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Revision as of 03:35, 10 October 2011

This page presents a dissection of the Minecraft Beta protocol. Credit goes to the Great Old Ones, and the citizens of #mcdevs who helped by providing packet dumps and insight. If you're having trouble, check out the FAQ.

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

Contents

Data Types

All types in Java (and as such Minecraft) are big-endian, that is, the most significant byte comes first. The majority of everyday computers are little endian, and using most programming languages will require converting big endian values to little endian.

These data formats are identical to those provided by the Java classes DataInputStream and DataOutputStream.

Size Range Notes
byte 1 -128 to 127 Signed, two's complement
short 2 -32768 to 32767 Signed, two's complement
int 4 -2147483648 to 2147483647 Signed, two's complement
long 8 -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807 Signed, two's complement
float 4

See this

Single-precision 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point
double 8

See this

Double-precision 64-bit IEEE 754 floating point
string8 ≥ 2 N/A Modified UTF-8 string. Prefixed by a short containing the length of the string.
string16 ≥ 2
≤ 240
N/A UCS-2 string, big-endian. Prefixed by a short containing the length of the string in characters. UCS-2 consists of 16-bit words, each of which represent a Unicode code point between U+0000 and U+FFFF inclusive.
bool 1 0 or 1 Value can be either True (0x01) or False (0x00)
Metadata varies See below See below

Metadata

The Metadata type provides extra information about an entity, such as sheep color. Metadata was introduced in Beta 1.2. Currently, it takes the following form:

 let x = 0 of type UNSIGNED byte
 while (x = read byte from stream) does not equal 127:
     select based on value of (x >> 5):
         case 0: read byte from stream
         case 1: read short from stream
         case 2: read int from stream
         case 3: read float from stream
         case 4: read string (UCS-2) from stream
         case 5: read short, byte, short from stream; save as item stack (id, count, damage, respectively)
         case 6: read int, int, int from stream; save as extra entity information.
     end select
 end while

The last 5 bits of x (x & 0x1F) are either an index or bitmask. Currently, only "byte" type metadata has been seen from the server.

For known extra entity information values, see Mob Types.

Terminology

This is a fairly lengthy page, and to make it more readable certain terminology must be understood. Terms used on this page and their definition are provided below.

Definition
Player When used in in the singular, Player always refers to the client connected to the server
Entity Entity refers to any item, player, mob, minecart or boat in the world. This definition is subject to change as Notch extends the protocol
EID An EID - or Entity ID - is a unique 4-byte integer used to identify a specific entity
XYZ In this document, the axis names are the same as those used by Notch. Y points upwards, X points South, and Z points West.

Units of Measurement

There are several different units of measurement used in the protocol depending on what is being described. For example, it wouldn't make much sense to send the position of a block (which is a constant multiple of 32) in a floating point double.

A block represents 1 meter x 1 meter x 1 meter. There are 32 pixels per meter, and chunks are 16m x 128m x 16m.

Data Types Units Represents
Absolute double meters Represents an object's location in the world.
Absolute Integer int pixels Represents an object's location in the world.
Functions the same as Absolute Double, but requires fewer bytes and is less precise.
In C/C++/Java: absolute_int = (int)(absolute_double * 32.0);
Block byte, short, int meters Represents a block's location in the world.
Chunk short, int chunks Represents the position of a chunk.

Packets

All packets begin with a single "Packet ID" byte. Listed packet size includes this byte. Packets are either "server to client", "client to server", or both. If not specified, assume that the packet can be sent both ways. There is no "length" field; for variable length packets, you must parse to the end to determine the length.

Keep Alive (0x00)

The server will frequently send out keep-alives contain a random ID. The client must respond with the same packet. The Beta server will disconnect a client if it doesn't receive at least one packet before 1200 in-game ticks, and the Beta client will time out the connection under the same conditions. The client may send packets with Keep-alive ID=0.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x00 Keep-alive ID int 957759560 Server-generated random id
Total Size: 5 bytes

Login Request (0x01)

Client to Server

Sent by the client after the handshake to finish logging in. If the version is outdated or any field is invalid, the server will disconnect the client with a kick. If the client is started in offline mode, the player's username will default to Player, making LAN play with more than one player impossible (without authenticating) as the server will prevent multiple users with the same name.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x01 Protocol Version int 19 The latest version of the protocol is 19
Username string16 TkTech The name of the user attempting to login, max length of 16
Not used long 0
Not used int 0
Not used byte 0
Not used byte 0
Not used unsigned byte 0
Not used unsigned byte 0
Total Size: 23 bytes + length of strings

Server to Client

Sent by the server if it accepts the clients login request. If it didn't, it'll send a kick instead.

Max players is used by the client to draw the player list. Setting this value lower than the actual max players, or indeed the number of players online, will only affect the size and number of users displayed. Values above 127 will cause the player list not to be drawn. Values above 60 will cause usernames to overlap and not fit in their bounding boxes.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x01 Entity ID int 1298 The Players Entity ID
Not used string16 (empty string) Not used
Map Seed long 971768181197178410 The server's map seed. Must be sent in respawn packets by the client.
Server mode int 0 0 for survival, 1 for creative
Dimension byte 0 Used for specifying the players dimension -1 for hell, 0 otherwise
Difficulty byte 1 0 thru 3 for Peaceful, Easy, Normal, Hard
World height unsigned byte 128 Defaults to 128
Max players unsigned byte 8 Used by the client to draw the player list
Total Size: 23 bytes + length of strings

Handshake (0x02)

Client to Server

This is the first packet sent when the client connects and is used for Authentication.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x02 Username string16 TkTech The username of the player attempting to connect, max length of 16
Total Size: 3 bytes + length of strings

Server to Client

This is the first packet sent when the client connects and is used for Authentication. If the hash is '-', then the client continues without doing name authentication. If the hash is a '+', the client sends the server password in the login request. (Note that this hash, as of the latest version of the Beta server, is a randomly generated long in hexadecimal form, and has nothing to do with the client or the server he is connected to)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x02 Connection Hash string16 2e66f1dc032ab5f0 A unique, per-connection hash, or '-', or '+'
Total Size: 3 bytes + length of strings

Chat Message (0x03)

A message from the client to the server, or the server to the client. The actual handling of chat messages is variable and depends on the server and client; there are no de facto standards yet.

