Bedrock Recipe Creator

A child-friendly visual Blockbench plugin for creating Minecraft Bedrock shaped and shapeless crafting recipes — without editing JSON.

Created for beginners and children using Blockbench's Minecraft Item Wizard who want to add crafting recipes to their custom items.

What It Does

If you've created a custom item with Blockbench's Minecraft Item Wizard, this plugin adds a crafting recipe straight into that same Behavior Pack. Your item and its recipe stay together — one folder, one manifest.json.

The same folder Blockbench generated when you exported your item? That's the one. The recipe gets saved right inside it.

Features

• Automatic item discovery — picks up your custom items from the Behavior Pack
• Shaped recipes — visual 3×3 grid like a real crafting table
• Shapeless recipes — ingredients in any order
• Bundled ingredients — ~160 common vanilla items included (diamonds, sticks, iron, etc.)
• Custom ingredients — your Behavior Pack items appear in the ingredient picker
• Recipe unlock — recipe auto-unlocks when the player finds the ingredients
• Overwrite protection — won't silently replace an existing recipe file
• No JSON — the plugin writes the recipe file for you

Installation

Loading the Plugin in Blockbench

Option A — Download a release (easiest)

1. Download bedrock_recipe_creator.js from the latest release
2. Open Blockbench
3. Click File → Plugins → Load from file
4. Pick the downloaded .js file
5. You'll now see Bedrock Recipe Creator under the Tools menu

Option B — Build from source

1. Clone the repo and install dependencies: npm ci
2. Build the plugin bundle: npm run build
3. In Blockbench, click File → Plugins → Load from file
4. Pick registry/plugins/bedrock_recipe_creator/bedrock_recipe_creator.js
5. You'll now see Bedrock Recipe Creator under the Tools menu

Do not load src/plugin.js directly — that file uses ES module import statements and needs bundling before Blockbench can run it.

Tip: After rebuilding, reload the plugin in Blockbench with Ctrl+J (Windows) or Cmd+J (Mac) instead of loading it again.

Step-by-Step Usage

Step 1: Open the Plugin

Go to Tools → Bedrock Recipe Creator.

A dialog window opens. This is where you'll build your recipe.

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Step 2: Pick Your Behavior Pack

Type the path to your Behavior Pack folder — the same one Blockbench generated when you used the Minecraft Item Wizard.

A valid Behavior Pack looks like this:

My Behavior Pack/
  manifest.json         ← required, tells Minecraft this is a pack
  items/
    robot_sword.json    ← your custom item(s)

The plugin checks that the folder is valid. If it's not, you'll see:

"This folder does not look like a Behavior Pack. Choose the folder containing manifest.json and the items folder."

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Step 3: Choose Your Item

Once the plugin reads your Behavior Pack, your custom items appear in a dropdown called Item to Craft.

If you exported a "Robot Sword" in Blockbench, it shows up as Robot Sword. The plugin found it by reading the items/ folder automatically.

No items in the list? Make sure you've exported an item with Blockbench's Minecraft Item Wizard first.

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Step 4: Choose Recipe Type

Pick either:

Type	How It Works	Best For
Shaped	Ingredients go in specific spots, like a real crafting table	Tools, weapons, armor, any recipe with a pattern
Shapeless	Ingredients can be in any order	Dyes, food, simple mixtures

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Step 5A: Build a Shaped Recipe (Grid)

A 3×3 grid appears, just like Minecraft's crafting table.

• Click a slot → a searchable ingredient picker opens
• Search by name (e.g., "diamond") or by item ID (e.g., "minecraft:diamond")
• Click an ingredient to place it in the slot
• Hover and click × to remove an ingredient from a slot

Your custom items from the Behavior Pack also appear in the picker, marked separately.

The grid automatically removes empty outer rows and columns when it saves the recipe. Empty slots in the middle stay empty (they become spaces in the pattern).

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Step 5B: Build a Shapeless Recipe (List)

Instead of a grid, you get an ingredient list.

• Click + Add Ingredient to open the picker
• Add as many ingredients as you need (up to 9)
• Click × to remove one

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Step 6: Set Output Count

How many of the item does the recipe create? Default is 1. Maximum is 64 (a full stack).

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Step 7 (Optional): Advanced Options

Click ▼ Advanced Options to see technical settings:

• Recipe Identifier — the internal name for the recipe (auto-filled, but you can change it)
• Unlock Item — which item unlocks this recipe when obtained (defaults to the item you're crafting)
• Manual Item Identifier — if your item isn't in the discovered list, type its ID here (e.g., yournamespace:custom_item)

Most beginners won't need to touch these.

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Step 8: Create the Recipe

Click Create Recipe.

If everything is valid, you'll see a green success message:

Recipe created! Robot Sword can now be crafted at a crafting table.

File: [path to your Behavior Pack]/recipes/testaddon/robot_sword_shaped.json

Test in-game: /give @s testaddon:robot_sword

Use /reload (or restart the world) to see changes.

The recipe file is saved inside your Behavior Pack's recipes/ folder.

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Step 9: Test in Minecraft

1. Open Minecraft Bedrock Edition
2. Create a new world (or edit an existing one)
3. Enable your Behavior Pack in the world settings
4. Join the world
5. Open chat and type: /give @s yournamespace:item_name (the plugin shows you the exact command)
6. You should receive your custom item
7. Place a crafting table and try the recipe
8. If the recipe doesn't appear, type /reload in chat

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely Cause	What to Do
"Not a valid Behavior Pack"	Wrong folder selected	Pick the folder that contains manifest.json (not a subfolder)
No custom items found	No items exported yet	First export an item with Blockbench's Item Wizard
Recipe file already exists	You made this recipe before	The plugin will ask before overwriting — say yes to replace it
Recipe doesn't show in-game	World needs reloading	Type /reload in chat, or exit and re-enter the world
Can't craft the item	Wrong ingredients or pattern	Double-check the grid — shaped recipes need exact positions
Plugin won't load	Wrong Blockbench version	Make sure you have Blockbench 4.8 or newer

For more detail, see docs/troubleshooting.md.

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer
• npm

Setup

git clone https://github.com/ClaytonHunt/blockbench-bedrock-recipe-creator.git
cd blockbench-bedrock-recipe-creator
npm ci

Commands

npm test              # Run automated tests (80+ tests)
npm run lint          # ESLint static analysis
npm run format:check  # Check Prettier formatting
npm run build         # Build the plugin bundle
npm run verify        # Run all quality checks

Project Structure

src/
  core/           # Business logic (testable outside Blockbench)
  data/           # Bundled ingredient data
  ui/             # Blockbench UI components
  plugin.js       # Plugin entry point
test/             # Automated tests
registry/         # Plugin registry output
docs/             # Documentation

Project Status

Version 0.1.0 — MVP with shaped and shapeless recipe creation.

Roadmap

• Complete vanilla item database
• Existing-recipe editing
• Furnace, stonecutter, and other recipe types
• Food-component editor
• Direct integration with Blockbench Item Wizard
• Localization
• Web-compatible recipe download mode

See the full roadmap in docs/architecture.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and contribution guidelines.

This project uses:

• esbuild for bundling
• ESLint for static analysis
• Prettier for formatting
• Node.js built-in test runner

License

MIT © Clayton Hunt

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Unofficial project. This plugin is not affiliated with Mojang Studios, Microsoft Corporation, or Blockbench. Minecraft is a trademark of Mojang Studios.