ground Boolean

Entity Look And Relative Move

This packet is sent by the server when an entity rotates and moves. Since a short range is limited from -32768 to 32767, and movement is offset of fixed-point numbers, this packet allows at most 8 blocks movement in any direction. (-32768 / (32 * 128) == -8)

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x27 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Delta X Short Change in X position as (currentX * 32 - prevX * 32) * 128
Delta Y Short Change in Y position as (currentY * 32 - prevY * 32) * 128
Delta Z Short Change in Z position as (currentZ * 32 - prevZ * 32) * 128
Yaw Angle New angle, not a delta
Pitch Angle New angle, not a delta
On Ground Boolean

Entity Look

This packet is sent by the server when an entity rotates.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x28 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Yaw Angle New angle, not a delta
Pitch Angle New angle, not a delta
On Ground Boolean

Vehicle Move (clientbound)

Note that all fields use absolute positioning and do not allow for relative positioning.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x29 Play Client X Double Absolute position (X coordinate)
Y Double Absolute position (Y coordinate)
Z Double Absolute position (Z coordinate)
Yaw Float Absolute rotation on the vertical axis, in degrees
Pitch Float Absolute rotation on the horizontal axis, in degrees

Open Sign Editor

Sent when the client has placed a sign and is allowed to send Update Sign.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x2A Play Client Location Position

Craft Recipe Response

Response to the serverbound packet (Craft Recipe Request), with the same recipe ID. Appears to be used to notify the UI.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x2B Play Client Window ID Byte
Recipe VarInt A recipe ID

Player Abilities (clientbound)

The latter 2 floats are used to indicate the field of view and flying speed respectively, while the first byte is used to determine the value of 4 booleans.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x2C Play Client Flags Byte Bit field, see below
Flying Speed Float
Field of View Modifier Float Modifies the field of view, like a speed potion. A Notchian server will use the same value as the movement speed (send in the Entity Properties packet).

About the flags:

Field Bit
Invulnerable 0x01
Flying 0x02
Allow Flying 0x04
Creative Mode 0x08

Combat Event

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x2D Play Client Event VarInt Enum 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 Chat

Player List Item

Sent by the server to update the user list (<tab> in the client).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x2E Play Client Action VarInt Determines the rest of the Player format after the UUID
Number Of Players VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Player UUID Array UUID
Action Field Name
0: add player Name String (16)
Number Of Properties VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Property Name Array String (32767)
Value String (32767)
Is Signed Boolean
Signature Optional String (32767) Only if Is Signed is true
Gamemode VarInt
Ping VarInt
Has Display Name Boolean
Display Name Optional Chat Only if Has Display Name is true
1: update gamemode Gamemode VarInt
2: update latency Ping VarInt
3: update display name Has Display Name Boolean
Display Name Optional Chat Only send if Has Display Name is true
4: remove player no fields no fields

The Property field looks as in the response of Mojang API#UUID -> Profile + Skin/Cape, except of course using the protocol format instead of JSON. That is, each player will usually have one property with Name “textures” and Value being a base64-encoded JSON string as documented at Mojang API#UUID -> Profile + Skin/Cape. An empty properties array is also acceptable, and will cause clients to display the player with one of the two default skins depending on UUID.

Player Position And Look (clientbound)

Updates the player's position on the server. This packet will also close the “Downloading Terrain” screen when joining/respawning.

If the distance between the last known position of the player on the server and the new position set by this packet is greater than 100 meters, the client will be kicked for “You moved too quickly :( (Hacking?)”.

Also if the fixed-point number of X or Z is set greater than 3.2E7D the client will be kicked for “Illegal position”.

Yaw is measured in degrees, and does not follow classical trigonometry rules. The unit circle of yaw on the XZ-plane starts at (0, 1) and turns counterclockwise, with 90 at (-1, 0), 180 at (0, -1) and 270 at (1, 0). Additionally, yaw is not clamped to between 0 and 360 degrees; any number is valid, including negative numbers and numbers greater than 360.

Pitch is measured in degrees, where 0 is looking straight ahead, -90 is looking straight up, and 90 is looking straight down.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x2F Play Client X Double Absolute or relative position, depending on Flags
Y Double Absolute or relative position, depending on Flags
Z Double Absolute or relative position, depending on Flags
Yaw Float Absolute or relative rotation on the X axis, in degrees
Pitch Float Absolute or relative rotation on the Y axis, in degrees
Flags Byte Bit field, see below
Teleport ID VarInt Client should confirm this packet with Teleport Confirm containing the same Teleport ID

About the Flags field: 

<Dinnerbone> It's a bitfield, X/Y/Z/Y_ROT/X_ROT. If X is set, the x value is relative and not absolute.
Field Bit
X 0x01
Y 0x02
Z 0x04
Y_ROT 0x08
X_ROT 0x10

Use Bed

This packet tells that a player goes to bed.

The client with the matching Entity ID will go into bed mode.

