Pre-release protocol

This page documents the changes from the last stable Minecraft release (currently 1.5.2, protocol 61) to the current pre-release, 13w17a (protocol 64). Note that this page contains bleeding-edge information that may not be completely or correctly documented.

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

Protocol Version

1.6: Protocol version is now 72. Changed Open Window packet, added two inventory types

13w25a: Protocol version is now 71. Changed packet: Increment Statistic (0xC8)

13w24b: Protocol version is now 70

13w24a: Protocol version is now 69. Changed functionality: Time Update (0x04)

13w23b: Protocol version is now 68.

13w22a: Protocol version is now 67. New packet: Entity Properties (0x2C); Changed packets: Chat Message (0x03)

13w18b: Protocol version is now 65.

13w16b: Protocol version is now 63. New packet: Steer Vehicle (0x1B)

13w16a: Protocol version is now 62. Changed packets: Update Health (0x08), Entity Action (0x17), Attach Entity (0x27), Player Abilities (0xCA)

New Packets

Steer Vehicle (0x1B)

Client to Server

Sent by client to steer the horse, minecart and boats. Horses listen to all directions, boats and minecarts only listen to the positive forward value in combination with the direction the player is looking in.

Packet ID	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x1B	Sideways	float	0.98	Positive to the left of the player
	Forward	float	-0.98	Positive forward
	Jump	bool	true
	Unmount	bool	false	True when leaving the vehicle
Total Size:	11 bytes

Entity Properties (0x2C)

Server to Client

Note: The server sends this packet to inform the user of its movement speed. Users move far too fast when this packet is not sent.

Packet ID	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x2C	EntityID	int	195	?
	Properties Count	int	3	Number of string/data pairs that follow. The remaining fields here are repeated this number of times.
	Key	string16	"generic.Maxhealth"
	Value	double	20.0
Total Size:	? bytes

Known values:

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

Changed Packets

Chat Message (0x03)

Client to Server

Unchanged

Server to Client

The chat string must now be a valid JSON object:

   {"translate":"chat.type.announcement","using":["Server","hi"]}
   {"color":"gray","italic":true,"translate":"chat.type.admin","using":["Server",{"translate":"commands.save.success"}]}
   {"text":"§aOld style chat"}

Original Gist from Dinnerbone

Where translate is one of the following:

   chat.type.admin: [%s: %s]
   chat.type.announcement: [%s] %s
   chat.type.emote: * %s %s
   chat.type.text: <%s> %s

Time Update (0x04)

Server to Client

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	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x04	Age of the world	long	45464654	In ticks; not changed by server commands
	Time of Day	long	21321	The world (or region) time, in ticks. If negative the sun will stop moving at the Math.abs of the time.
Total Size:	17 Bytes

Update Health (0x08)

Server to Client

Sent by the server to update/set the health of the player it is sent to. Added in protocol version 5.

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	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x08	Health	float	20.0	0 or less = dead, 20 = full HP
	Food	short	20	0 - 20
	Food Saturation	float	5.0	Seems to vary from 0.0 to 5.0 in integer increments
Total Size:	11 bytes

Entity Action (0x13)

Client to Server

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

Packet ID	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x13	EID	int	55534	Player ID
	Action ID	byte	1	The ID of the action, see below.
	Unknown	int	0	Something to do with horses. Ranged from 0 -> 90
Total Size:	10 bytes

Action ID can be one of the following values:

ID	Action
1	Crouch
2	Uncrouch
3	Leave bed
4	Start sprinting
5	Stop sprinting

Attach Entity (0x27)

Server to Client

This packet is sent when a player has been attached to an entity (e.g. Minecart)

Packet ID	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x27	Entity ID	int	1298	The player entity ID being attached
	Vehicle ID	int	1805	The vehicle entity ID attached to (-1 for unattaching)
	Leash	boolean	false	If set to true, leashes the entity to the vehicle
Total Size:	10 bytes

Open Window (0x64)

Server to Client

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	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0x64	Window id	byte	123	A unique id number for the window to be displayed. Notchian server implementation is a counter, starting at 1.
	Inventory Type	byte	2	The window type to use for display. Check below
	Window title	string	Chest	The title of the window.
	Number of Slots	byte	3	Number of slots in the window (excluding the number of slots in the player inventory).
	Use provided window title	boolean	1	If false, the client will look up a string like "window.minecart". If true, the client uses what the server provides.
Unknown	int	0	Only sent when window type is equal to 11
Total Size:	8 bytes + length of string

See inventory windows for further information.

Increment Statistic (0xC8)

Server to Client

Packet ID	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0xC8	Statistic ID	int	1003	The ID of the statistic. See List of statistics.
	Amount	int	1	The amount to increment the statistic.
Total Size:	9 bytes

Player Abilities (0xCA)

Two-Way

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 flags are whether damage is disabled (god mode, 8, bit 3), whether the player can fly (4, bit 2), whether the player is flying (2, bit 1), and whether the player is in creative mode (1, bit 0).

To get the values of these booleans, simply AND (&) the byte with 1,2,4 and 8 respectively, to get the 0 or 1 bitwise value. To set them OR (|) them with their repspective masks. The vanilla client sends this packet when the player starts/stops flying with the second parameter changed accordingly. All other parameters are ignored by the vanilla server.

Packet ID	Field Name	Field Type	Example	Notes
0xCA	Flags	byte	5
	Flying speed*	float	0.05	previous integer value divided by 250
	Walking speed*	float	0.1	previous integer value divided by 250
Total Size:	10 bytes

The client ignores the walking speed and flying speed fields. Send an 0x2C packet as well.

Removed Packets

-None-

Changed Data Types

-None-

Protocol History

-None-