Minecraft Bedrock Creator Tools Development

A comprehensive development workflow for contributing to the Minecraft Bedrock Edition creator tools repository - a TypeScript project that cross-compiles to both a React web application and NodeJS command line tool for editing Minecraft creative projects.

Prerequisites

Initial Environment Setup

Before starting development, set up the environment following these steps:

1. **Build sample content**:

- Navigate to `samplecontent/addon`

- Run `npm ci`

- Run `npx gulp package`

2. **Prepare developer environment**:

- Navigate to `app/` folder

- Run `npm ci`

- Run `npm run preparedevenv`

This will populate:

- `app/public/res/samples` with sample packs, worlds, and addons

- `app/public/res/latest/van` with vanilla Minecraft content

Development Workflow

Making Code Changes

1. **Edit source code** in `app/src/` directory

2. **Rebuild after changes**:

```bash

cd app/

npm run corebuild

```

This rebuilds both the NodeJS CLI tool and the website.

3. **Test the CLI tool**:

```bash

npx mct validate -i <path-to-content-folder>

```

Use this frequently to validate content and verify expected results.

4. **Run tests**:

```bash

npm test

```

Before Each Commit

Repository Structure

**Main working directory**: `app/`

| Directory | Purpose |

|-----------|---------|

| `app/src/` | Main application source code |

| `app/public/` | Data files and static assets for web app |

| `app/jsnode/` | Files packaged into NodeJS CLI tool |

| `app/build/` | Website build output |

| `app/out/` | Electron build output |

| `app/toolbuild/` | JSNode and VSCode build output |

| `app/test/` | Integration tests (scenarios vs results) |

| `app/debugoutput/` | Temporary debug files (ignore in PRs) |

| `app/site/` | mctools.dev hosting modifications |

| `app/reslist/` | Build-time resource inclusion metadata |

| `samplecontent/` | Sample Minecraft content for testing |

**Important**: Do not edit generated files in:

These are generated from `app/src/minecraft/` and should not be modified directly.

Testing Strategy

Unit Tests

Integration Tests

Sample Content

Documentation Resources

Key Development Guidelines

1. **Follow TypeScript best practices** and idiomatic patterns

2. **Maintain existing code structure** and organization

3. **Write unit tests** for all new functionality

4. **Document architectural decisions** in the `docs/` folder with titles indicating feature name and last revision date

5. **Update this file** when making changes to build or test processes

6. **Update build files** (package.json, gulpfile.js) to simplify future builds

7. **Keep documentation current** to ensure accurate context for future development

Build Process Updates

When streamlining build or test processes:

This ensures the codebase remains accessible and maintainable for all contributors.