The Alpha server will check the message to see if it begins with a '/'. If it doesn't, the username of the sender is prepended and sent to all other clients (including the original sender). If it does, the server assumes it to be a command and attempts to process it. A message longer than 100 characters will cause the server to kick the client. This limits the chat message packet length to 103 bytes. Note that this limit does not apply to incoming chat messages as the server may have prepended other information, not limited to, but usually including, a username.

A message longer than 119 characters will cause the Beta (≥1.5) server and client to crash to print the message "Received string length longer than maximum allowed (X > 119)", with no side effects.

For more information, see Chat.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x03 Message string16 <Bob> Hello World! User input must be sanitized server-side
Total Size: 3 bytes + length of strings

Time Update (0x04)

Server to Client only

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 Time long The world (or region) time, in ticks
Total Size: 9 bytes

Entity Equipment (0x05)

After each "Named Entity Spawn", there will be five of these packets for the equipped item and armor. If there are changes in visible equipment, another one of these is sent.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x05 Entity ID int 0x00010643 Named Entity ID
Slot short 4 Equipment slot: 0=held, 1-4=armor slot
Item ID short -1 Equipped item (-1 for empty slot)
Damage short
Total Size: 11 bytes

Spawn Position (0x06)

Server to Client only

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 Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x06 X int 117 Spawn X in block coordinates
Y int 70 Spawn Y in block coordinates
Z int -46 Spawn Z in block coordinates
Total Size: 13 bytes

Use Entity (0x07)

Client to Server only

This packet is new to version 4 of the protocol, and is believed to be Use Entity. This packet is sent from the client to the server when the client attacks or right-clicks another entity.

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.

(This packet data values are not fully verified)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x07 User int 1298 The entity of the player (ignored by the server)
Target int 1805 The entity the player is interacting with
Left-click? bool true Seems to be true when the player is pointing at an entity and left-clicking and false when right-clicking.
Total Size: 10 bytes

Update Health (0x08)

Server to Client only

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 short 20 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: 9 bytes

Respawn (0x09)

Sent by the client when the player presses the "Respawn" button after dying. The server then teleports the user to the spawn point, and sends a respawn packet in response. The client will not leave the respawn screen until it receives a respawn packet.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x09 World byte 1 0 for standard world, -1 for nether.
Difficulty byte 1 0 thru 3 for Peaceful, Easy, Normal, Hard. 1 is always sent c->s
Creative mode byte 1 0 for survival, 1 for creative.
World height short 128 Defaults to 128
Map Seed long -3815848935435401459
Total Size: 14 bytes

Player (0x0A)

Client to Server only

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.

This packet was previously referred to as Flying

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0A On Ground bool 1 True if the client is on the ground, False otherwise
Total Size: 2 bytes

Player Position (0x0B)

Client to Server (player-controlled movement).

Updates the players XYZ position on the server. If Stance - Y is less than 0.1 or greater than 1.65, the stance is illegal and the client will be kicked with the message “Illegal Stance”. If the distance between the last known position of the player on the server and the new position set by this packet has a distance greater than 100 units will result in the client being kicked for "You moved too quickly :( (Hacking?)" Also if the absolute number of X or Z is set greater than 3.2E7D the client will be kicked for "Illegal position"


Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0B X double 102.809 Absolute position
Y double 70.00 Absolute position
Stance double 71.62 Used to modify the players bounding box when going up stairs, crouching, etc…
Z double 68.30 Absolute position
On Ground bool 1

Derived from packet 0x0A

Total Size: 34 bytes

Player Look (0x0C)

Client to Server (player-controlled movement).

The unit circle for yaw

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 backwards towards (-1, 0), or in other words, it turns clockwise instead of counterclockwise. 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 Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0C Yaw float 0.00 Absolute rotation on the X Axis, in degrees
Pitch float 0.00 Absolute rotation on the Y Axis, in degrees
On Ground bool 1

Derived from packet 0x0A

Total Size: 10 bytes

Player Position & Look (0x0D)

A combination of Player Look and Player position.

Client to Server

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0D X double 6.5 Absolute position
Y double 65.620000004768372 Absolute position
Stance double 67.240000009536743 Used to modify the players bounding box when going up stairs, crouching, etc…
Z double 7.5 Absolute position
Yaw float 0.0 Absolute rotation on the X Axis
Pitch float 0.0 Absolute rotation on the Y Axis
On Ground bool 0

Derived from packet 0x0A

Total Size: 42 bytes

Server to Client

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0D X double 6.5 Absolute position
Stance double 67.240000009536743 Used to modify the players bounding box when going up stairs, crouching, etc…
Y double 65.620000004768372 Absolute position
Z double 7.5 Absolute position
Yaw float 0.0 Absolute rotation on the X Axis
Pitch float 0.0 Absolute rotation on the Y Axis
On Ground bool 0

Derived from packet 0x0A

Total Size: 42 bytes

:!: Note that this packet differs from client Player & Position Look packet - the Stance and Y are sent in a different order.

:!: Stance and Y seems to be the opposite as in the table (from Client to Server = X, Y, Stance, Z, froom Server to client = X, Stance, Y, Z) please confirm ! [BackBone`:] The opposite stance<->y confirmed, however the given structs had the server and client struct reversed, which I fixed.

:!: When you connect to the official server, it will push a 0x0D packet. If you do not immediately respond with a 0x0D (or maybe 0x0A-0x0C) packet with similar and valid information, it will have unexpected results, such as map chunks not loading and future 0x0A-0x0D packets being ignored.

Player Digging (0x0E)

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

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0E Status byte 1 The action the player is taking against the block (see below)
X int 32 Block position
Y byte 64 Block position
Z int 32 Block position
Face byte 3 The face being hit (see below)
Total Size: 12 bytes

Status can (currently) be one of four values:

Meaning Value
Started digging 0
Finished digging 2
Drop item 4
Shoot arrow 5

Notchian clients send a 0 (started digging) when they start digging and a 2 (finished digging) once they think they are finished. If digging is aborted, no notice is sent to the server; the client simply does not send a 2 (finished digging).