This Packet is sent to all nearby players including the one sent to bed.

Any packets sent with a location not currently occupied by a bed will be ignored by clients.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x30 Play Client Entity ID VarInt Sleeping player's EID
Location Position Block location of the head part of the bed

Unlock Recipes

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x31 Play Client
Action VarInt 0: init, 1: add, 2: remove
Crafting Book Open Boolean If true, then the crafting book will be open when the player opens its inventory.
Filtering Craftable Boolean If true, then the filtering option is active when the players opens its inventory.
Array size 1 VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Recipe IDs Array of VarInt
Array size 2 Optional VarInt Number of elements in the following array, only present if mode is 0 (init)
Recipe IDs Optional Array of VarInt, only present if mode is 0 (init)

Action:

  • 0 (init) = All the recipes in the list 2 will added to the recipe book. All the recipes in list 1 will be tagged as displayed, recipes that aren't tagged will be shown in the notification. VERIFY LIST ORDER?
  • 1 (add) = All the recipes in the list are added and their icon will be shown in the notification.
  • 2 (remove) = Remove all the recipes in the list. This allows them to re-displayed when they are readded.

Recipe ID: These are hardcoded values in the client and server, all the recipe json files will be loaded in a specific order (alphabetical, like sounds) and internal ids will be assigned in that order. There are also inbuilt recipes like fireworks, banners, etc., these are the first recipes to have their id assigned. Due the fact that the recipes are loaded in a specific order will the ids very likely change when recipes get added. Custom recipes are scheduled for Minecraft 1.13, so most likely will things change a bit in that version.

Destroy Entities

Sent by the server when a list of entities is to be destroyed on the client.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x32 Play Client Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Entity IDs Array of VarInt The list of entities of destroy

Remove Entity Effect

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x33 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Effect ID Byte See this table

Resource Pack Send

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x34 Play Client URL String (32767) The URL to the resource pack.
Hash String (40) A 40 character hexadecimal and lowercase SHA-1 hash of the resource pack file. (must be lower case in order to work)
If it's not a 40 character hexadecimal string, the client will not use it for hash verification and likely waste bandwidth — but it will still treat it as a unique id

Respawn

To change the player's dimension (overworld/nether/end), send them a respawn packet with the appropriate dimension, followed by prechunks/chunks for the new dimension, and finally a position and look packet. You do not need to unload chunks, the client will do it automatically.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x35 Play Client Dimension Int Enum -1: The Nether, 0: The Overworld, 1: The End
Difficulty Unsigned Byte 0: Peaceful, 1: Easy, 2: Normal, 3: Hard
Gamemode Unsigned Byte 0: survival, 1: creative, 2: adventure, 3: spectator. The hardcore flag is not included
Level Type String (16) Same as Join Game

Warning.png Avoid changing player's dimension to same dimension they were already in unless they are dead. If you change the dimension to one they are already in, weird bugs can occur, such as the player being unable to attack other players in new world (until they die and respawn).

If you must respawn a player in the same dimension without killing them, send two respawn packets, one to a different world and then another to the world you want. You do not need to complete the first respawn; it only matters that you send two packets.

Entity Head Look

Changes the direction an entity's head is facing.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x36 Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Head Yaw Angle New angle, not a delta

Select Advancement Tab

Sent by the server to indicate that the client should switch advancement tab. Sent either when the client switches tab in the GUI or when an advancement in another tab is made.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x37 Play Client Has id Boolean Indicates if the next field is present
Optional Identifier String (32767) See below

The Identifier can be one of the following:

Optional Identifier
minecraft:story/root
minecraft:nether/root
minecraft:end/root
minecraft:adventure/root
minecraft:husbandry/root

If no or an invalid identifier is sent, the client will switch to the first tab in the GUI.

World Border

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x38 Play Client Action VarInt Enum Determines the format of the rest of the packet
Action Field Name
0: set size Diameter Double Length of a single side of the world border, in meters
1: lerp size Old Diameter Double Current length of a single side of the world border, in meters
New Diameter Double Target length of a single side of the world border, in meters
Speed VarLong Number of real-time milliseconds until New Diameter is reached. It appears that Notchian server does not sync world border speed to game ticks, so it gets out of sync with server lag. If the world border is not moving, this is set to 0.
2: set center X Double
Z Double
3: initialize X Double
Z Double
Old Diameter Double Current length of a single side of the world border, in meters
New Diameter Double Target length of a single side of the world border, in meters
Speed VarLong Number of real-time milliseconds until New Diameter is reached. It appears that Notchian server does not sync world border speed to game ticks, so it gets out of sync with server lag. If the world border is not moving, this is set to 0.
Portal Teleport Boundary VarInt Resulting coordinates from a portal teleport are limited to ±value. Usually 29999984.
Warning Time VarInt In seconds as set by /worldborder warning time
Warning Blocks VarInt In meters
4: set warning time Warning Time VarInt In seconds as set by /worldborder warning time
5: set warning blocks Warning Blocks VarInt In meters

The Notchian client determines how solid to display the warning by comparing to whichever is higher, the warning distance or whichever is lower, the distance from the current diameter to the target diameter or the place the border will be after warningTime seconds. In pseudocode: 

distance = max(min(resizeSpeed * 1000 * warningTime, abs(targetDiameter - currentDiameter)), warningDistance);
if (playerDistance < distance) {
    warning = 1.0 - playerDistance / distance;
} else {
    warning = 0.0;
}

Camera

Sets the entity that the player renders from. This is normally used when the player left-clicks an entity while in spectator mode.

