How to add WorldEdit to Minecraft Bedrock Server [ DOCUMENTATION ]

[josephdpurcell]

See OneBlock and No Potion Particles guides for examples of simpler mods to install.

WorldEdit: Bedrock Edition is the most complex mod I've run into to install because it has a behavior pack, resource pack, requires experimental flags, and requires custom variables.

This guide could be simplified, but just to make sure it's clear for people new to Docker Minecraft Bedrock Server I'm going to itemize in detail

Known Issues

This guide was written for WorldEdit 0.9.0 but you will need the newer version, see SIsilicon/WorldEdit-BE#277. The instructions below may still work? At least for the Behavior Pack (BP) it looks like the UUID is the same.

Requirements

This assumes you're using Docker Minecraft Bedrock Server to run your Minecraft server.

It assumes you know how to read and edit JSON. If you do not check out a "Tutorial" here https://github.com/burningtree/awesome-json#tutorials.

1 - Start and stop a fresh server

This guide will assume your Minecraft server has been booted at least once so all the data files are created.

I did this by using a docker-compose.yml file like so:

Example docker-compose.yml

Note: I use a pattern like "2_1" where "2" is the last digit of the port and "1" is the directory, so I could have "2_1" and "2_2" worlds only one running at a time on port 19132. "3_1" then would be 19133.

name: mc2_1
services:
  minecraft2_1:
    container_name: 'mc2_1'
    image: itzg/minecraft-bedrock-server
    ports:
      - '19132:19132'
      - '19132:19132/udp'
    volumes:
      - './data:/data'
    environment:
      EULA: 'TRUE'
      GAMEMODE: 'creative'
      DIFFICULTY: 'peaceful'
      ALLOW_CHEATS: 'true'
      ALLOW_FLIGHT: 'true'
      ENABLE_COMMAND_BLOCK: 'true'
      INIT_MEMORY: '2G'
      MAX_MEMORY: '4G'
      ALLOW_LIST_USERS: 'TheUser1234'
      OPS: 'TheUser1234'
    restart: unless-stopped
    stdin_open: true
    tty: true
    deploy:
      resources:
        limits:
          cpus: '3.0'
          memory: 6144M
        reservations:
          cpus: '2'
          memory: 2048M

Then running:

docker compose up

But, before continuing make sure the server is off:

docker compose stop

2 - Download the mod

Go to https://github.com/SIsilicon/WorldEdit-BE and download the latest version. This guide will use v0.9.0.

To do this, go to "Tags" and click on the latest version. Scroll down to "Assets" and download the "WorldEdit.server.zip".

When I downloaded it 2024-07-31 the sashum and md5sum (whichever you prefer) was:

$ md5sum WorldEdit.server.zip 
5c125ce7f2a8de87017be7216754ad9c  WorldEdit.server.zip

$ shasum WorldEdit.server.zip 
f0c282ef87393c2c195b71e97d6fea0d32780c17  WorldEdit.server.zip

3 - Copy the mod files

First, take the zip file and unzip it. We'll assume it's in your ~/Downloads directory.

$ cd ~/Downloads/
$ unzip WorldEdit.server.zip
$ ls WorldEdit.server
variables.json  WorldEditBP  WorldEditRP

Now, there are THREE things to copy.

3.A. Copy the Resource Pack

$ cp -r ~/Downloads/WorldEdit.server/WorldEditRP data/resource_packs/
$ ls data/resource_packs/WorldEditRP/
LICENSE.txt  manifest.json  pack_icon.png  particles  texts  textures  ui

3.B. Copy the Behavior Pack

$ cp -r ~/Downloads/WorldEdit.server/WorldEditBP data/behavior_packs/
$ ls data/behavior_packs/WorldEditBP/
animation_controllers  animations  entities  items  LICENSE.txt  manifest.json  pack_icon.png  scripts  texts

3.C. Copy the variables.json

$ cp -r ~/Downloads/WorldEdit.server/variables.json data/config/default/
$ ls data/config/default/
permissions.json  variables.json

4 - Install the Resource Pack and Behavior Pack

By "install" here I mean "do the things that actually wire up the packs to your world.

4.A. Get the UUID and Version of the Resource Pack

$ cat data/resource_packs/WorldEditRP/manifest.json | head
{
    "format_version": 2,
    "header": {
        "name": "WorldEdit Bedrock Edition [RES] 0.9.0",
        "description": "pack.description",
        "uuid": "e304a4eb-f0a0-4979-ac17-7b0f46a555c8",
        "version": [
            0,
            9,
            0

Here you can see the UUID is e304a4eb-f0a0-4979-ac17-7b0f46a555c8 and version is 0.9.0.

