How to Use the Glow and Light-Matching Objectives in the Data API Data Pack

Making Entities Glow

The pack provides an objective that forces entities to glow, which is handy for highlighting mobs, marking targets, or debugging invisible entities like markers. Create or reference the objective through the pack's provided functions, then add the entity to it. Glowing entities get the vanilla outline effect, so you can spot them through walls.

Typical use: run the pack's glow function targeting a selector (for example, all markers or a specific mob), and the entity will glow until you remove it from the objective.

Matching Display Entities to Block Light

The light-matching objective makes display entities (item displays, block displays, text displays) adjust their brightness to match the light level of the surrounding blocks. This is useful for signs, holograms, and floating labels that would otherwise look flat or wrongly lit in dark rooms.

To use it:

1. Enable developer mode.

2. Spawn your display entity where you want it.

3. Add it to the light-matching objective using the pack's function or scoreboard command.

4. Move a light source nearby and confirm the display brightens or dims accordingly.

When to Use Each

Use glow for visibility and debugging, and light-matching for polish on decorative displays. Both objectives are safe to toggle on and off without breaking the entities themselves.