🎒 1. datapacks/ — Minecraft’s built-in modding system

Datapacks are Minecraft's official way to add game logic without mods.
They let you create custom:

Recipes

Loot tables

Structures

Commands/functions

Dimensions

Advancements

Worldgen features

Mobs (via loot, behavior triggers, etc.)

They live inside:

world/datapacks/


or in a custom world folder of your choice.

Example structure:

world/
  datapacks/
    my_custom_pack/
      pack.mcmeta
      data/
        minecraft/
        mypack/


How they work:

When the server starts, Minecraft automatically loads all datapacks in that folder.

You can reload them live with:


/reload

Why track them in Git?

Because datapacks are basically tiny “mods” made out of text files.
Git lets you:

Version your changes

Roll back bad ideas

Experiment

Collaborate

Deploy from laptop → server instantly

Keep a history of your custom world logic

For a Vanilla 1.1 server, datapacks didn’t exist yet — BUT if you're doing a modern-style organization or planning forward, Git still handles it well.



🌍 2. dev-world/ — A safe test world

This is NOT a built-in Minecraft feature — it’s a practice/testing world folder that YOU create.

Purpose:
👉 To test datapacks, commands, NBT edits, worldgen changes, and dangerous experiments without ruining the real world.

What it looks like:

dev-world/
  level.dat
  region/
  playerdata/


Basically the same as your real world/, but:

You can reset it anytime

You can duplicate it

You can try insane commands

You can prototype datapack functionality

You can test structures/commands with no consequences

How to use it:

You temporarily point your server to use dev-world instead of world.

In server.properties:
level-name=dev-world




Start the server → it loads the dev world.
When you’re done testing, switch back:

level-name=world