The player's camera will move with the entity and look where it is looking. The entity is often another player, but can be any type of entity. The player is unable to move this entity (move packets will act as if they are coming from the other entity).

If the given entity is not loaded by the player, this packet is ignored. To return control to the player, send this packet with their entity ID.

The Notchian server resets this (sends it back to the default entity) whenever the spectated entity is killed or the player sneaks, but only if they were spectating an entity. It also sends this packet whenever the player switches out of spectator mode (even if they weren't spectating an entity).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x39 Play Client Camera ID VarInt ID of the entity to set the client's camera to

The notchian also loads certain shaders for given entities:

  • Creeper → shaders/post/creeper.json
  • Spider (and cave spider) → shaders/post/spider.json
  • Enderman → shaders/post/invert.json
  • Anything else → the current shader is unloaded

Held Item Change (clientbound)

Sent to change the player's slot selection.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x3A Play Client Slot Byte The slot which the player has selected (0–8)

Display Scoreboard

This is sent to the client when it should display a scoreboard.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x3B Play Client Position Byte The position of the scoreboard. 0: list, 1: sidebar, 2: below name.
Score Name String (16) The unique name for the scoreboard to be displayed.

Entity Metadata

Updates one or more metadata properties for an existing entity. Any properties not included in the Metadata field are left unchanged.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x3C Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Metadata Entity Metadata

Attach Entity

This packet is sent when an entity has been leashed to another entity.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x3D Play Client Attached Entity ID Int Attached entity's EID
Holding Entity ID Int ID of the entity holding the lead. Set to -1 to detach.

Entity Velocity

Velocity is believed to be in units of 1/8000 of a block per server tick (50ms); for example, -1343 would move (-1343 / 8000) = −0.167875 blocks per tick (or −3,3575 blocks per second).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x3E Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Velocity X Short Velocity on the X axis
Velocity Y Short Velocity on the Y axis
Velocity Z Short Velocity on the Z axis

Entity Equipment

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x3F Play Client Entity ID VarInt Entity's EID
Slot VarInt Enum Equipment slot. 0: main hand, 1: off hand, 2–5: armor slot (2: boots, 3: leggings, 4: chestplate, 5: helmet)
Item Slot

Set Experience

Sent by the server when the client should change experience levels.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x40 Play Client Experience bar Float Between 0 and 1
Level VarInt
Total Experience VarInt See Experience#Leveling up on the Minecraft Wiki for Total Experience to Level conversion

Update Health

Sent by the server to update/set the health of the player it is sent to.

Food saturation acts as a food “overcharge”. Food values will not decrease while the saturation is over zero. Players logging in automatically get a saturation of 5.0. Eating food increases the saturation as well as the food bar.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x41 Play Client Health Float 0 or less = dead, 20 = full HP
Food VarInt 0–20
Food Saturation Float Seems to vary from 0.0 to 5.0 in integer increments

Scoreboard Objective

This is sent to the client when it should create a new scoreboard objective or remove one.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x42 Play Client Objective Name String (16) An unique name for the objective
Mode Byte 0 to create the scoreboard. 1 to remove the scoreboard. 2 to update the display text.
Objective Value Optional String (32) Only if mode is 0 or 2. The text to be displayed for the score
Type Optional String (16) Only if mode is 0 or 2. “integer” or “hearts”

Set Passengers

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x43 Play Client Entity ID VarInt Vehicle's EID
Passenger Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Passengers Array of VarInt EIDs of entity's passengers

Teams

Creates and updates teams.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x44 Play Client Team Name String (16) A unique name for the team. (Shared with scoreboard).
Mode Byte Determines the layout of the remaining packet
0: create team Team Display Name String (32)
Team Prefix String (16) Displayed before the names of players that are part of this team
Team Suffix String (16) Displayed after the names of players that are part of this team
Friendly Flags Byte Bit mask. 0x01: Allow friendly fire, 0x02: can see invisible players on same team
Name Tag Visibility String Enum (32) always, hideForOtherTeams, hideForOwnTeam, never
Collision Rule String Enum (32) always, pushOtherTeams, pushOwnTeam, never
Color Byte For colors, the same Chat colors (0-15). -1 indicates RESET/no color.
Entity Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Entities Array of String (40) Identifiers for the entities in this team. For players, this is their username; for other entities, it is their UUID.
1: remove team no fields no fields
2: update team info Team Display Name String (32)
Team Prefix String (16) Displayed before the names of entities that are part of this team
Team Suffix String (16) Displayed after the names of entities that are part of this team
Friendly Flags Byte Bit mask. 0x01: Allow friendly fire, 0x02: can see invisible entities on same team
Name Tag Visibility String Enum (32) always, hideForOtherTeams, hideForOwnTeam, never
Collision Rule String Enum (32) always, pushOtherTeams, pushOwnTeam, never
Color Byte For colors, the same Chat colors (0-15). -1 indicates RESET/no color.
3: add players to team Entity Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Entities Array of String (40) Identifiers for the entities added. For players, this is their username; for other entities, it is their UUID.
4: remove players from team Entity Count VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Entities Array of String (40) Identifiers for the entities removed. For players, this is their username; for other entities, it is their UUID.