Status code 4 (drop item) is a special case. In-game, when you use the Drop Item command (keypress 'q'), a dig packet with a status of 4, and all other values set to 0, is sent from client to server.

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

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

In 1.7.3, when a player opens a door with left click the server receives Packet 0xE+start digging and opens the door.

Player Block Placement (0x0F)

Sent when the player places a block or (probably) an item. The coordinates sent in this packet are actually the block being built against, which combined with the direction offset tell you where the block should be placed. This is required to correctly position furnaces, torches, etc…

In 1.7.3, when a player opens a door with right click, the server receives Packet 0xF (block placement, but opens door).

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x0F X int 32 Block position
Y byte 64 Block position
Z int 32 Block position
Direction byte 3 The offset to use for block/item placement (see below)
Block or Item ID short 1 The block or item to be placed
Amount (opt) byte 34 The amount of the item in the players hand
Damage (opt) short 83 How much damage the item has taken
Total Size: 13 bytes or 16 bytes

If the Block/ItemID field is greater than or equal to 0, then the last 2 fields (amount and damage) are read. Otherwise, they are not read. When 'placing' (Or more accurately, using) your empty hand, the client sends -1 as the Block/ItemID

The direction can be one of six values, representing the face the block/item is being placed against:

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

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

This packet has a special case where X, Y, Z, and Direction are all -1. This special packet indicates that the currently held item for the player should have its state updated such as eating food, shooting bows, using buckets, etc.

In a Notchian Beta client, the block or item ID corresponds to whatever the client is currently holding, and the client sends one of these packets any time a right-click is issued on a surface, so no assumptions can be made about the safety of the ID. However, with the implementation of server-side inventory, a Notchian server seems to ignore the item ID, instead operating on server-side inventory information and holding selection.

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

Holding Change (0x10)

Sent when the player changes the slot selection

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x10 Slot ID short 1 The slot which the player has selected (0-8)
Total Size: 3 bytes

Use Bed (0x11)

Server to Client
Associated with players using beds.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x11 Entity ID int 89 Player ID
???In Bed??? byte 0 0 Appears when players use bed
X coordinate int -247 Bed (headboard?) X as block coordinate
Y coordinate byte 78 Bed (headboard?) Y as block coordinate
Z coordinate int 128 Bed (headboard?) Z as block coordinate
Total Size: 15 bytes
  • NOTE: This Packet seems to be sent when 2 or more players are on a server, and at least one player uses a Bed.

Animation (0x12)

Sent whenever an entity should change animation.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x12 EID int 55534 Player ID
Animate byte 1 Can be 0 (no animation), 1 (swing arm), 2 (damage animation), 3 (leave bed), 5 (eat food), 104 (crouch), or 105 (uncrouch). Getting 102 somewhat often, too.
Total Size: 6 bytes

Only 1 (swing arm) and 3 (leave bed) is sent by notchian clients. Crouching is sent via 0x13. Damage is server-side, and so is not sent by notchian clients. See also 0x26.

Entity Action (0x13)

Client to Server only

Sent at least when crouching, leaving a bed, or sprinting. To send action animation to client use 0x28.

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.
Total Size: 6 bytes

Action ID can be one of the following values:

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

Named Entity Spawn (0x14)

Server to Client only

The only named entities (at the moment) are players (either real or NPC/Bot). This packet is sent by the server when a player comes into visible range, not when a player joins.

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

The Notchian client is not okay with receiving player entity packets, including 0x14, that refer to its own username or EID; it will teleport to the absolute origin of the map and fall through the Void any time it receives them.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x14 EID int 94453 Player ID
Player Name string16 Twdtwd Max length of 16
X int 784 Player X as Absolute Integer
Y int 2131 Player Y as Absolute Integer
Z int -752 Player Z as Absolute Integer
Rotation byte 0 Player rotation as a packed byte
Pitch byte 0 Player rotation as a packed byte
Current Item short 0 The item the player is currently holding. Note that this should be 0 for "no item", unlike -1 used in other packets. A negative value crashes clients.
Total Size: 23 bytes + length of strings

Pickup Spawn (0x15)

A pickup spawn is sent by the server whenever an item on the ground (say a pickaxe thrown on the ground) comes into range of the player. (note: this means range for item vision, not range for pickup!) It used to be sent by the client when an item is dropped from a tile (chest or furnace) or from inventory, but that is now done with the new packets for server-side inventory (see 0x66).

It is completely acceptable for servers to ignore the EID issued by the client in this packet and instead create a new packet with a server-controlled EID when sending this packet out to clients.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x15 EID int 157617 Unique entity ID
Item short 4 The item ID
Count byte 1 The number of items
Damage/Data short New field in beta 1.2 update (see below)
X int 133 Item X as Absolute Integer
Y int 913 Item Y as Absolute Integer
Z int 63552 Item Z as Absolute Integer
Rotation byte 252 Item rotation as a packed byte
Pitch byte 25 Item pitch as a packed byte
Roll byte 12 Item roll as a packed byte
Total Size: 25 bytes

"Damage" field This field is also used to store item metadata. E.g. you mined birch wood(its id is the same as normal wood) so you must set damage to the metadata of birch wood(2). The same case is wool. Id is the same but data is different.For example: you mined blue wool so your damage field should send value 0xB.

Collect Item (0x16)

Server to Client only

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 (0x1D does that), and it doesn't add it to your inventory (0x67 does that). The server only checks for items to be picked up after each Player Position and Player Position & Look packet sent by the client.


Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x16 Collected EID int 38
Collector EID int 20
Total Size: 9 bytes

Add Object/Vehicle (0x17)

Server to Client only

Sent by the server when an Object/Vehicle is created.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x17 EID int 62 Entity ID of the Object
Type byte 11 The type of object (see below)
X int 16080 The Absolute Integer X Position of the object
Y int 2299 The Absolute Integer Y Position of the object
Z int 592 The Absolute Integer Z Position of the object
Fireball thrower's entity ID int 0 It seems that if this is bigger than 0, this is a fireball and the next 3 fields are sent.
Unknown short 0 Seems to be used in calculation of the fireball's X
Unknown short 0 Seems to be used in calculation of the fireball's Y
Unknown short 0 Seems to be used in calculation of the fireball's Z
Total Size: 22 or 28 bytes

Object Types

Type ID Type Name
1 Boats
10 Minecart
11 Storage Cart
12 Powered Cart
50 Activated TNT
60 Arrow
61 Thrown Snowball
62 Thrown Egg
70 Falling Sand
71 Falling Gravel
90 Fishing Float

Mob Spawn (0x18)

Server to Client only

Sent by the server when a Mob Entity is Spawned

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x18 EID int 446 Entity ID
Type byte 91 The type of Mob Entity Type
X int 13366 The Absolute Integer X Position of the object
Y int 2176 The Absolute Integer Y Position of the object
Z int 1680 The Absolute Integer Z Position of the object
Yaw byte -27 The X Axis rotation in steps of 2π/256
Pitch byte 0 The Y Axis rotation in steps of 2π/256
Data Stream Metadata 127 Indexed metadata for Mob. Terminated by 0x7F. See below, and see #Metadata for the general format.
Total Size: 20 bytes + Metadata (at least 1)

Mob Types

Type ID Type Name
50 Creeper
51 Skeleton
52 Spider
53 Giant Zombie
54 Zombie
55 Slime
56 Ghast
57 Zombie Pigman
58 Enderman
59 Cave Spider
60 Silverfish
61 Blaze
62 Magma Cube
90 Pig
91 Sheep
92 Cow
93 Hen
94 Squid
95 Wolf
97 Snowman
120 Villager

Mob Metadata

All mobs send a metadata entry with index 0. This is a byte representing three boolean flags:

Bit index Bit mask Meaning
0 0x01 Entity on fire
1 0x02 Entity crouched
2 0x04 Entity riding

Some mob types have more metadata:

Creeper
  • 16 (byte): Status. Depends on the fuse
  • 17 (byte): Charged. 1 if the creeper has been hit by lightning, 0 otherwise.
Slime/Magma Cube
  • 16 (byte): Size. Randomly-generated. 0, 1, 2 or 4.
Ghast
  • 16 (byte): Aggression. 1 for aggressive (red eyes), 0 otherwise.
Enderman
  • 16 (byte): Item in hand
  • 17 (byte): Aggression. 1 for aggressive, 0 otherwise.
Pig
  • 16 (byte): Saddled. 1 if the pig is wearing a saddle, 0 otherwise.
Sheep
  • 16 (byte): bit 0x10 indicates shearedness. bits 0x0F indicate color (see below).
Index Wool Color
0 White
1 Orange
2 Magenta
3 LightBlue
4 Yellow
5 Lime
6 Pink
7 Gray
8 Silver
9 Cyan
10 Purple
11 Blue
12 Brown
13 Green
14 Red
15 Black
Wolf
  • 16 (byte): Flags (see below).
  • 17 (string): Name of player that tamed wolf.
  • 18 (int): Health.


Bit index Bit mask Meaning
0 0x01 Sitting down
1 0x02 Agressive (red eyes)
2 0x04 Tamed

Entity: Painting (0x19)

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

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x19 Entity ID int 0x00000326 Unique entity ID
Title String16 Creepers Name of the painting; max length 13 (length of "SkullAndRoses")
X int 50 Center X coordinate
Y int 66 Center Y coordinate
Z int -50 Center Z coordinate
Direction int 0 Direction the painting faces (0 -z, 1 -x, 2 +z, 3 +x)

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

2x1 (1, 0) 4x4 (1, 2)

Experience Orb (0x1A)

Server to Client only

Spawns a one or more experience orbs. Co-ordinates are in absolute units.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x1A Entity ID int 105668
x int -1143
y int 1952
z int 1166
count short 7
Total Size: 19 bytes

Stance update (?) (0x1B)

This packet appears used in controlling position, orientation, and crouching. It doesn't seem to be used (see 0x0D).

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x1B ??? float
??? float
??? float
??? float
??? boolean
??? boolean

Entity Velocity (0x1C)

This packet is new to version 4 of the protocol, and is believed to be Entity Velocity/Motion.

Velocity is believed to be in units of 1/32000 of a block per server tick (200ms); for example, -1343 would move (-1343 / 32000) = -0.04196875 blocks per tick (or -0.20984375 blocks per second).

Each axis' velocity is capped between -0.9 and 0.9 blocks per tick (packet values -28800 to 28800).

(This packet data values are not fully verified)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x1C Entity ID int 1805

The entity ID

Velocity X short -1343

Velocity on the X axis

Velocity Y short 0

Velocity on the Y axis

Velocity Z short 0

Velocity on the Z axis

Total Size: 11 bytes

Destroy Entity (0x1D)

Server to Client only

Sent by the server when an Entity is to be destroyed on the client.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x1D EID int 446 Entity ID
Total Size: 5 bytes

Entity (0x1E)

Server to Client only

Most entity-related packets are subclasses of this packet. When sent from the server to the client, it may initialize the entry.

For player entities, either this packet or any move/look packet is sent several times per second. So the meaning of this packet is basically that the entity did not move/look since the last such packet.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x1E EID int 446 Entity ID
Total Size: 5 bytes

Entity Relative Move (0x1F)

Server to Client only

This packet is sent by the server when an entity moves less then 4 blocks; if an entity moves more then 4 blocks Entity Teleport should be sent instead.

This packet allows at most four blocks movement in any direction, because byte range is from -128 to 127. Movement is an offset of Absolute Int; to convert relative move to block coordinate offset, divide by 32.


Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x1F EID int 459 Entity ID
dX byte 1 X axis Relative movement as an Absolute Integer
dY byte -7 Y axis Relative movement as an Absolute Integer
dZ byte 5 Z axis Relative movement as an Absolute Integer
Total Size: 8 bytes

Entity Look (0x20)

Server to Client only

This packet is sent by the server when an entity rotates. Example: "Yaw" field 64 means a 90 degree turn.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x20 EID int 459 Entity ID
Yaw byte 126 The X Axis rotation as a fraction of 360
Pitch byte 0 The Y Axis rotation as a fraction of 360
Total Size: 7 bytes

Entity Look and Relative Move (0x21)

Server to Client only

This packet is sent by the server when an entity rotates and moves. Since a byte range is limited from -128 to 127, and movement is offset of Absolute Int, this packet allows at most four blocks movement in any direction. (-128/32 == -4)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x21 EID int 459 Entity ID
dX byte 1 X axis Relative movement as an Absolute Integer
dY byte -7 Y axis Relative movement as an Absolute Integer
dZ byte 5 Z axis Relative movement as an Absolute Integer
Yaw byte 126 The X Axis rotation as a fraction of 360
Pitch byte 0 The Y Axis rotation as a fraction of 360
Total Size: 10 bytes

Entity Teleport (0x22)

Server to Client only

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

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x22 EID int 459 Entity ID
X int 14162 X axis position as an Absolute Integer
Y int 2176 Y axis position as an Absolute Integer
Z int 1111 Z axis position as an Absolute Integer
Yaw byte 126 The X Axis rotation as a fraction of 360
Pitch byte 0 The Y Axis rotation as a fraction of 360
Total Size: 19 bytes

Entity Status (0x26)

Server to Client only

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x26 Entity ID Int 34353
Entity Status Byte 0x03 See below
Total Size: 6 bytes
Entity Status Meaning
2 Entity hurt
3 Entity dead
6 Wolf taming
7 Wolf tamed
8 Wolf shaking water off itself
9 (of self) Eating accepted by server

Attach Entity (0x27)

This packet is new to version 4 of the protocol, and is believed to be Attach Entity.

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

(This packet data values are not fully verified)

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)

Total Size: 9 bytes

Entity Metadata (0x28)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x28 Entity ID int 0x00000326 Unique entity ID to update.
Entity Metadata Metadata 0x00 0x01 0x7F Metadata varies by mob... Needs type description
Total Size: 5 bytes + Metadata

Metadata

Metadata has a massively quirky packing format, the details of which are not quite all understood. However, successful parsing of metadata is possible, according to the following rules.

A metadata field is a byte. The top three bits of the byte, when masked off and interpreted as a three-bit number from 0 to 7, indicate the type of the field. The lower five bits are some sort of unknown identifier. The type of the byte indicates the size and type of a payload which follows the initial byte of the field.

The metadata format consists of at least one field, followed by either another field or the magic number 0x7F. 0x7F terminates a metadata stream.

Thus, the example metadata stream 0x00 0x01 0x7f is decoded as a field of type 0, id 0, with a payload of byte 0x00.

Field ID Field Type
0 Byte
1 Short
2 Int
3 Float
4 String
5 Item: Short id, byte count, short damage
6 Vector: Int x, int y, int z

For known extra entity information values, see Mob Types.

Entity Effect (0x29)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x29 Entity ID int 14 Entity ID of a player
Effect ID byte 17 See table below
Amplifier byte 0
Duration short 64
Total Size: 9 bytes

Effects

Only noted effects are currently implemented by the 1.8pre2 client/server

ID Meaning Client implementation Server implementation
1 moveSpeed Increases player speed and FOV.
2 moveSlowdown Decreases player speed and FOV.
3 digSpeed Increases player dig speed
4 digSlowDown Decreases player dig speed
5 damageBoost
6 heal
7 harm
8 jump
9 confusion Portal-like effect
10 regeneration Hearts pulse one-by-one Caused by golden apple. Health regenerates over 600-tick (30s) period.
11 resistance
12 fireResistance
13 waterBreathing Bubbles do not decrease underwater
14 invisibility
15 blindness
16 nightVision
17 hunger Food bar turns green Caused by poisoning from Rotten Flesh or Raw Chicken
18 weakness
19 poison Hearts turn yellow Caused by poisoning from cave (blue) spider

Remove Entity Effect (0x2A)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x2a Entity ID int Entity ID of a player
Effect ID byte 17 See table above
Total Size: 6 bytes

Experience (0x2B)

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

The amount of experience needed to reach the next level increases by 10 with each level. At level 0, you need 10 experience to progress to level 1. At level 1, the requirement is 20 to progress, and so forth.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x2B Current experience byte 15 Experience at current level
Level byte 2
Total experience short 45
Total Size: 5 bytes

Pre-Chunk (0x32)

Server to Client only

This packet is sent by the server to notify the client to initialize (Mode=1) or unload (Mode=0) a chunk. The client is expected to allocate space for a full chunk (currently 16 x 128 x 16 blocks). One or more 0x33 packets will follow, specifying actual data to fill the chunk with.

:!: Whenever you send this packet the client will clear any previous chunk at that spot if one has previously been sent. Clients don't like being in or next to an unloaded chunk, so try not to unload it if players are nearby. If the player appears to be twitching and stuck in place after joining the world, there is probably an unloaded chunk too close to them.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x32 X int -9 Chunk X Coordinate
Z int 12 Chunk Z Coordinate
Mode bool 1 If mode is 0 the client will unload the chunk, otherwise the client will initialize the chunk
Total Size: 10 bytes

Map Chunk (0x33)

Server to Client only

The client will overwrite all or part of a chunk using the region of data contained in this packet. The server specifies the region to write using a block position and size in X,Y,Z. Note that this region will always be inside a single chunk. (At least using the vanilla server. Unknown if the client has this limitation.)

A server can send a 0x32 packet prior, allowing the client to initialize the chunk. However this doesn't always happen in practice. Thus the client should initialize the chunk on-demand.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x33 X int 128 Block X Coordinate
Y short 0 Block Y Coordinate
Z int -192 Block Z Coordinate
Size_X byte 15 Size_X is Actual X Size -1
Size_Y byte 127 Size_Y is Actual Y Size -1
Size_Z byte 15 Size_Z is Actual Z Size -1
Compressed size int 3663 Size of compressed region data
Compressed data byte array The region data is compressed using ZLib Deflate function.
Total Size: 18 bytes + Compressed chunk size
X, Y, Z

This is the start position of the region, in world block coordinates.

