How to Ship Datapacks Inside Your Modpack for Players

Why Bundle Instead of Distributing Separately

Normally, a modpack creator who wants to include a datapack has to tell players to download it and manually drop it into each world's datapacks folder. That is error-prone and players often skip it. With this mod, you place the datapack once in the instance's global_data_packs folder, and it applies to every world automatically — no per-world setup required.

Preparing the Pack for Distribution

Decide whether to ship the datapack as a folder or a zip. Zips are usually cleaner for distribution because they are a single file and less likely to be mangled by file transfer tools. Make sure the zip contains pack.mcmeta at its root, not inside a wrapping directory. Test the pack locally first by placing it in global_data_packs and confirming it appears with the modpack prefix in /datapack list.

Including It in Your Modpack Export

When you build your modpack archive or CurseForge/Modrinth project, include the global_data_packs folder with your datapack already inside it. Because the mod reads this folder at instance level, the datapack travels with the pack and activates on first world load. Players do not need to do anything beyond installing the modpack. If you update the datapack later, replace the file in the folder and bump your modpack version so launchers push the change.