• A Java Development Kit (JDK) for Java 8 (recommended) or newer https://adoptopenjdk.net/
• Any Java IDE, for example Intellij IDEA and Eclipse. You may also use any other code editors, such as Visual Studio Code.

There are two main ways to make a new mod for Minecraft based on Fabric. You can either manually download fabric-example-mod and setup by yourself, or use automatic tools for you.

1. Copy the starting files from fabric-example-mod (or from the Kotlin version, if you wish to use Kotlin,) excluding the LICENSE and README.md files - as those apply to the template itself, not necessarily to your mod.
2. Edit gradle.properties:
   • Make sure to set archives_base_name and maven_group to your preferred values.
   • Make sure to update the versions of Minecraft, the mappings and the loader - all of which can be queried through this website - to match the versions you wish to target.
   • Add any other dependencies you plan to use in build.gradle.
3. Import the build.gradle file to your IDE. You may refer to the next section for specific IDE's.
4. Happy modding!

You can generate the Minecraft sources for reference (since IDEA already has a decompiler this is only useful for searching through the code) : Run the genSources Gradle task. If your IDE doesn't have Gradle integration, then run the following command in the terminal: gradlew genSources (or ./gradlew genSources on Linux/MacOS).

If you are using IntelliJ IDEA by JetBrains, please follow these steps:

1. In the IDEA main menu, select 'Import Project' (or File → Open… if you already have a project open).
2. Select the project's build.gradle file to import the project.
3. After Gradle is done setting up, close (File → Close Project) and re-open the project to fix run configurations not displaying correctly.
4. (If the run configurations still don't show up, try reimporting the Gradle project from the Gradle tab in IDEA.)

Optional, but recommended: By default, IntelliJ delegates to Gradle to build the project. This is unnecessary for Fabric and causes longer build times and hotswapping related weirdness, among other problems. To make it use the builtin compiler:

1. Open the 'Gradle Settings' dialog from the Gradle tab.
2. Change the 'Build and run using' and 'Run tests using' fields to 'IntelliJ IDEA'.
3. Go to File → Project Structure → Project and set 'Project compiler output' to $PROJECT_DIR$/out.

Unfortunately, it is currently impossible to set an IDE-wide default for the 'Build and run using' and 'Run tests using' options, so these steps have to be repeated for every new project.

NOTE: Don't run ./gradlew idea as it messes up with gradle and breaks develop environment.

If you are using Eclipse and you would like to have the IDE run configs you can run gradlew eclipse.

If you are using VSCode by Microsoft, please follow these instructions

If you are using IntelliJ IDEA you can use the MinecraftDev plugin. This plugin adds support for automatically generating Fabric projects as well as some mixin related features like inspections, generating accessors/shadow fields, and copying Mixin Target References (JVM Descriptors). The plugin can be found in the IntelliJ plugin repository, so you can install it using IntelliJ's internal plugin browser by navigating to File → Settings → Plugins, then clicking the Marketplace tab and searching for Minecraft.

If you are unable to use the MinecraftDev plugin or the fabric-example-mod repo, you may also use GeneratorFabricMod by ExtraCrafTX, a convenient tool to automatically generate new fabric mods from template. Follow these steps:

1. Download latest release of GeneratorFabricMod here and extract them.
2. Make a new directory, then run a command shell there and type path/to/GeneratorFabricMod/bin/GeneratorFabricMod.
3. After letting it get its dependencies, follow the instructions and input required information.
4. You're now done, just open the project folder with in your IDE.

Try adding an item or a block. It's also a good idea to visit Applying changes without restarting Minecraft.

• While Fabric API is not strictly necessary for developing mods, its primary goal is to provide cross-compatibility and hooks where the game engine does not, and as such it is highly recommended! Even some of the tutorials on the wiki implicitly require Fabric API.
• Occasionally, with development of fabric-loom (our Gradle build plugin) issues may crop up which require resetting the cache files. This can be done by running gradlew cleanloom. Running gradlew --stop can also help with a few rare issues.
• Don't hesitate to ask questions! We're here to help you and work with you to make your dream mod a reality.

Sometimes, when importing the Gradle project into an IDE, the assets might not download correctly. In this case, run the downloadAssets task manually - either using IDE's built-in menu or by simply running gradlew downloadAssets.