To find which chunk is affected, in the same coordinates given by packet 0x32:

 ChunkX = X >> 4 
 ChunkY = Y >> 7
 ChunkZ = Z >> 4

And conversely, which local block in the chunk to start at:

 StartX = X & 15
 StartY = Y & 127  (not always 0!)
 StartZ = Z & 15
SizeX, SizeY, SizeZ

This is the size of the region, in blocks. The server will subtract one from the sizes and then cast them to a byte before sending. This is so that chunks as large as 256 are possible (the maximum size of a byte is 255; 256 - 1 = 255).

Compressed data

The data is compressed using the deflate() function in zlib. After uncompressing, the data consists of four sequential sections, in order:

  • Block type array (1 byte per block)
  • Block metadata array (half byte/nibble per block)
  • Block Light array (half byte/nibble per block)
  • Sky Light array (half byte/nibble per block)

The data is exactly (Size_X+1) * (Size_Y+1) * (Size_Z+1) * 2.5 bytes long. Nibbles are not rounded either direction, which means that at least one dimension of the chunk must be even.

The arrays are not interlaced.

In other words, there are Size_X number of x planes, each plane made up of Size_Z number of z rows, each row made up of Size_Y blocks indexed by y coordinate in order.

The block type array is indexed with:

 index = y + (z * (Size_Y+1)) + (x * (Size_Y+1) * (Size_Z+1))

The other arrays are similar but you need to divide the index by two after calculating the above. Then each byte contains data for two blocks. The low four bits contain the first (lower Y) nibble and the high four bits contain the second nibble.

If you have a FULL map chunk (Size_X = 15, Size_Y = 127, Size_Z = 15, you can calculate index coordinates:

 x = X + ( index >> 11 )
 y = index & 0x7F
 z = Z + ( (index & 0x780) >> 7 )

Multi Block Change (0x34)

Further investigation shows that this is a multiple-block-change command; if you take the three arrays, and put together elements with the same index, and then decompose the short into coordinates (top 4 bits is X, next 4 bits is Z, bottom 8 bits is Y), you get things like [((8, 7, 4), 11, 0), ((7, 13, 6), 11, 0), ((13, 1, 8), 11, 0), ((7, 6, 6), 11, 0)].

See the Block Change command for description of the general format of a block change.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x34 Chunk X int -9 Chunk X Coordinate
Chunk Z int 12 Chunk Z Coordinate
Array size short 2 The total number of elements per array
Coordinate array short array The coordinates of the blocks to change
Type array byte array The type for each block change
Metadata array byte array The Metadata for each block changed
Total Size: 11 bytes + Arrays

Block Change (0x35)

:!: Block metadata varies by block type - it should be 0x00 for most blocks with a few exceptions, shown in the table below.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x35 X int 502 Block X Coordinate
Y byte 71 Block Y Coordinate
Z int 18 Block Z Coordinate
Block Type byte 78 The new block type for the block
Block Metadata byte 0 The new Metadata for the block
Total Size: 12 bytes

Block Action (0x36)

Server to Client only

This packet is used for a number of things:

  • Chests opening and closing
  • Pistons pushing and pulling
  • Note blocks playing
Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x35 X int 502 Block X Coordinate
Y short 71 Block Y Coordinate
Z int 18 Block Z Coordinate
Byte 1 byte 3 Varies depending on block - see below
Byte 2 byte 17 Varies depending on block - see below
Total Size: 13 bytes

Note Block

It shows the note particle being emitted from the block as well as playing the tone.

Byte 1

Instrument type.

Type ID Type Name
0 Harp
1 Double Bass
2 Snare Drum
3 Clicks/Sticks
4 Bass Drum
Byte 2

The pitch of the note (between 0-24 inclusive where 0 is the lowest and 24 is the highest). More information about how the pitch values correspond to notes in real life are available on the official Minecraft wiki.

Piston

Byte 1

The state the piston changes to - 0 for pushing, 1 for pulling.

Byte 2

Direction.

Direction ID Direction
0 Down
1 Up
2 South
3 West
4 North
5 East

Chest

Animates the chest's lid opening. Note that the notchian server will send this every 3s even if the state hasn't changed.

Byte 1

Not used - always 1

Byte 2

State of the chest - 0 for closed, 1 for open.

Explosion (0x3C)

:!: This command is not fully understood.

Seems to be sent when an explosion occurs (both creepers and TNT).

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x3C X double
Y double
Z double
Unknown float 3.0 radius?
Record count int This is the count, not the size. The size is 3 times this value.
Records (byte, byte, byte) × count Each record is 3 bytes, which seem to be XYZ offsets of affected blocks.
Total Size: 33 bytes + 3*(Record count) bytes

Sound effect (0x3D)

Sent when a client is to play a sound effect.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x3D Effect ID int 1003 The ID of the sound effect to play, see below.
X int The X location of the effect.
Y byte The Y location of the effect.
Z int The Z location of the effect.
Sound data int 0 Extra data about RECORD_PLAY, SMOKE, and BLOCK_BREAK
Total Size: 18 bytes

Valid sound effects are:

Effect ID Name Notes
1000 CLICK2
1001 CLICK1
1002 BOW_FIRE
1003 DOOR_TOGGLE
1004 EXTINGUISH
1005 RECORD_PLAY Has data (presumably record ID)
2000 SMOKE Has data (direction, check below)
2001 BLOCK_BREAK Has data (Block ID broken)

Smoke is a silent effect with only a visual element.

Smoke Directions

Direction 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

New/Invalid State (0x46)

This packet appeared with protocol version 10. Currently, it appears when a bed can't be used as a spawn point and when the rain state changes. it could have additional uses in the future.

