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Your first book

This page walks through making a small book with one category and one entry, then opening it in game.

Start from the template

The quickest start is the template resource pack, folios-book-template, which you can get from the Downloads section. It holds one complete example book with every kind of page, and a README of the keys.

  1. Copy the template folder into .minecraft/resourcepacks/ and turn it on in Options → Resource Packs.
  2. Rename assets/mymod to your namespace and folios/my_guide to your book's id.

The rest of this page builds the same kind of book by hand, so you can see what each file does.

1. The book

Create assets/mymod/folios/my_guide/book.json:

book.json
{
  "name": "My Guide",
  "subtitle": "Everything about my mod",
  "style": "handheld",
  "accent": "#C0602A",
  "cover": "#5A3A22",
  "icon": "minecraft:writable_book",
  "landing": "Welcome to **My Guide**.\n\nPick a category from the tabs, or [start here](entry:getting_started/first_steps)."
}
  • name and subtitle are shown on the cover, the front page and the item.
  • style is "screen" (a flat book on the screen, the default) or "handheld" (held open in your hands).
  • accent colours marks and links; cover colours the cover.
  • landing is the text of the book's front page.

See book.json for every key.

2. A category

Create assets/mymod/folios/my_guide/categories/getting_started.json:

categories/getting_started.json
{
  "name": "Getting Started",
  "description": "The basics of my mod.",
  "icon": "minecraft:oak_sapling",
  "sort": 0
}

The file name, getting_started, is the category's id.

3. An entry

Create assets/mymod/folios/my_guide/entries/getting_started/first_steps.json:

entries/getting_started/first_steps.json
{
  "name": "First Steps",
  "icon": "minecraft:wooden_pickaxe",
  "pages": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "title": "First Steps",
      "text": "Text runs on over as many pages as it needs.\n\n- **bold**, *italic*, ~~struck~~\n- {#E06A3A}coloured words{/} and `code`\n\nPress {key:key.inventory} to open your inventory."
    },
    {
      "type": "spotlight",
      "item": "minecraft:diamond",
      "title": "Diamonds",
      "text": "One item shown large."
    }
  ]
}

The entry is in the getting_started folder, so it belongs to that category. Its id is getting_started/first_steps, which is what the book's landing text links to.

Your folder now looks like this:

assets/mymod/folios/my_guide/
  book.json
  categories/getting_started.json
  entries/getting_started/first_steps.json

4. Get the book in game

Folios has one item, folios:guide_book, that can open any book. Which book it opens is stored on the stack:

/give @s folios:guide_book[folios:guide_book="mymod:my_guide"]

/give @s folios:guide_book{folios_book:"mymod:my_guide"}

The item takes the book's name. Use it (right-click) to open the book.

You can also open a book without the item, with the client command /folios guide mymod:my_guide.

5. Reload and open it

Press F3+T to reload resources whenever you change a file, then open the book again. If a page has a mistake, the book shows an error in its place and the game log says what is wrong.

Next steps