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Welcome to CraftLab

CraftLab is an integrated content authoring, resource pack pipeline, and fleet release management system designed for Paper Minecraft 1.21.1 – 1.21.4+ servers. It eliminates the friction of configuring custom items, custom entities/props, and distributing server resource packs by bridging a visual web studio directly with in-game servers.

High-Level Architecture

CraftLab is structured as a coordinated monorepo of 4 primary components:

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                  CRAFTLAB PLATFORM                                    |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                                       |
|   +-----------------------+                    +----------------------------------+   |
|   |   CraftLab-frontend   |                    |           CraftLab-ctl           |   |
|   | (React + Vite Studio) |                    |  (Supervisor Daemon & CLI Panel) |   |
|   +-----------+-----------+                    +-----------------+----------------+   |
|               |                                                  |                    |
|          HTTP | REST                                   HTTP / WS | Remote Admin       |
|               v                                                  v                    |
|   +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+   |
|   |                               CraftLab-backend                                |   |
|   |              FastAPI + SQLite Engine + Resource Pack Pipeline                 |   |
|   +---------------------------------------+---------------------------------------+   |
|                                           |                                           |
|                                 WebSocket | Gateway (/ws/agent)                       |
|                                           v                                           |
|                       +---------------------------------------+                       |
|                       |            CraftLab-plugin            |                       |
|                       |   Paper 1.21+ Plugin (PacketEvents)   |                       |
|                       +---------------------------------------+                       |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Core Modules

1. CraftLab-backend

The central intelligence engine:

  • FastAPI REST API: Serves item schemas, block models, target server registrations, and role-based permissions.
  • WebSocket Gateway: Persistent bi-directional channel (/ws/agent) communicating with active game servers in real time.
  • Resource Pack Pipeline: Automated pack compiler and merger that collects textures, models, and sound manifests into production .zip distributions with automatic SHA-1 hashing.
  • Security & RBAC: Password hashing via Argon2 and token-based authentication.

2. CraftLab-frontend

The modern web-based authoring suite:

  • Item Studio: Design custom items with Minecraft 1.21 Data Components (item_model) and fallback CustomModelData.
  • Block Studio / Virtual Props: Configure custom block models using PacketEvents display entities with barrier collision anchors and interactive seats.
  • Pack Manager: Visual asset workspace inspecting texture layers, sounds, and live pack status.
  • Fleet Targets: Monitor connected Paper servers and deployment statuses.

3. CraftLab-ctl

The operations supervisor and deployment manager:

  • craftctl CLI: Intuitive command-line interface for starting, stopping, restarting, and checking system health.
  • craftctld Daemon: Background supervisor executing periodic health checks and managing isolated release environments.
  • Atomic Updates: Seamless updates downloaded directly from GitHub Releases (DarkBladeDev/CraftLab) with dedicated virtualenvs, a pre-cached wheel directory, and instant rollback support.
  • Control Web Dashboard: Dedicated SPA dashboard served on port 8443.

4. CraftLab-plugin

The native in-game runtime for Paper servers:

  • Java 21 & Paper 1.21+: Leverages modern Paper APIs and PacketEvents 2.14.0 for tick-free display entity rendering.
  • Bidirectional Handshake: Connects to the backend gateway over WebSockets with authentication tokens.
  • Player Resource Pack Delivery: Prompts joining players with the updated pack URL and SHA-1 hash upon login.
  • Oraxen Compatibility: Scans and exports legacy Oraxen configurations without conflicts.
  • In-Game Commands: Provides /mcp give, /mcp status, and /mcp reloadpack for server operators.

Next Steps