The class has an array of strings linked to reason codes 0, 1, 2, and 3 but only the codes for 1 and 2 are null.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x46 Reason byte 0
Game mode byte 0 Used only when reason = 3. 0 is survival, 1 is creative.
Total Size: 3 bytes

Reason codes

Code Effect Text
0 Invalid Bed "tile.bed.notValid"
1 Begin raining null
2 End raining null
3 Change game mode gameMode.changed

Thunderbolt (0x47)

Server to Client only

With this packet, the server notifies the client of thunderbolts striking somewhere (near the player?). The coordinates specify where exactly the thunderbolt strikes.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x47 Entity ID int 4 The entity ID of the thunderbolt
Unknown boolean true Always true. Might have a meaning in the future...
X int 133 Thunderbolt X as Absolute Integer
Y int 913 Thunderbolt Y as Absolute Integer
Z int 63552 Thunderbolt Z as Absolute Integer
Total Size: 18 bytes

Open window (0x64)

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 The id of the window to display.
Inventory Type byte 2 Check below
Window title string16 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).
Total Size: 6 bytes + length of string

The window titles sent by the Notchian server are "Chest", "Large chest", "Crafting", "Furnace", and "Trap". Notchian clients force window titles for some windows, like dispensers and furnaces, but other titles are customizable. However, the window title sent by the server is always used for chests. See inventory windows for further information.

Close window (0x65)

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

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

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x65 Window id byte 0 This is the id of the window that was closed. 0 for inventory.
Total Size: 2 bytes

Window click (0x66)

Client to Server only

:!: This command is not fully understood.

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

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x66 Window id byte 0 The id of the window which was clicked. 0 for player inventory.
Slot short 36 The clicked slot. See below.
Right-click byte 1 1 when right-clicking and otherwise 0.
Action number short 12 A unique number for the action, used for transaction handling (See the Transaction packet).
Shift bool 0 This is true if the user was holding keyboard shift when they clicked.
Item ID short 3 ID of Item that was in the slot or -1 if no item. If -1, this is the last field in the packet.
Item count byte 64 Number of items that were in the slot
Item uses short 10 Number of times the item was used that was in the slot
Total Size: 10 bytes (+3 for item ID != -1)

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

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

The Action number is actually a counter, starting at 1. This number is used by the server as a transaction ID to send back a Transaction packet.

The Item (short, optional byte,short) is a critical piece of information in this packet. The Item that is sent by the client is what is in the slot before it is clicked. The server compares that with it's notes, and accepts the transaction if items match. Note that the client seems to send valid item IDs (rather than -1) even when Item count == 0.

Set slot (0x67)

Server to Client only

:!: This command is not fully understood.

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

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x67 Window id byte 0 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 36 The slot that should be updated
Item ID short -1 When -1, this is the last value in this packet. -1 means no item.
Item Count byte 64 Number of items in a stack. Not sent when Item ID is -1.
Item uses short 3 Not sent when Item ID is -1.
Total Size: 6 bytes (+3 for item ID != -1)

Note that if window ID and slot are both -1, it means the item currently attached to the cursor.

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

Slots: [1]

Window items (0x68)

Server to Client only

The inventory slots

Sent by the server when an item in a slot (in a window) is added/removed. This includes the main inventory, equipped armour and crafting slots.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x68 Window id byte 1 The id of window which items are being sent for. 0 for player inventory.
Count short 4 The number of slots (see below)
Payload The payload (see below)
Total Size: 4 bytes + size of payload

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

This packet is a bit trickier to parse than most others because the size of its payload is variable. The payload is an array of slots. Each slot consists of a short (item ID) optionally followed by a byte-short pair (count and uses) as long as the item ID does not equal -1, which signifies an empty slot.

Uses is the number of times an item has been used (the value starts at 0 and counts up.) Note that an invalid use of an item may count as 2 uses.

This pseudocode assumes you have already read all the fields except payload from the socket. It also assumes that buffer is mutable - i.e. reading a value from the start of buffer also removes that data from the buffer.

 for i in slot_count:
     item_id = read short from buffer
     if item_id is not equal to -1:
         count = read byte from buffer
         uses  = read short from buffer
         inventory[slot] = new item(item_id, count, uses)
     else:
         inventory[slot] = None

And an example with a non-mutable buffer:

 j = 0
 for i in slot_count:
     item_id = read buffer[j] as short
     if item_id is not equal to -1:
         count = read buffer[j+1] as byte
         uses  = read buffer[j+2] as short
         inventory[slot] = new item(item_id, count, uses)
         j = j + 2
     else:
         inventory[slot] = None
     j = j + 1

Update progress bar (0x69)

Server to Client only

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x69 Window id byte 2 The id of the window that the progress bar is in.
Progress bar short 1 Which of the progress bars that should be updated. (For furnaces, 0 = progress arrow, 1 = fire icon)
Value short 650 The value of the progress bar. The maximum values vary depending on the progress bar. Presumably the values are specified as in-game ticks. Some progress bar values increase, while others decrease. For furnaces, 0 is empty, full progress arrow = about 180, full fire icon = about 250)
Total Size: 6 bytes

Transaction (0x6A)

A packet from the server indicating whether a request from the client was accepted, or whether there was a conflict (due to lag). This packet is also sent from the client to the server in response to a server transaction rejection packet.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x6A Window id byte 0 The id of the window that the action occurred in.
Action number short 12 Every action that is to be accepted has a unique number. This field corresponds to that number.
Accepted? boolean true Whether the action was accepted.
Total Size: 5 bytes

Creative inventory action (0x6B)

While the user is in the standard inventory (i.e., not a crafting bench) on a creative-mode server then the server will send this packet:

  • If an item is dropped into the quick bar
  • If an item is picked up from the quick bar (special case: item id is -1 and quantity/damage are both 0)
Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x6B Slot short 36 Inventory slot
Item id short 35 Item ID being placed (or -1)
Quantity short 1
Damage short 9 Note: also used for block metadata (as with many packets)
Total Size: 9 bytes

Update Sign (0x82)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x82 X int 128 Block X Coordinate
Y short 0 Block Y Coordinate
Z int -128 Block Z Coordinate
Text1 string16 First line First line of text in the sign
Text2 string16 Second line Second line of text in the sign
Text3 string16 Third line Third line of text in the sign
Text4 string16 Fourth line Fourth line of text in the sign
Total Size: 11 bytes + 4 strings

This message is sent from the server to the client whenever a sign is discovered or created. This message is sent from the client to the server when the "Done" button is pushed after placing a sign. This message is NOT sent when a sign is destroyed or unloaded.