Update Score

This is sent to the client when it should update a scoreboard item.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x45 Play Client Entity Name String (40) The entity whose score this is. For players, this is their username; for other entities, it is their UUID.
Action Byte 0 to create/update an item. 1 to remove an item.
Objective Name String (16) The name of the objective the score belongs to
Value Optional VarInt The score to be displayed next to the entry. Only sent when Action does not equal 1.

Spawn Position

Sent by the server after login to specify the coordinates of the spawn point (the point at which players spawn at, and which the compass points to). It can be sent at any time to update the point compasses point at.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x46 Play Client Location Position Spawn location

Time Update

Time is based on ticks, where 20 ticks happen every second. There are 24000 ticks in a day, making Minecraft days exactly 20 minutes long.

The time of day is based on the timestamp modulo 24000. 0 is sunrise, 6000 is noon, 12000 is sunset, and 18000 is midnight.

The default SMP server increments the time by 20 every second.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x47 Play Client World Age Long In ticks; not changed by server commands
Time of day Long The world (or region) time, in ticks. If negative the sun will stop moving at the Math.abs of the time

Title

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x48 Play Client Action VarInt Enum
Action Field Name
0: set title Title Text Chat
1: set subtitle Subtitle Text Chat
2: set action bar Action bar text Chat Displays a message above the hotbar (the same as position 2 in Chat Message (clientbound), except that it correctly renders formatted chat. See MC-119145 for more information.)
3: set times and display Fade In Int Ticks to spend fading in
Stay Int Ticks to keep the title displayed
Fade Out Int Ticks to spend out, not when to start fading out
4: hide no fields no fields
5: reset no fields no fields

“Hide” makes the title disappear, but if you run times again the same title will appear. “Reset” erases the text.

The title is visible on screen for Fade In + Stay + Fade Out ticks.

Sound Effect

This packet is used to play a number of hardcoded sound events. For custom sounds, use Named Sound Effect.

Warning.png Numeric sound effect IDs are liable to change between versions

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x49 Play Client Sound ID VarInt ID of hardcoded sound event (events as of 1.12.1)
Sound Category VarInt Enum The category that this sound will be played from (current categories)
Effect Position X Int Effect X multiplied by 8 (fixed-point number with only 3 bits dedicated to the fractional part)
Effect Position Y Int Effect Y multiplied by 8 (fixed-point number with only 3 bits dedicated to the fractional part)
Effect Position Z Int Effect Z multiplied by 8 (fixed-point number with only 3 bits dedicated to the fractional part)
Volume Float 1.0 is 100%, capped between 0.0 and 1.0 by Notchian clients
Pitch Float Float between 0.5 and 2.0 by Notchian clients

Player List Header And Footer

This packet may be used by custom servers to display additional information above/below the player list. It is never sent by the Notchian server.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x4A Play Client Header Chat To remove the header, send a empty translatable component: {"translate":""}
Footer Chat To remove the footer, send a empty translatable component: {"translate":""}

Collect Item

Sent by the server when someone picks up an item lying on the ground — its sole purpose appears to be the animation of the item flying towards you. It doesn't destroy the entity in the client memory, and it doesn't add it to your inventory. The server only checks for items to be picked up after each Player Position (and Player Position And Look) packet sent by the client.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x4B Play Client Collected Entity ID VarInt
Collector Entity ID VarInt
Pickup Item Count VarInt Seems to be 1 for XP orbs, otherwise the number of items in the stack.

