NBT

NBT (Named Binary Tags) is a binary format used by Minecraft to store data. It is commonly used for transferring chunk data, item data, and other game-related information over the network. In this section, we will explore how to work with NBT in your plugins.

Example Compound Tag

var tag = new NbtCompound
{
    ["hello"] = new NbtString("world"),
    ["number"] = new NbtInt(69),
    ["list"] = new NbtList([new NbtInt(420)], NbtTagType.Int),
    ["child"] = new NbtCompound
    {
        ["key"] = new NbtString("value"),
    }
};

Tag Types

• NbtByte: Represents a byte value.
• NbtByteArray: Represents an array of byte values.
• NbtCompound: Represents a compound tag, which can contain other tags.
• NbtDouble: Represents a double value.
• NbtEnd: Represents the end of a compound tag.
• NbtFloat: Represents a float value.
• NbtIntArray: Represents an array of integer values.
• NbtInt: Represents an integer value.
• NbtList: Represents a list of tags.
• NbtLongArray: Represents an array of long values.
• NbtLong: Represents a long value.
• NbtShort: Represents a short value.
• NbtString: Represents a string value.

Reading NBT Tag

To read NBT data, you can use the NbtTag class.

var bytes = new byte[] { ... }; // Your NBT data as byte array

// length is the number of bytes read
var length = NbtTag.Parse(bytes, out var tag);

logger.LogInformation("Tag type: {Type}", tag.Type);

if (tag is NbtCompound compound)
{
    if (compound["key"] is NbtString key)
    {
        logger.LogInformation("{Value}", key.Value);
    }
}

Writing NBT Tag

Use AsStream() method on your tag instance to access NBT as a byte stream.

var tag = new NbtCompound
{
    ["key"] = new NbtString("value"),
};

var stream = tag.AsStream();
var bytes = stream.ToArray();

SNBT

SNBT is a human-readable format for NBT data. Read more about SNBT.

Converting NBT to SNBT

var tag = new NbtCompound { ["key"] = new NbtString("value") };
Console.WriteLine(tag.ToString()); // Output: {key:"value"}

Converting SNBT to NBT

var snbt = "{key:\"value\"}";
var tag = NbtTag.Parse(snbt);