CLI: `create-mc-bedrock`

create-mc-bedrock is the scaffolder. It creates a new Bedrock add-on project from one of three sources, regenerates manifest UUIDs, and optionally installs dependencies.

This page is the reference. For the conceptual differences between sources, see Which source?. For the day-one walkthrough, see Getting Started.

Usage

npx create-mc-bedrock

That's it. The CLI is fully interactive in 2.0. There are no flags. Non-interactive scaffolding (for CI and automation) is planned for a future release.

Requirements

Node.js 18 or later. The scaffolder uses fs.cp, which lands in Node 18. Check with node --version.
A working npm install. npx ships with npm and runs the scaffolder without a global install.

The interactive prompts

The prompts run in this order. Each one validates inline; mistakes are re-asked rather than failing the whole run.

1. Source

? Which source do you want to start from?
  > Custom Workspace (recommended)
    Microsoft Official Samples
    Community Templates

Custom Workspace scaffolds the bundled Custom template wired up to @keyyard/bedrock-build. This is the path the rest of these docs assume.
Microsoft Official Samples clones a sample from microsoft/minecraft-scripting-samples (opens in a new tab).
Community Templates clones a template from keyyard/custom-mc-scripting-templates (opens in a new tab).

See Which source? for the longer comparison.

2. (Microsoft only) Sample picker

If you picked Microsoft Official Samples, a second prompt lists the available samples from the upstream repo. Pick the one you want.

3. (Community only) Category and template picker

If you picked Community Templates, you'll see a category prompt first (the top-level folders in the community-templates repo), then a template picker inside that category.

4. Project name

? Project name:

Becomes the folder name for the new project and the value of name in bedrock.config.json. It's also propagated into the manifest header.name fields as <name> BP and <name> RP.

5. Destination folder

? Destination folder: (./<project-name>)

Where the project lands. Defaults to a subdirectory of the current working directory named after the project. Press Enter to accept.

6. Auto-install dependencies?

? Install dependencies now? (Y/n)

Only shown when the scaffolded project includes a package.json (all three sources do, in 2.0). Picking Yes runs npm install in the new project. Picking No finishes the scaffold and leaves dependency installation to you.

What gets generated

For the Custom source

The full Custom Workspace as described in Workspace Layout:

<project>/
  bedrock.config.json
  package.json
  tsconfig.json
  .gitignore
  src/main.ts
  packs/BP/manifest.json
  packs/BP/pack_icon.png
  packs/RP/manifest.json
  packs/RP/pack_icon.png
  packs/RP/textures/item_texture.json

For Microsoft Samples

Whatever the chosen sample ships in microsoft/minecraft-scripting-samples. Layout varies by sample.

For Community Templates

Whatever the chosen template ships in custom-mc-scripting-templates. Layout varies by template.

In all three cases, the scaffolder rewrites manifest UUIDs after copying. See the next section.

Manifest UUID regeneration

Every scaffold gets a fresh set of UUIDs for both the BP and RP manifests, and the cross-references between them are wired up correctly in one pass:

Each header.uuid is replaced with a new v4 UUID.
Each modules[].uuid is replaced with a new v4 UUID.
BP dependencies[].uuid entries are pointed at the new RP header UUID.
RP dependencies[].uuid entries are pointed at the new BP header UUID.
dependencies[].module_name entries (like @minecraft/server) are left untouched.

The scaffolder auto-detects three pack layouts:

Custom Workspace: packs/BP/manifest.json and packs/RP/manifest.json.
Community style: BP/manifest.json and RP/manifest.json at the project root.
Microsoft samples style: behavior_packs/<first>/manifest.json and resource_packs/<first>/manifest.json.

See Packs and Manifests for what each field means.

Version pinning at scaffold time

The Custom Workspace's package.json doesn't ship with hard-coded version strings. Instead, the scaffolder queries the npm registry for the latest stable version of each of:

@minecraft/server
@minecraft/server-ui
typescript
@keyyard/bedrock-build

It writes the resolved version strings into the generated package.json before handing the project over. Every fresh scaffold is pinned to current latest, with no maintenance burden on the template.

Offline scaffolding. If the registry fetch fails (no network, npm mirror down), the scaffolder falls back to a known-good baseline version for each dependency. The scaffold still succeeds; you'll just get older pins until you npm install an updated version.

Behavior notes

Existing directory: if the destination folder already exists and is non-empty, the scaffolder refuses and asks for a different name. No clobbering.
Failed downloads: if the Microsoft Samples or Community Templates clone fails (network error, bad ref), the scaffolder exits with a non-zero code and leaves no partial directory.
pack_icon.png: included in both BP and RP for the Custom source. Replace with your own art before shipping.

No flags (yet)

The CLI is fully interactive in 2.0. There's no --source, --name, --yes, or similar. Non-interactive mode is on the roadmap for a future minor release. If you need to drive scaffolding from CI today, write a small script that pipes answers into stdin, but be aware that this is brittle and will need updating when prompts change.

Which source? for the three sources in depth.
Workspace Layout for the Custom source tree.
Config schema for what bedrock.config.json controls.
Packs and Manifests for the manifest fields the scaffolder rewrites.

Custom Deploy Path CLI: build

CLI: create-mc-bedrock