Entity Teleport

This packet is sent by the server when an entity moves more than 4 blocks.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x4C Play Client Entity ID VarInt
X Double
Y Double
Z Double
Yaw Angle New angle, not a delta
Pitch Angle New angle, not a delta
On Ground Boolean

Advancements

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x4D Play Client Reset/Clear Boolean Whether to reset/clear the current advancements
Mapping size VarInt Size of the following array
Advancement mapping Key Array Identifier The identifier of the advancement
Value Advancement See below
List size VarInt Size of the following array
Identifiers Array of Identifier The identifiers of the advancements that should be removed
Progress size VarInt Size of the following array
Progress mapping Key Array Identifier The identifier of the advancement
Value Advancement progress See below

Advancement structure:

Field Name Field Type Notes
Has parent Boolean Indicates whether the next field exists.
Parent id Optional Identifier The identifier of the parent advancement.
Has display Boolean Indicates whether the next field exists
Display data Optional advancement display See below.
Number of criteria VarInt Size of the following array
Criteria Key Array Identifier The identifier of the criterion
Value Void There is no content written here. Perhaps this will be expanded in the future?
Array length VarInt Number of arrays in the following array
Requirements Array length 2 Array VarInt Number of elements in the following array
Requirement Array of String Array of required criteria

Advancement display:

Field Name Field Type Notes
Title Chat
Description Chat
Icon Slot
Frame type VarInt enum 0 = task, 1 = challenge, 2 = goal
Flags Integer 0x1: has background texture; 0x2: show_toast; 0x4: hidden
Background texture Optional Identifier Background texture location. Only if flags indicates it.
X coord Float
Y coord Float

Advancement progress:

Field Name Field Type Notes
Size VarInt Size of the following array
Criteria Criterion identifier Array Identifier The identifier of the criterion.
Criterion progress Criterion progress

Criterion progress:

Field Name Field Type Notes
Achieved Boolean If true, next field is present
Date of achieving Optional Long As returned by Date.getTime

Entity Properties

Sets attributes on the given entity.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x4E Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Number Of Properties Int Number of elements in the following array
Property Key Array String (64) 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. Modifier Data defined below.

Known Key values (see also Attribute#Modifiers):

Key Default Min Max Label
generic.maxHealth 20.0 0.0 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 1024.0 Movement Speed
generic.attackDamage 2.0 0.0 2048.0 Attack Damage
generic.attackSpeed 4.0 0.0 1024.0 Attack Speed
generic.flyingSpeed 0.4000000059604645 0.0 1024.0 Flying 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 May be positive or negative
Operation Byte See below

The operation controls how the base value of the modifier is changed.

  • 0: Add/subtract amount
  • 1: Add/subtract amount percent of the current value
  • 2: Multiply by amount percent

All of the 0's are applied first, and then the 1's, and then the 2's.

Entity Effect

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x4F Play Client Entity ID VarInt
Effect ID Byte See this table
Amplifier Byte Notchian client displays effect level as Amplifier + 1
Duration VarInt Seconds
Flags Byte Bit field, see below.

Within flags:

  • 0x01: Is ambient - was the effect spawned from a beacon? All beacon-generated effects are ambient. Ambient effects use a different icon in the HUD (blue border rather than gray). If all effects on an entity are ambient, the "Is potion effect ambient" living metadata field should be set to true. Usually should not be enabled.
  • 0x02: Show particles - should all particles from this effect be hidden? Effects with particles hidden are not included in the calculation of the effect color, and are not rendered on the HUD (but are still rendered within the inventory). Usually should be enabled.

Serverbound

Teleport Confirm

Sent by client as confirmation of Player Position And Look.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x00 Play Server Teleport ID VarInt The ID given by the Player Position And Look packet

Tab-Complete (serverbound)

Sent when the user presses tab while writing text.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x01 Play Server Text String (32767) All text behind the cursor (e.g. to the left of the cursor in left-to-right languages like English)
Assume Command Boolean If true, the server will parse Text as a command even if it doesn't start with a /. Used in the command block GUI.
Has Position Boolean
Looked At Block Optional Position The position of the block being looked at. Only sent if Has Position is true.

Chat Message (serverbound)

Used to send a chat message to the server. The message may not be longer than 256 characters or else the server will kick the client.

If the message starts with a /, the server will attempt to interpret it as a command. Otherwise, the server will broadcast the same chat message to all players on the server (including the player that sent the message), prepended with player's name. Specifically, it will respond with a translate chat component, "chat.type.text" with the first parameter set to the display name of the player (including some chat component logic to support clicking the name to send a PM) and the second parameter set to the message. See processing chat for more information.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x02 Play Server Message String (256) The client sends the raw input, not a Chat component

Client Status

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x03 Play Server Action ID VarInt Enum See below

Action ID values:

Action ID Action Notes
0 Perform respawn Sent when the client is ready to complete login and when the client is ready to respawn after death.
1 Request stats Sent when the client opens the Statistics menu

Client Settings

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

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x04 Play Server Locale String (16) e.g. en_GB
View Distance Byte Client-side render distance, in chunks
Chat Mode VarInt Enum 0: enabled, 1: commands only, 2: hidden. See processing chat for more information.
Chat Colors Boolean “Colors” multiplayer setting
Displayed Skin Parts Unsigned Byte Bit mask, see below
Main Hand VarInt Enum 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.

