textures_list.json Reference

When Minecraft Bedrock loads a resource pack, it needs to know which textures exist so it can allocate memory, build texture atlases, and prepare entity or UI materials. If no index is provided, the engine falls back to walking the directory tree inside the textures folder. On slower storage devices—such as mobile phones, Nintendo Switch, or consoles—scanning hundreds of small folders adds noticeable lag to world loading.

By placing a textures_list.json file at RP/textures/textures_list.json, you give the engine a complete manifest up front. The game reads this single text file and immediately knows where every texture lives. In addition to speeding up initial load times, it allows the game to pre-cache entity and particle textures before they are spawned in the world, preventing the brief black-and-magenta checkerboard flash that sometimes happens when an entity appears for the first time.

Note that this file does not replace terrain_texture.json or item_texture.json. Those two files map short, friendly names to texture paths for blocks and items. By contrast, textures_list.json simply tells the engine that the underlying image files exist on disk.

The file must be named textures_list.json and placed directly inside the textures folder of your resource pack (RP/textures/textures_list.json). Unlike almost every other JSON file in a Bedrock add-on, its root element is a JSON array rather than a JSON object, and it does not use a format_version key.

Each entry in the array is a string representing the path to a texture file, starting with textures/ and using forward slashes as directory separators. You must omit the file extension (.png, .tga, or .jpg) from every path.

[
  "textures/blocks/custom_ore",
  "textures/entity/goblin/goblin_base",
  "textures/items/ruby_sword",
  "textures/particle/magic_sparks",
  "textures/ui/custom_hud_icon"
]

Because the engine relies on exact string matching when reading this array, small formatting mistakes will cause the game to miss your textures. All paths are relative to the root of the resource pack, not the textures folder where the JSON file itself sits. That is why every string starts with the prefix textures/.

If you are using Physically Based Rendering (PBR) features or flipbook animations, there are specific rules for which files belong in this list and which ones should be left out. The table below outlines how to handle different asset types inside the textures directory.

During active development on a PC, you generally do not want a textures_list.json file in your working pack. When the file is present, Minecraft trusts it completely on certain platforms and build configurations. If you add a new block texture to your folder during testing but forget to append its path to textures_list.json, the game may act as if the image does not exist.

For this reason, seasoned creators leave textures_list.json out of their source folders while building and testing. Once the add-on is finished and ready to be packaged as a .mcpack or submitted for review, they generate the file as part of their final build step. If you are submitting content to the Minecraft Marketplace, including an accurate textures_list.json is mandatory and automated validation checks will reject packs that lack it or have mismatched entries.

Maintaining textures_list.json by hand in a pack with hundreds of custom items, blocks, and entity variants is tedious and error-prone. A single missing comma or a deleted image that remains in the list will trigger content log warnings.

You can automate this with a small Node.js script placed in your project root, or by using build tools designed for Bedrock development. Running a script right before zipping your pack ensures the list is always in sync with your actual files.

const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

const packRoot = './RP';
const texturesDir = path.join(packRoot, 'textures');
const validExtensions = new Set(['.png', '.tga', '.jpg']);
const textureList = [];

function scanDirectory(currentDir) {
  const entries = fs.readdirSync(currentDir, { withFileTypes: true });
  for (const entry of entries) {
    const fullPath = path.join(currentDir, entry.name);
    if (entry.isDirectory()) {
      scanDirectory(fullPath);
    } else if (entry.isFile()) {
      const ext = path.extname(entry.name).toLowerCase();
      if (validExtensions.has(ext)) {
        const relPath = path.relative(packRoot, fullPath);
        const withoutExt = relPath.slice(0, -ext.length);
        const posixPath = withoutExt.split(path.sep).join('/');
        textureList.push(posixPath);
      }
    }
  }
}

scanDirectory(texturesDir);
textureList.sort();

const outputPath = path.join(texturesDir, 'textures_list.json');
fs.writeFileSync(outputPath, JSON.stringify(textureList, null, 2) + '\n');
console.log(`Wrote ${textureList.length} entries to textures_list.json`);

Applies to all modern versions of Minecraft Bedrock Edition. This is a core resource pack feature and does not require any experimental toggles.

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