How to Turn a Minecraft Datapack into a Mod (Datapack ➜ JAR Mod) | Minecraft Fabric Mod 26.x/1.21.xx

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Hello guys, it's me Mr. G back with another video. In today's video, I'll be showing you guys a simple ways for you to turn your data packs into a mod. So, first here is my data pack. So, I also use a resource pack, not only a data pack and also resource pack.

[00:00:19]So, here is my data pack that I've just created.

[00:00:24]So it's basically a world chen or a randomly generated structure related to a game a video game called Legend of Zelda. So it is basically a sword pedestal with a master sword. The master sword as you can see here is using a resource pack.

[00:00:44]So now that I've got my resource pack and my data pack ready, let's go ahead and turn this into a mod. So, as you can see here, this is the file for my data pack. Here you got the assets for the resource pack and also you got the data for the data pack and also the pack make meta. But first, here's all the necessary stuff that you need before you turn your data pack into a mod. So, first you need a JDK, preferably the JDK 25 because we're using a newer version of Minecraft, which is the Minecraft 26.1.

[00:01:20]Personally, I like to use the Tamarind.

[00:01:22]So, just go ahead and download this. All of the links for the necessary stuff in here will be in the description below.

[00:01:29]Just go ahead and click it. Just go ahead and install it and follow the instruction that been given to you. And next for the code editor I will be using intellich idea. So yeah because we will be going to edit some of the stuff like the JSON file inside the fabric mods. So that's why using a code editor such as intell idea will be a huge benefit for us. So yeah go ahead and download it and install it.

[00:01:57]And here we got the template mode generator. So this is similar to the preconfigured like fabric example mod and stuff, but instead of having like the example name and stuff, you can use your own mod names and package name and your own selected version of Minecraft.

[00:02:13]So here you got the mod names that you can go ahead and fill out. You can just fill whatever you want in here. So for example, mine, because mine is a sword pedestal, I will go ahead and type in sword pedestal. Just choose a name that is related to your mod/ data pack. Here you can just you can also use a custom ID with different names on it or you can just use your mod names the same as your custom ID. Yeah, just choose whatever you like. And then and then next we have package name. And if you are unsure about the package name, you can just use this example one named of the mods and then also the mod ID. But what I like to do is having my names on it. So yeah. So So for example, com dot Mr. G dot the mod names for for this mod example it's sword pedestal.

[00:03:08]And then for the mod version you can just choose whatever you like but for this video I will be using the latest one which is the 26.1.2 and yeah just go ahead and download it.

[00:03:19]So the template generator or the temp or the template fabric file, you can go ahead and just extract the file in here.

[00:03:28]Boom. And then you can go ahead and open your intellig idea.

[00:03:35]So in here you can just go ahead and first you need to actually to make it easier just go ahead and copy this.

[00:03:42]Just copy this directory and then go ahead and open this and then just paste the file or the folder inside of here.

[00:03:53]And then just go ahead and click the select folder.

[00:03:57]Here you go. As you can see here, many different stuff is happening in the background. So just go ahead and let it sit for a bit. So if you don't see anything down here below, it means that it's done.

[00:04:12]But first, go ahead and open your settings and then go ahead and select build and then build tools. And inside of this, go ahead and select Gradle. In here, make sure that the Gradle you're using is the the version that you've just downloaded before. So, for example, what I've downloaded is the Tamaran 25.

[00:04:34]Here you just select the set marine 25 but for default it will be using the latest one that you've just downloaded.

[00:04:42]So yeah just go ahead and click okay.

[00:04:47]Yeah just go ahead and select the folder and open it. And as you can see here there is a lot of stuff in here. But don't worry it's it's fine to be overwhelmed by all this stuff. But you won't be touching like most of this stuff anyway. So yeah just bear with me for a second here. So now just go ahead and select your source folder and then go to the main and then go to resources.

[00:05:12]Go ahead and select the fabric.mmod.json file. And here you go. You have all this stuff in here. Here you got the ID that you just created before on the template generator. And then there is some stuff that we can edit here. So the first one is the names. I want it to be more specific. So, I will go ahead and put Legend of Zelda because the mod that I created is from Legend of Zelda. And then next, we got the description. You can just you can put like whatever you want in it. You can just fill whatever you want. For me, I will just put first mod, my first mod.

[00:05:53]And next, we have authors.

[00:05:55]Yeah, just fill your own names in here.