Confirm Transaction (serverbound)

If a transaction sent by the client was not accepted, the server will reply with a Confirm Transaction (clientbound) packet with the Accepted field set to false. When this happens, the client must send this packet to apologize (as with movement), otherwise the server ignores any successive transactions.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x05 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 number is an incrementing integer (starting at 1) with separate counts for each window ID.
Accepted Boolean Whether the action was accepted

Enchant Item

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x06 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

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
0x07 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 (different counter for every window ID). Used by the server to send back a Confirm Transaction (clientbound).
Mode VarInt Enum Inventory operation mode, see below
Clicked item Slot The clicked slot. Has to be empty (item ID = -1) for drop mode.

See Inventory 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, only defined for creative players in non-player inventories.
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
4 -999 Starting right mouse drag
8 -999 Starting middle mouse drag, only defined for creative players in non-player inventories. (Note: the vanilla client will still incorrectly send this for non-creative players - see MC-46584)
1 Normal Add slot for left-mouse drag
5 Normal Add slot for right-mouse drag
9 Normal Add slot for middle-mouse drag, only defined for creative players in non-player inventories. (Note: the vanilla client will still incorrectly send this for non-creative players - see MC-46584)
2 -999 Ending left mouse drag
6 -999 Ending right mouse drag
10 -999 Ending middle mouse drag, only defined for creative players in non-player inventories. (Note: the vanilla client will still incorrectly send this for non-creative players - see MC-46584)
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 send a matching serverbound confirm transaction 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.

Close Window (serverbound)

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

Notchian clients send a Close Window packet with Window ID 0 to close their inventory even though there is never an Open Window packet for the inventory.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x08 Play Server Window ID Unsigned Byte This is the ID of the window that was closed. 0 for player inventory.

Plugin Message (serverbound)

Main article: Plugin channels

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 length of Data is known only from the packet length, since the packet has no length field of any kind.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x09 Play Server Channel String (20) Name of the plugin channel used to send the data
Data Byte Array Any data, depending on the channel. MC| channels are documented here. The length of this array must be inferred from the packet length.

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
0x0A Play Server Target VarInt
Type VarInt Enum 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 Enum Only if Type is interact or interact at; 0: main hand, 1: off hand

Keep Alive (serverbound)

The server will frequently send out a keep-alive, each containing a random ID. The client must respond with the same packet.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0B Play Server Keep Alive ID VarInt

Player

This packet as well as Player Position, Player Look, and Player Position And Look are called the “serverbound movement packets”. Vanilla clients will send Player Position once every 20 ticks even for a stationary player.

This packet is used to indicate whether the player is on ground (walking/swimming), or airborne (jumping/falling).

When dropping from sufficient height, fall damage is applied when this state goes from false to true. The amount of damage applied is based on the point where it last changed from true to false. Note that there are several movement related packets containing this state.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0C Play Server On Ground Boolean True if the client is on the ground, false otherwise

Player Position

Updates the player's XYZ position on the server.

Checking for moving too fast is achieved like this:

  • Each server tick, the player's current position is stored
  • When a player moves, the changes in x, y, and z coordinates are compared with the positions from the previous tick (Δx, Δy, Δz)
  • Total movement distance squared is computed as Δx² + Δy² + Δz²
  • The expected movement distance squared is computed as velocityX² + veloctyY² + velocityZ²
  • If the total movement distance squared value minus the expected movement distance squared value is more than 100 (300 if the player is using an elytra), they are moving too fast.

If the player is moving too fast, it will be logged that "<player> moved too quickly! " followed by the change in x, y, and z, and the player will be teleported back to their current (before this packet) serverside position.

Also, if the absolute value of X or the absolute value of Z is a value greater than 3.2×107, or X, Y, or Z are not finite (either positive infinity, negative infinity, or NaN), the client will be kicked for “Invalid move player packet received”.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0D Play Server X Double Absolute position
Feet Y Double Absolute feet position, normally Head Y - 1.62
Z Double Absolute position
On Ground Boolean True if the client is on the ground, false otherwise

Player Position And Look (serverbound)

A combination of Player Look and Player Position.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0E Play Server X Double Absolute position
Feet Y Double Absolute feet position, normally Head Y - 1.62
Z Double Absolute position
Yaw Float Absolute rotation on the X Axis, in degrees
Pitch Float Absolute rotation on the Y Axis, in degrees
On Ground Boolean True if the client is on the ground, false otherwise

Player Look

The unit circle for yaw
The unit circle of yaw, redrawn

Updates the direction the player is looking in.

Yaw is measured in degrees, and does not follow classical trigonometry rules. The unit circle of yaw on the XZ-plane starts at (0, 1) and turns counterclockwise, with 90 at (-1, 0), 180 at (0,-1) and 270 at (1, 0). Additionally, yaw is not clamped to between 0 and 360 degrees; any number is valid, including negative numbers and numbers greater than 360.

Pitch is measured in degrees, where 0 is looking straight ahead, -90 is looking straight up, and 90 is looking straight down.

