Software and Preparation for Bedrock Add-on Development

At its core, a Bedrock add-on is a collection of plain text JSON files, PNG textures, OGG audio files, and optional JavaScript or TypeScript files. You do not need heavy game engines to build one, but using standard operating system tools like Windows Notepad or Paint will actively work against you. Notepad lacks syntax highlighting to warn you about missing commas, and standard Paint strips out the alpha channel transparency that Minecraft relies on for items, foliage, and entity layers.

Visual Studio Code is the industry standard editor for Bedrock development. On its own, it provides fast file search, bracket matching, and a built-in terminal. When paired with the Blockception's Minecraft Bedrock Development extension, it gains real-time schema validation, autocomplete for components, and inline warnings when you place an entity component inside a block file. If you prefer an environment that builds the file tree for you through menus and templates rather than raw code, Bridge. is a dedicated Bedrock IDE that handles UUID generation and pack linking automatically.

For 3D models and animations, Blockbench is mandatory. Unlike general-purpose 3D software such as Blender, Blockbench exports directly to the Bedrock geometry and animation JSON formats, lets you set up bone pivot points visually, and includes a built-in UV editor and texture brush. For 2D pixel art and UI textures, use a dedicated raster editor that respects indexed palettes and full alpha transparency, such as Aseprite, Libresprite, Paint.NET, or GIMP.

When you install Visual Studio Code, you should configure a workspace settings file at the root of your project to prevent common formatting pitfalls. Minecraft Bedrock allows comments inside most JSON files, even though the strict JSON specification forbids them. By default, VS Code flags double-slash comments inside a .json file as critical syntax errors, filling your problem tab with false alarms.

You can fix this by mapping standard .json files to the JSON with Comments language mode inside a .vscode/settings.json file. This configuration also lets you exclude image and audio files from the quick-search bar when you are rapidly jumping between behavior definitions, and ensures your indentation stays consistent across every file in the pack.

{
  "files.associations": {
    "*.json": "jsonc",
    "*.material": "jsonc",
    "*.lang": "properties"
  },
  "editor.tabSize": 2,
  "editor.insertSpaces": true,
  "files.trimTrailingWhitespace": true,
  "search.exclude": {
    "**/*.png": true,
    "**/*.tga": true,
    "**/*.ogg": true,
    "**/*.fsb": true
  }
}

Minecraft Bedrock stores all local worlds, cached Marketplace content, and loose add-on files inside a master folder named com.mojang. On Windows 10 and Windows 11, the location of this folder changed when the game migrated to the modern GDK architecture. On modern installations, it sits inside your user AppData Roaming directory under Minecraft Bedrock, nested inside a Users folder that contains a long numeric identifier folder or a Shared folder. On older UWP installations, it lived deep inside AppData Local Packages under the Microsoft.MinecraftUWP package folder.

Inside com.mojang, you will find two pairs of pack folders: behavior_packs and resource_packs alongside development_behavior_packs and development_resource_packs. You must always build your work inside the development_ folders. When you attach a pack from the development folders to a test world, the game links to it by reference rather than copying the files into the world folder. This means you can edit a JSON file, save it, and run the /reload command in-game (or exit and re-enter the world) to test your changes immediately.

Before touching your workspace, open Windows File Explorer, click the View menu, and enable File Name Extensions. Without this setting turned on, creating a new text document and naming it manifest.json actually creates a file named manifest.json.txt. Minecraft completely ignores files with the .txt extension, which is the single most common reason a brand-new creator's pack fails to show up in the game menu.

Once you have located your development_behavior_packs folder and installed your editor, you should verify that your setup works by dropping in a minimal manifest. Create a new folder inside development_behavior_packs named setup_test_bp, and create a manifest.json file inside it.

Every manifest requires two completely unique Version 4 UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifiers): one inside the header block to identify the pack itself, and another inside the modules block to identify the data module. Never copy UUIDs from tutorials or reuse them between different packs. In VS Code, extensions can generate a fresh UUID with a keyboard shortcut, or you can generate them through an offline tool. If the game parses this file and shows your test pack in the Create New World menu under Behavior Packs, your folder path and file extensions are set up properly.

{
  "format_version": 2,
  "header": {
    "name": "Workspace Verification Pack",
    "description": "Confirms that the development folder and Content Log are working.",
    "uuid": "d8a14c22-7b9e-4c1a-9e32-11a2b3c4d5e6",
    "version": [1, 0, 0],
    "min_engine_version": [1, 20, 80]
  },
  "modules": [
    {
      "type": "data",
      "uuid": "f4e3d2c1-b0a9-4876-8543-21fedcba9876",
      "version": [1, 0, 0]
    }
  ]
}

Minecraft Bedrock does not crash when you write a broken block component or misspell an identifier; instead, it silently drops the broken component or skips the file entirely. If you do not turn on the internal error reporting system before you start working, you will have no idea why your custom entity is invisible or why your block refuses to drop loot.

Before loading into a test world, open the main Minecraft Settings menu from the title screen and scroll down to the Creator tab on the left sidebar. Turn on both Enable Content Log File and Enable Content Log GUI. When Content Log GUI is active, any syntax error, missing texture reference, or invalid Molang expression will immediately print a color-coded warning or error banner at the top of your screen the moment the pack loads or the asset is triggered.

During active gameplay, you can press Ctrl + H (or look in the Creator settings menu) to open the Content Log History panel. This screen lets you search through every log line emitted during your session and copy the exact file path and line number where a JSON failure occurred. Getting into the habit of checking this screen first whenever something behaves unexpectedly is the fastest way to debug an add-on.

Applies to Minecraft Bedrock Edition 1.20.0 and newer. No experimental toggles are required to configure the workspace, load standard data manifests, or enable the Content Log.

Read out of the game itself, so the ids match the version you are building for.