[00:05:58]And if you also have friends that help you build or create data pack/mod, you can also fill or put their names into this JSON file. Yeah, just go ahead and type in comma double quotation mark and yeah, just fill whatever names your friend has. For example, I will just put myself again in here, G. And then next we have contact. So in here we have homepage and sources. So for the homepage you can put your social links into it. So for example, I will just go ahead and put YouTube.com.

[00:06:37]I actually forgot what my name tag for my YouTube channel. Okay, I'll just put YouTube.com in here. And then for the sources and if your mod is open source like for example you put your mods on GitHub publicly you can go ahead and put your GitHub links in here but if you don't you can just go ahead and delete this.

[00:07:01]And then next we have license. So the website is choose a license. So in here you can pick many license that you want for your application or your mods. But for me personally, I like to use MIT because it is really simple and really short and to the point.

[00:07:20]And for MIT, you can just go ahead and copy the text for the copyright. And yeah, just let's go ahead and copy it.

[00:07:29]And then you can go ahead and find a file named license license.

[00:07:35]And then just replace all of this stuff with your choice of license. So for me, it's MIT. And then just go ahead and delete the placeholder and just put your names in and also the year of your mod which is 2026.

[00:07:53]And then you can go ahead and replace the license in the JSON with your choice of license.

[00:08:02]So MIT and then next up we have icon.

[00:08:06]But first, let's go ahead and put our data pack files into the mod folder.

[00:08:14]So, let's go ahead and copy it here.

[00:08:17]Let's just take all of it, not including the zip file. Let's go ahead and copy this and then put it in the source folder and then to the main resources and just paste it here.

[00:08:35]And as you can see here, my data pack actually has a different name space from my mod for my JSON mod. And it is totally okay because like I said, I'm using in this JSON from the fabric mod, I'm using sword pedestal as its name for the mod ID, but my data pack has G as its nameace. But it is totally fine. It will it will not break anything. But for the best practices, I think it's much better for you to use the same name space as your mod ID. But it is totally fine if you have different names for it.

[00:09:11]And for the icon of the mod, you can just go ahead and pick the ones that you're using in your data pack, which in my case, it's in assets g/ icon.png, and you're done. That's all the necessary stuff that you can edit inside the JSONet file. And then next we have the gradal properties. And in here you can change your mod version. And the default one is 1.0.0.

[00:09:37]You can change it however you like. For example, if you have any like minor changes, you can just go ahead and put it like 1.4, 1.5, whatever you like. And if you have like a major changes, you can just like updates it into like 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever version your mod is.

[00:09:56]And now you can go ahead and open the terminal down below on the bottom left.

[00:10:01]And yeah, let's go ahead and build our jar file. So to build one, you can type in dot /gradalw build. And then yeah, just go ahead and press enter. You can wait until the build is successful. And there you go.

[00:10:18]And for the file for the jar file for the fabric mod, you can find it in the build folders. And then inside of this, go ahead and open lips. And there you go. You got the sword pedestal 1.0.0.jar file.

[00:10:36]And here I'm using Prism for my fabric loader or my Minecraft loader. Yeah, just go ahead and put the jar file inside this prism launcher.

[00:10:51]And here as you can see names and the description of it. Let's go ahead and open the JSON file for example.

[00:11:01]And here as you can see we have the names that we just edited before the sword pedestal legend of Zelda. We have the author's name like myself and for example your friends and we also have the description of it and also the license and also for this mod to work you also need to download a fabric API first and then you're good to go.

[00:11:28]Yeah, let's go ahead and launch our game and let's see if the mod is working or not.

[00:11:38]Okay, I'm now inside the game. Let's go ahead and I think I first Yeah, let's go ahead and remove the resource pack to see that what's working isn't the data pack or the resource pack, but it's the mod itself. So, let's go ahead and create a new world with no data packs.

[00:12:00]Wait for it to load and then let's go ahead and locate the structure for my data pack.

[00:12:08]Okay, it's there. Let's go ahead and teleports to it. Let's see. Let's see.

[00:12:16]Boom. Here you go.

[00:12:19]The data pack inside the mod. Yeah, that's how you turn your data pack into a mod in a simple ways. And yeah, that is all for today's video. If you have better methods that is related to converting a data pack into a mod, you can go ahead and comment below. And yeah, make sure to let me know. And yeah, that is all for today's video.

[00:12:42]Thank you guys for watching. Don't forget to like the video and subscribe to my channel. And I'll see you guys in next one. Peace out.