The yaw and pitch of player (in degrees), standing at point (x0, y0, z0) and looking towards point (x, y, z) can be calculated with: 

dx = x-x0
dy = y-y0
dz = z-z0
r = sqrt( dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz )
yaw = -atan2(dx,dz)/PI*180
if yaw < 0 then
    yaw = 360 - yaw
pitch = -arcsin(dy/r)/PI*180

You can get a unit vector from a given yaw/pitch via: 

x = -cos(pitch) * sin(yaw)
y = -sin(pitch)
z =  cos(pitch) * cos(yaw)
Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x0F Play Server Yaw Float Absolute rotation on the X Axis, in degrees
Pitch Float Absolute rotation on the Y Axis, in degrees
On Ground Boolean True if the client is on the ground, False otherwise

Vehicle Move (serverbound)

Sent when a player moves in a vehicle. Fields are the same as in Player Position And Look. Note that all fields use absolute positioning and do not allow for relative positioning.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x10 Play Server X Double Absolute position (X coordinate)
Y Double Absolute position (Y coordinate)
Z Double Absolute position (Z coordinate)
Yaw Float Absolute rotation on the vertical axis, in degrees
Pitch Float Absolute rotation on the horizontal axis, in degrees

Steer Boat

Used to visually update whether boat paddles are turning. The server will update the Boat entity metadata to match the values here.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x11 Play Server Right paddle turning Boolean
Left paddle turning Boolean

Right paddle turning is set to true when the left button or forward button is held; left paddle turning is set to true when the right button or forward button is set to true.

Craft Recipe Request

A replacement for Prepare Crafting Grid. It appears to behave more or less the same, but the client does not specify where to move the items.

This packet is sent when a player clicks a recipe in the crafting book that is craftable (white border).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x12 Play Server Window ID Byte
Recipe VarInt A recipe ID
Make all Boolean Affects the amount of items processed; true if shift is down when clicked

Player Abilities (serverbound)

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 Flags parameter changed accordingly. All other parameters are ignored by the vanilla server.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x13 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

Player Digging

Sent when the player mines a block. A Notchian server only accepts digging packets with coordinates within a 6-unit radius between the center of the block and 1.5 units from the player's feet (not their eyes).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x14 Play Server Status VarInt Enum The action the player is taking against the block (see below)
Location Position Block position
Face Byte Enum The face being hit (see below)

Status can be one of seven values:

Value Meaning Notes
0 Started digging
1 Cancelled digging Sent when the player lets go of the Mine Block key (default: left click)
2 Finished digging Sent when the client thinks it is finished
3 Drop item stack Triggered by using the Drop Item key (default: Q) with the modifier to drop the entire selected stack (default: depends on OS). Location is always set to 0/0/0, Face is always set to -Y.
4 Drop item Triggered by using the Drop Item key (default: Q). Location is always set to 0/0/0, Face is always set to -Y.
5 Shoot arrow / finish eating Indicates that the currently held item should have its state updated such as eating food, pulling back bows, using buckets, etc. Location is always set to 0/0/0, Face is always set to -Y.
6 Swap item in hand Used to swap or assign an item to the second hand. Location is always set to 0/0/0, Face is always set to -Y.

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

Value Offset Face
0 -Y Bottom
1 +Y Top
2 -Z North
3 +Z South
4 -X West
5 +X East

Entity Action

Sent by the client to indicate that it has performed certain actions: sneaking (crouching), sprinting, exiting a bed, jumping with a horse, and opening a horse's inventory while riding it.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x15 Play Server Entity ID VarInt Player ID
Action ID VarInt Enum The ID of the action, see below
Jump Boost VarInt Only used by the “start jump with horse” action, in which case it ranges from 0 to 100. In all other cases it is 0.

Action ID can be one of the following values:

ID Action
0 Start sneaking
1 Stop sneaking
2 Leave bed
3 Start sprinting
4 Stop sprinting
5 Start jump with horse
6 Stop jump with horse
7 Open horse inventory
8 Start flying with elytra

Leave bed is only sent when the “Leave Bed” button is clicked on the sleep GUI, not when waking up due today time.

Open horse inventory is only sent when pressing the inventory key (default: E) while on a horse — all other methods of opening a horse's inventory (involving right-clicking or shift-right-clicking it) do not use this packet.

Steer Vehicle

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x16 Play Server Sideways Float Positive to the left of the player
Forward Float Positive forward
Flags Unsigned Byte Bit mask. 0x1: jump, 0x2: unmount

Also known as 'Input' packet.

Crafting Book Data

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x17 Play Server Type VarInt Determines the format of the rest of the packet
Type Field Name
0: Displayed Recipe Recipe ID Int The internal id of the displayed recipe.
1: Crafting Book Status Crafting Book Open Boolean Whether the player has the crafting book currently openened/active.
Crafting Filter Boolean Whether the player has the crafting filter option currently active.

The Crafting Book Status type is send when the player closes its inventory.

