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Codex Storage External Interface

CaptainGummiball edited this page Nov 10, 2026 · 1 revision

External Storage Interface

The External Storage Interface makes a storage of another mod part of your network: a chest, a barrel, a drawer or a tank. The network then sees its contents, takes from it and, if you want, stores into it.

Setting it up

  1. Place the interface against the foreign storage: it always faces the block you placed it on (any of the six directions).
  2. Link it to a Storage Controller with the Quanta Linker: interface first, then controller.
  3. Right-click it to open its screen and choose the mode.

The target can hold items, fluids and gases (gases through Pipster's gas handler). Another QNet storage block is never a target: a network must not see itself twice.

Modes

Mode What the network does
Both Takes from it and stores into it. When storing, the network's own units come first; here it only stores kinds the storage already holds, or what no unit has room for.
Extract Only takes from it; it never stores anything here.
Insert Only stores here; the contents are not offered to the network.

Changing the mode needs the admin role in the owner's team.

How the network sees it

The interface reads the foreign storage slot by slot, at most storage.externalScanPerInterface (default 64, allowed 1–4096) slots or tanks per tick; all interfaces of a dimension together read at most storage.externalScanTotal (default 512, allowed 1–65536) per tick. After a full reading that found no change it waits 20 ticks; every further quiet reading doubles the wait up to 200 ticks. A change sets it back.

So the terminal shows the contents "as of the last reading". If something else changes the chest in between, the network finds out with the next reading.

The buffer

What the network stores here goes into the interface's own buffer first and into the foreign storage on the next tick. If the storage then takes less than it promised, the rest stays in the buffer: the screen shows "Buffer" with the amount, and the interface takes nothing new until the buffer is empty. Nothing is lost or doubled on the way.

The screen

  • Network: connected, offline or not linked.
  • Target: the foreign block, the side it is on and its number of slots, or "no storage".
  • Reading: "running" while a reading is in progress, else "quiet" and how often it reads ("every 4 s"), with a bar.
  • Kinds it knows, and the buffer if it holds something.
  • Mode: the three buttons and the rule of the chosen mode.
  • Contents (as the network sees them): 9 by 4 places, scrollable; the tooltip shows the amount "in the target" as of the last reading.

Breaking it

Items left in the buffer drop. Fluids and gases in the buffer stay in the dropped block and come back when you place it.

In the world

The large ring towards the target turns for 20 ticks after the contents changed.

Building it

Recipe: see JEI, REI or EMI.

Tip

Insert mode as an overflow Put a large foreign storage behind an interface in Insert mode: the network fills it only when the units are full, and you never see its contents in the terminal. The network cannot take them back either; switch to Both or Extract when you need them.

Warning

Not counted in the bars The terminal's bars only measure the network's own members. A foreign storage has no size the network knows, so it never appears there, and AE2 does not see it through a Storage Interface either.

QNet Codex

Getting Started

Energy

Processing

Rift

Storage

Logic

Reference

Items and Blocks

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