Quick Start Tutorial

Quick start tutorial

You'll build a small Airship Controls screen with a Start button that updates a status label and sends a chat message, then try it in Preview and export it for Minecraft. It takes about ten minutes.

1. Create the project

1. Choose File → New project (Ctrl+N) and type the name Airship Controls.
2. Project settings opens next. Check that Id is airship_controls (Wysicraft derives it from the name), then click Apply. The Id is lowercase letters, numbers and underscores. It becomes the in-game command: /airship_controls.open. You can change it later under Project → Project settings….
3. Click Screen settings above the canvas. In Properties, change Screen ID from main to cockpit and press Enter. Change Title to Airship.

2. Add controls

1. In the Toolbox (top left), drag Panel onto the canvas. Resize it by dragging its corner handles until it covers most of the screen. This is your background.
2. Drag a Label onto the panel. In Properties, set Id to status and Text to Engine offline.
3. Drag a Button onto the panel. Set Id to engine_start and Text to START ENGINE.
4. Select the label and the button together (Shift-click), plus the panel, then right-click and choose Attach to 'panel'. Now they move with the panel. See Panels and parenting.

3. Make the button work

1. Select the button and open the Events tab (next to Properties).
2. The click event is shown. Under Client, click + Add action:
   • Type: set_text
   • Target: status
   • Value: Starting...
3. Under Server, add another action:
   • Type: command
   • Value / Command: say Engine start requested

Client actions run instantly on the player's screen. Server actions run on the Minecraft server with the player's own permissions. See Events and actions.

4. Try it in Preview

1. Click Preview in the toolbar (F5).
2. Click START ENGINE. The label changes to Starting..., and the console shows the server command as SIMULATED SERVER. Preview never runs real commands.
3. Close Preview.

5. Save

Choose File → Save (Ctrl+S) and save as airship_controls.wysicraftproj. This single file holds your screens, scripts and images. If the editor ever closes unexpectedly, Wysicraft keeps a recovery draft every 30 seconds.

6. Export and play

1. Click Validate (F7). The Output panel should say Validation passed.
2. Click Export… (Ctrl+E), keep Project JAR selected, and save airship_controls.jar.
3. Copy the JAR into your Minecraft instance's mods folder (Minecraft 1.21.1 with NeoForge 21.1.250+). Nothing else needs to be installed: the Wysicraft runtime is bundled inside the JAR.
4. Start Minecraft, open a world with cheats enabled, and type /airship_controls.open.

Your screen opens. Clicking START ENGINE updates the label, and say runs because you have cheats on. Players without permission for a command can't run it through your screen either.

Want to skip ahead?

Instead of copying JARs by hand, the Minecraft test window launches a real game straight from the editor, with keys to open and close your screen.

Where next

• Make it look good: Properties and appearance
• Make it adapt to window size: Anchors and responsive layouts
• Write logic in JavaScript: Scripting