Item Data (0x83)

Server to Client only

Sent to specify complex data on an item; currently used only for maps.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0x83 Item Type short 358 Type of item being modified
Item ID short 0 The ID (damage value) of the item being modified
Text length unsigned byte 35 Length of following byte array
Text byte array {0,0,0,20,20,20,20,20} ASCII text.
Total Size: 6 bytes + Text length

Maps If the first byte of the text is 0, the next two bytes are X start and Y start and the rest of the bytes are the colors in that column.

If the first byte of the text is 1, the rest of the bytes are in groups of three: (data, x, y). The lower half of the data is the type (always 0 under vanilla) and the upper half is the direction.

Increment Statistic (0xC8)

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0xC8 Statistic ID int 1003 The ID of the statistic. See List of statistics.
Amount byte 1 The amount to increment the statistic.
Total Size: 6 bytes

Player List Item (0xC9)

Sent by the notchian server to update the user list (<tab> in the client). The server sends one packet per user per tick, amounting to 20 packets/s for 1 online user, 40 for 2, and so forth.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0xC9 Player name string16 barneygale Supports chat colouring, limited to 16 characters.
Online bool true If false, the client will remove the user from the list.
Ping short 193 Ping, presumably in ms.
Total Size: 6 bytes + length of string

Server List Ping (0xFE)

To load server info in the multiplayer menu, the notchian client connects to each known server and sends an 0xFE.

In return, the server sends a kick (0xFF), with its string containing data (server description, number of users, number of slots), delimited by a §.

Note that as this is the last packet you'll see, you can get away with just chopping off the first three bytes (the ident and the string length) and decoding the remainder as a UCS-2 string.

Example server pinger:

https://gist.github.com/1209061 (Python)

https://gist.github.com/1235274 (PHP)

Packet ID
0xFE

Disconnect/Kick (0xFF)

Sent by the server before it disconnects a client, or by the client before it disconnects from the server. The receiver of this packet assumes that the sender has already closed the connection by the time the packet arrives.

Packet ID Field Name Field Type Example Notes
0xFF Reason string16 The server is full! Displayed to the client when the connection terminates
Total Size: 3 bytes + length of strings

Protocol History

Provided below is a changelog of the server protocol starting on 2010-08-20. The wiki history feature may also be used to investigate changes.


2011-9-29

  • Beta 1.9 pre2-release.
  • Protocol version is now 19
  • Four packets changed:
  • The change affects the "slot" datatype. This type consists of at least a short (item_id). If this id isn't -1, a byte (count) and a short (uses) follow.
  • From 1.9pre2 onward, additional data is sent but only for certain item_ids. This means the protocol is no longer context free. The additional data is at least a short. If this short isn't -1, a byte[] array follows, containing gzipped NBT data
  • The format of the NBT is as follows

 COMPOUND
   LIST: 'ench'
     SHORT: 'id'
     SHORT: 'lvl'
   END
 END

  • So far only this format, with 'id' and 'lvl' set to 2 and 1 respectively, has been seen.

2011-9-22

  • Beta 1.9 pre-release.
  • Protocol version is now 18

2011-9-14

  • Beta 1.8 release.
  • Protocol version is now 17

2011-9-13

  • Beta 1.8 pre2-release.
  • Protocol version is now 16
  • Packet 0x01 (Login) changed (added byte, world height now unsigned)
  • Packet 0x09 (Respawn) changed (added byte)
  • Packet 0x64 (Open Window) changed (Window title changed from string8 to string16)
  • New packet 0x1a (Experience Orb) added
  • Assumedly 0x17 (Add Object/Vehicle) is no longer used for exp orbs.

2011-9-10


2011-6-30

  • Beta 1.7 released.
  • Protocol version number is now 14
  • No new packets
  • Packet 0x36 (Block Action) is now used for pistons too.

2011-5-26

  • Beta 1.6 released.
  • Protocol increase by 2: 13
  • Packet 0x09 (Respawn) changed (added world byte)
  • Packet 0x17 (Add Object) changed.
  • Packet 0x3d (Sound effect) added
  • Packet 0x83 (Map Data) added

2011-4-19

  • Beta 1.5 released.
  • Some packet info at https://gist.github.com/929803
  • Packet 0x01 (Login Request) changed (removed second string)
  • Packet 0x66 (Window Click) changed (added bool for shift)
  • Added two new packets: 0x47 (Thunderbolt) and 0xC8 (Increment Statistic) (classes eq and nj, respectively)
  • Protocol version number is now 11
  • All of the strings are now UCS-2, except for Open window (0x64), which is still UTF-8

2011-3-31

  • Beta 1.4 released.
  • New packet 0x46.
  • Protocol version number is now 10
  • TODO: The protocol itself does not seem to have changed much, but what about possible data values and stuff like that?

2011-2-22

2011-1-13

  • Beta 1.2 released.
  • More packet changes (pastebin): 0x05, 0x0F, 0x13, 0x15, 0x18, 0x19, 0x28, 0x36, 0x66, 0x67.

2010-12-20

  • Notch released Beta on time! Amazing! Refactored the page to be slightly smaller and easier to navigate.
  • A whole host of packet changes. 0x05, 0x08, 0x10, 0x64, 0x65, 0x66, 0x67, 0x68, 0x69, 0x6a, and 0x82. Packets 0x11 and 0x3b removed.

2010-12-01

  • Protocol version changed to 6
  • Packet 0x12 (Animation) got a lot more new values
  • Packet 0x26 changed, now indicates entity damage, death and explosion (for creepers, TNT not tested)
  • Packet 0x3B now being sent from client
  • Packet 0x3C added
  • (need info on other changes)

2010-11-24

  • Protocol version changed to 5
  • Packet 0x07 (Use Entity) got a new field (byte)
  • Packet 0x08 (Update Health) added
  • Packet 0x09 (Respawn) added
  • Packet 0x12 (Animation) started getting non-boolean values for the Animation field
  • Packet 0x26 (Entity Death) added

2010-11-10

2010-10-31

  • Protocol version changed to 3
  • Packet 0x01 (login request) changed

2010-09-10

  • Protocol version changed to 2
  • Packets 0x05, 0x06, 0x3B added
  • Server-side inventory (no verification)
  • Vanilla adds experimental monsters (only damaged by fire)

2010-08-20

  • Protocol version reset from 14 to 1
  • Packet 0x04 (time update) added