Resource Pack Status

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x18 Play Server Result VarInt Enum 0: successfully loaded, 1: declined, 2: failed download, 3: accepted

Advancement Tab

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x19 Play Server Action VarInt enum 0: Opened tab, 1: Closed screen
Tab ID Optional identifier Only present if action is Opened tab

Held Item Change (serverbound)

Sent when the player changes the slot selection

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1A Play Server Slot Short The slot which the player has selected (0–8)

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 2x2 crafting menu, even though they aren't visible in the vanilla client).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1B Play Server Slot Short Inventory slot
Clicked Item Slot

Update Sign

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

The server only accepts this packet after Open Sign Editor, otherwise this packet is silently ignored.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1C Play Server Location Position Block Coordinates
Line 1 String (384) First line of text in the sign
Line 2 String (384) Second line of text in the sign
Line 3 String (384) Third line of text in the sign
Line 4 String (384) Fourth line of text in the sign

Animation (serverbound)

Sent when the player's arm swings.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1D Play Server Hand VarInt Enum Hand used for the animation. 0: main hand, 1: off hand.

Spectate

Teleports the player to the given entity. The player must be in spectator mode.

The Notchian client only uses this to teleport to players, but it appears to accept any type of entity. The entity does not need to be in the same dimension as the player; if necessary, the player will be respawned in the right world. If the given entity cannot be found (or isn't loaded), this packet will be ignored. It will also be ignored if the player attempts to teleport to themselves.

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1E Play Server Target Player UUID UUID of the player to teleport to (can also be an entity UUID)

Player Block Placement

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x1F Play Server Location Position Block position
Face VarInt Enum The face on which the block is placed (as documented at Player Digging)
Hand VarInt Enum The hand from which the block is placed; 0: main hand, 1: off hand
Cursor Position X Float The position of the crosshair on the block, from 0 to 1 increasing from west to east
Cursor Position Y Float The position of the crosshair on the block, from 0 to 1 increasing from bottom to top
Cursor Position Z Float The position of the crosshair on the block, from 0 to 1 increasing from north to south

Upon placing a block, this packet is sent once.

The Cursor Position X/Y/Z fields (also known as in-block coordinates) are calculated using raytracing. The unit corresponds to sixteen pixel in the default resource pack. For example, let's say a slab is being placed against the south face of a full block. The Cursor Position X will be higher if the player was pointing near the right (east) edge of the face, lower if pointing near the left. The Cursor Position Y will be used to determine whether it will appear as a bottom slab (values 0.0–0.5) or as a top slab (values 0.5-1.0). The Cursor Position Z should be 1.0 since the player was looking at the southernmost part of the block.

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
0x20 Play Server Hand VarInt Enum Hand used for the animation. 0: main hand, 1: off hand.

Status

Main article: Server List Ping

Clientbound

Response

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x00 Status Client JSON Response String (32767) See Server List Ping#Response

Pong

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x01 Status Client Payload Long Should be the same as sent by the client

Serverbound

Request

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x00 Status Server no fields

Ping

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x01 Status Server Payload Long May be any number. Notchian clients use a system-dependent time value which is counted in milliseconds.

Login

The login process is as follows:

  1. C→S: Handshake with Next State set to 2 (login)
  2. C→S: Login Start
  3. S→C: Encryption Request
  4. Client auth
  5. C→S: Encryption Response
  6. Server auth, both enable encryption
  7. S→C: Set Compression (optional)
  8. S→C: Login Success

Set Compression, if present, must be sent before Login Success. Note that anything sent after Set Compression must use the Post Compression packet format.

For unauthenticated and localhost connections (either of the two conditions is enough for an unencrypted connection) there is no encryption. In that case Login Start is directly followed by Login Success.

See Protocol Encryption for details.

Clientbound

Disconnect (login)

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x00 Login Client Reason Chat

Encryption Request

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x01 Login Client Server ID String (20) Appears to be empty
Public Key Length VarInt Length of Public Key
Public Key Byte Array
Verify Token Length VarInt Length of Verify Token. Always 4 for Notchian servers.
Verify Token Byte Array A sequence of random bytes generated by the server

See Protocol Encryption for details.

Login Success

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x02 Login Client UUID String (36) Unlike in other packets, this field contains the UUID as a string with hyphens.
Username String (16)

This packet switches the connection state to play.

Set Compression

Enables compression. If compression is enabled, all following packets are encoded in the compressed packet format. Negative values will disable compression, meaning the packet format should remain in the uncompressed packet format. However, this packet is entirely optional, and if not sent, compression will also not be enabled (the notchian server does not send the packet when compression is disabled).

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x03 Login Client Threshold VarInt Maximum size of a packet before it is compressed

Serverbound

Login Start

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x00 Login Server Name String (16) Player's Username

Encryption Response

Packet ID State Bound To Field Name Field Type Notes
0x01 Login Server Shared Secret Length VarInt Length of Shared Secret
Shared Secret Byte Array
Verify Token Length VarInt Length of Verify Token
Verify Token Byte Array

See Protocol Encryption for details.

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