packets

Minecraft Bedrock Edition packet types

The minecraft/protocol/packet package contains all packet types used in Minecraft Bedrock Edition network communication. Each packet implements the Packet interface.

Packet Interface

type Packet interface {
    ID() uint32
    Marshal(io protocol.IO)
}

All packets implement this interface with:

• ID() - Returns the unique packet identifier
• Marshal(io) - Serializes/deserializes the packet data

Packet Categories

The protocol includes 200+ packet types organized by functionality:

Login & Handshake

• Login - Initial login request with JWT chain
• ServerToClientHandshake - Server encryption handshake
• ClientToServerHandshake - Client handshake response
• PlayStatus - Login status updates
• NetworkSettings - Compression and network configuration
• RequestNetworkSettings - Client requests network settings

World & Gameplay

• StartGame - Initializes the player in the world
• SetLocalPlayerAsInitialised - Signals spawn completion
• UpdateBlock - Single block update
• UpdateSubChunkBlocks - Multiple block updates
• LevelChunk - Full chunk data
• SubChunk - Sub-chunk data
• SetTime - World time update
• SetDifficulty - Difficulty setting

Entity Management

• AddActor - Spawns an entity
• AddPlayer - Adds a player entity
• RemoveActor - Removes an entity
• MoveActorAbsolute - Absolute entity movement
• MoveActorDelta - Delta-based movement
• SetActorMotion - Sets entity velocity
• SetActorData - Updates entity metadata
• UpdateAttributes - Updates entity attributes (health, hunger, etc.)

Player Actions

• PlayerAction - Mining, jumping, etc.
• PlayerAuthInput - Client input (position, rotation, actions)
• Interact - Entity interaction
• Respawn - Player respawn
• ChangeDimension - Dimension change
• RequestChunkRadius - Chunk view distance

Inventory & Items

• InventoryTransaction - Item transactions
• InventorySlot - Single slot update
• InventoryContent - Full inventory content
• MobEquipment - Equipment changes
• ContainerOpen - Opens a container
• ContainerClose - Closes a container
• ItemStackRequest - Item stack operations
• ItemStackResponse - Server response to stack request
• CraftingData - Available recipes

Commands & Chat

• Text - Chat messages
• CommandRequest - Command execution
• AvailableCommands - Available command list
• CommandOutput - Command execution result

Resource Packs

• ResourcePacksInfo - Available resource packs
• ResourcePackStack - Pack load order
• ResourcePackClientResponse - Client response
• ResourcePackDataInfo - Pack download info
• ResourcePackChunkData - Pack chunk data
• ResourcePackChunkRequest - Request pack chunk

Effects & Particles

• LevelEvent - Level events (sounds, particles)
• LevelSoundEvent - Sound effects
• SpawnParticleEffect - Particle spawn
• PlaySound - Play a sound
• StopSound - Stop a sound

UI & HUD

• SetTitle - Title/subtitle display
• SetHUD - HUD element visibility
• BossEvent - Boss bar updates
• ShowProfile - Show player profile
• ModalFormRequest - Display a form
• ModalFormResponse - Form response

Scoreboard

• SetDisplayObjective - Set scoreboard display
• SetScore - Update score entries
• RemoveObjective - Remove objective
• SetScoreboardIdentity - Set player identity

Abilities & Permissions

• UpdateAbilities - Player ability updates
• UpdateAdventureSettings - Adventure mode settings
• RequestAbility - Request ability change

Camera

• CameraShake - Shake effect
• CameraPresets - Camera preset definitions
• CameraInstruction - Camera control instruction

Other Common Packets

• Transfer - Transfer to another server
• Disconnect - Disconnect with message
• Animate - Animation trigger
• EmoteList - Available emotes
• Emote - Play emote
• TickSync - Client/server tick synchronization
• NetworkChunkPublisherUpdate - Chunk loading center

Packet Pool

type Pool map[uint32]Packet

A Pool maps packet IDs to packet instances for decoding.

NewServerPool

func NewServerPool() Pool

Creates a packet pool for server-side connections (client → server packets).

NewClientPool

func NewClientPool() Pool

Creates a packet pool for client-side connections (server → client packets).

Header

type Header struct {
    PacketID       uint32
    SenderSubClientID, TargetSubClientID byte
}

Every packet is prefixed with a header containing the packet ID and sub-client IDs.

Example Usage

Reading Packets

for {
    pk, err := conn.ReadPacket()
    if err != nil {
        break
    }
    
    switch pk := pk.(type) {
    case *packet.Text:
        fmt.Println("Chat:", pk.Message)
    case *packet.MoveActorAbsolute:
        fmt.Printf("Entity %d moved to %v\n", pk.EntityRuntimeID, pk.Position)
    }
}

Writing Packets

// Send a chat message
err := conn.WritePacket(&packet.Text{
    TextType: packet.TextTypeChat,
    Message:  "Hello, world!",
})

// Teleport a player
err = conn.WritePacket(&packet.MoveActorAbsolute{
    EntityRuntimeID: playerID,
    Position:        mgl32.Vec3{0, 100, 0},
    Rotation:        mgl32.Vec3{0, 0, 0},
})

// Don't forget to flush!
conn.Flush()

Custom Packet Handling

type StartGame struct {
    EntityUniqueID  int64
    EntityRuntimeID uint64
    PlayerGameMode  int32
    PlayerPosition  mgl32.Vec3
    Pitch, Yaw      float32
    WorldName       string
    // ... many more fields
}

func (*StartGame) ID() uint32 {
    return IDStartGame
}

func (pk *StartGame) Marshal(io protocol.IO) {
    io.Varint64(&pk.EntityUniqueID)
    io.Varuint64(&pk.EntityRuntimeID)
    io.Varint32(&pk.PlayerGameMode)
    io.Vec3(&pk.PlayerPosition)
    io.Float32(&pk.Pitch)
    io.Float32(&pk.Yaw)
    io.String(&pk.WorldName)
    // ... marshal remaining fields
}

Packet IDs

Packet IDs are defined as constants:

const (
    IDLogin                  = 1
    IDPlayStatus            = 2
    IDServerToClientHandshake = 3
    IDClientToServerHandshake = 4
    IDDisconnect            = 5
    IDResourcePacksInfo     = 6
    IDResourcePackStack     = 7
    // ... 200+ more packet IDs
)