4.B. Get the UUID and Version of the Behavior Pack

$ cat data/behavior_packs/WorldEditBP/manifest.json | head
{
    "format_version": 2,
    "header": {
        "name": "WorldEdit Bedrock Edition 0.9.0",
        "description": "pack.description",
        "uuid": "3cdb2ddf-662e-4f8f-a0a1-1293b91ccb2f",
        "version": [
            0,
            9,
            0

Here you can see the UUID is 3cdb2ddf-662e-4f8f-a0a1-1293b91ccb2f and version is 0.9.0.

4.C. Add the packs to valid_known_packs.json

Now edit data/valid_known_packs.json. The whole file is an array of JSON objects so you're going to add two elements to the end of that array like so:

        {
                "file_system" : "RawPath",
                "path" : "resource_packs/WorldEditRP",
                "uuid" : "e304a4eb-f0a0-4979-ac17-7b0f46a555c8",
                "version" : "0.9.0"
        },
        {
                "file_system" : "RawPath",
                "path" : "behavior_packs/WorldEditBP",
                "uuid" : "3cdb2ddf-662e-4f8f-a0a1-1293b91ccb2f",
                "version" : "0.9.0"
        }

4.D. Add the Resource Pack to the world_resource_packs.json

$ vim 'data/worlds/Bedrock level/world_resource_packs.json' 

The contents is an array of objects and you'll make sure at least this object is in there. If this is the only Resource Pack you've installed it will look exactly like this:

[
        {
                "pack_id": "e304a4eb-f0a0-4979-ac17-7b0f46a555c8",
                "version": [ 0, 9, 0 ]
        }
]

4.E. Add the Behavior Pack to the world_behavior_packs.json

$ vim 'data/worlds/Bedrock level/world_behavior_packs.json'

The contents is an array of objects and you'll make sure at least this object is in there. If this is the only Behavior Pack you've installed it will look exactly like this:

[
        {
                "pack_id": "3cdb2ddf-662e-4f8f-a0a1-1293b91ccb2f",
                "version": [ 0, 9, 0 ]
        }
]

5 - Enable experimental flags in level.dat

This was the most difficult part to figure out. The level.dat file is in a special format that you'll need an editor for which various ones have issues, see my comments on #373 (reply in thread).

The NBT Viewer extension for VSCode worked for me on Linux so I'll use that here.

First, install VSCode and install the extension if you haven't already.

Make a backup of your level.dat in case you need it:

$ cp 'data/worlds/Bedrock level/level.dat' ~/Downloads/level.dat.bak

Now, edit the real level.dat file in VSCode:

$ code 'data/worlds/Bedrock level/level.dat' 

Scroll down to "experiments" and click the + to expand the options. Double-click the 0 next to the experiments_ever_used and saved_with_toggled_experiments and replace the 0 with a 1 and then click "Confirm" like so:

Next we need to add flags to the "experiments" section. To do this, left click once on the word "experiments" then click "Add Tag". You should now see an input for Name and Value like so:

Enter in these three:

• data_driven_items = 1
• gametest = 1
• upcoming_creator_features = 1

Save the file.

The final result should look like:

Note 1: I don't think you need upcoming_creator_features? I didn't rigorously test which ones are required, I just enabled them until it worked. The documentation is unclear https://worldedit-be-docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/installation/#installation-step-by-step, imo, especially given this comment: SIsilicon/WorldEdit-BE#145 (comment).

Note 2: the red "B" is for "Byte" so if you're using a different editor make sure it's a byte type.

6 - Start the server and connect

Start your server. In the case of using docker compose you would run:

$ docker compose up

When you connect it should prompt you to "Download & Join" which will install resource packs.

7 - Tag yourself with worldedit

This requires that you are an operator.

In Minecraft, run this command:

/tag @s add worldedit

You should see output like:

Added tag 'worldedit' to TheUser1234
You have been given WorldEdit permissions. Go to (Settings > How to Play > Quick Start) for a guide.

8 - Exit world and re-enter

If you gave yourself the kit and the block icons don't show correctly it could be that you need to exit the world and re-enter for the game to properly detect that resource packs need installed on the client.

9 - Profit

At this point you should be able to follow the WorldEdit documentation.

The first thing I did was run this command in Minecraft:

;kit

Which gave me all the things.

Troubleshooting

Are your JSON files valid JSON?

You can use jq to test:

$ cat data/valid_known_packs.json | jq .

It will print the file else error.

Does the server have the packs loaded?

The Resource Packs and Behavior Packs won't show up in the Minecraft interface. You will need to look at the server logs to see if the mods loaded, and even then it will only show behavior packs not resource packs.

Example behavior pack loaded in the logs:

mc2_1  | [2024-08-01 00:00:00:000 INFO] [Packs] [SERVER] Pack Stack
mc2_1  | 
mc2_1  |  Name   [WorldEdit Bedrock Edition 0.9.0][01]
mc2_1  |  PackId [3cdb2ddf-662e-4f8f-a0a1-1293b91ccb2f_0.9.0]
mc2_1  |  Path   [behavior_packs/WorldEditBP]

Are you an op?

Make sure your user is an operator. You cannot tag if you are not an operator.