Table of Contents
Installing Fabric
Regular installation
Mojang's Minecraft Launcher
- Download the Fabric Installer from the download page.
- Open the installer. In the window you can select the Minecraft version, loader version (latest recommended), and the install location (default recommended).
- To show snapshots in the Minecraft versions dropdown, tick the 'Show Snapshots' checkbox
- The install location is the location of Minecraft Launcher. If you want to change your installation's directory use Minecraft Launcher's installation options
- Press Install. A new game version and profile will be created in the launcher's menu, which you can now use to launch Fabric.
You can now install mods! You may want to install the Fabric API mod as most mods will need it, and the Mod Menu mod to see an in-game list of installed mods.
For more detailed instructions visit this guide: Install Fabric - Minecraft Launcher (Windows)
Alternative third party launchers
See Installing Fabric Loader and the FAQ
Server (simple method)
Note: For Minecraft 1.17-1.20.4 we recommended using Java 17. For Minecraft 1.20.5 and higher we recommend using Java 21. See Installing Java.
The Fabric Server Launcher is an executable jar that first downloads any missing Fabric Loader and Minecraft files, then continues with running the game server. There is no explicit installation and the desired versions as selected on the website are already baked into this jar file.
- Visit the Minecraft Server download page and select the desired versions, then press the
Executable Server (.jar)
button to download the Fabric Server Launcher jar file - Put the Fabric Server Launcher jar file into a directory of your choice, local or on a remote server
- Run the server with
java -Xmx2G -jar <fabric server launcher jar file name> nogui
, the exact command is provided on the download website in step 1
With Minecraft-specific server hosts, admin panels or start scripts, the Fabric Server Launcher jar file can be used as a drop-in replacement for a vanilla server jar. It can be invoked in the same way and behaves similarly.
Server (manual method)
Note: For Minecraft 1.17-1.20.4 we recommended using Java 17. For Minecraft 1.20.5 and higher we recommend using Java 21. See Installing Java.
- Download the Fabric Installer from the Minecraft Server download page with the manual installation link below the download button or the Minecraft Launcher download page as if it was a client install.
- Open the installer. Select the “Server” tab at the top of the window. In the window you can select the Minecraft version, loader version, and the install location.
- Press Install. In the output directory, a
fabric-server-launch.jar
will be created. It expects aserver.jar
, which is the vanilla server JAR, generally found on Mojang's version announcement blog posts, next to it, but will also generate a properties file on first launch where you can change the path.
NOTE If you are upgrading your existing server, remember to remove the.fabric
folder if the installer did not remove that for you! Or you will get classloading errors. - When uploading to a remote host, make sure to include
fabric-server-launcher.jar
,server.properties
,server.jar
and thelibraries
folder with its contents
For more detailed instructions visit:
CLI installation
The Fabric Installer has full support from installing the client and the server from the command line. This could be used to automate the installation. The installer has a number of commands that can be used for a headless install.
Available options
- -snapshot Enables the usage of snapshot versions of Minecraft.
- -dir Used to select the installation dir, defaults to the current working directory.
- -mcversion Used to select the minecraft version, defaults to the latest stable version.
- -loader Used to select the loader version, defaults to the latest.
- -downloadMinecraft Used to automatically download the Minecraft server jar
- -noprofile Skip creating client profile
- -mavenurl (advanced) Use a custom maven url when installing
- -metaurl (advanced) Use a custom meta server url
Available commands
- help Prints out all of the commands available along with the latest mappings and loader versions. Ignores options. Example:
java -jar fabric-installer.jar help
- server Used to create the required files for a Fabric server. Accepts all options, none are required. Example:
java -jar fabric-installer.jar server
- client Used to create the required files for a Fabric client. Accepts all options, -dir is required. Example:
java -jar fabric-installer.jar client -dir "~/Games/.minecraft"