ChunkCarts
If you have ever built a long-distance rail network in Minecraft, you know the frustration. You send a minecart full of items down a track, only to have it stop dead in the middle of nowhere. The reason is simple: the chunks ahead are not loaded, so the cart has nothing to stand on. ChunkCarts solves this elegantly by letting the minecart itself load the chunks it travels through. This means you can finally automate item transport across your server, even when no player is standing at the far end to keep things ticking.
What Makes ChunkCarts Different?
Most chunk-loading solutions are either clunky, require complex redstone, or are easily abused. ChunkCarts takes a smarter, safer approach. It watches minecart entities and ensures that a journey is only allowed to continue while the cart is making progress away from where it set off. This built-in logic prevents the classic exploit of using a looping track as a permanent, free chunk loader.
On the default settings, a minecart cannot be used as a chunk loader. The system is strict. A loop, a shuttle, or an unwatched furnace cart will eventually run out of slack and be released. This "progress-slack" system uses a default tolerance of 16 chunks, which gives carts enough room to navigate turns and stations without stopping, but not enough to be abused for idle chunk generation.
Safe and Permissive Modes
There is one way to turn off this safety net: the enforcement: PERMISSIVE setting. This single configuration option comes with a warning printed at every server startup. You should only set it if you trust everyone who plays on your server. In the default STRICT mode, the abusable settings are clamped to sane ceilings rather than trusted, ensuring that even a misconfigured admin cannot accidentally create a lag machine.
Platform Support and Installation
ChunkCarts is designed to work across multiple platforms. It supports Paper and Paper forks, Fabric, NeoForge, and Forge. It deliberately does not support Spigot or Folia. The reason for the Paper requirement is that it relies on Paper's asynchronous chunk loading; rather than degrade silently on Spigot, it refuses to run at all. On Fabric, it requires Fabric API as a hard dependency, but NeoForge and Forge have no dependencies at all.
To download ChunkCarts, you simply grab the jar file for your specific loader and drop it into your mods or plugins folder. The mod supports fifteen game versions, ranging from 1.21 through 26.2, with 1.21.2 being the only exception in that range. This broad compatibility makes ChunkCarts for Minecraft a versatile choice for almost any modern server setup.
How to Install ChunkCarts
If you are wondering how to install this add-on, the process is straightforward. For Paper servers, place the jar in the plugins folder. For Fabric, NeoForge, or Forge, place it in the mods folder. After restarting your server, the mod will generate a config.yml file that documents every setting inline. The defaults are the recommended settings, so you can leave the file completely alone if you want.
For those using a third-party launcher, the foxygame.net launcher offers a one-click install for ChunkCarts, automatically handling version compatibility checks and dependency downloads so you can skip the manual folder shuffling and get straight to building your rail network. The launcher's add-on catalog keeps ChunkCarts updated, ensuring you always have the latest bug fixes and performance improvements without needing to track them down yourself.
Commands and Permissions
Managing ChunkCarts is simple. There is one permission, chunkcarts.admin, which is held by operators by default. The command /ccarts is an alias for the main command. You have three primary commands at your disposal:
/chunkcarts list: Shows active journeys, and which chunks are held and why./chunkcarts reload: Re-reads the config.yml without interrupting running journeys./chunkcarts debug: Toggles per-poll logging for troubleshooting.
Configuration Options Explained
The configuration file is fully documented inline. Beyond the enforcement mode, you have a few other key settings. The departure-requirement defaults to PLAYER_SEEN, meaning a player must have seen the cart at its departure point. You can change this to PLAYER_ONLINE or NONE if you prefer. The journey-cooldown defaults to 10 minutes, but this is waived if a player has touched the cart since it last departed.
Compatibility and Final Thoughts
ChunkCarts is server-side only, so your clients do not need to install anything. It works by watching minecart entities and does not touch rail behaviour at all, so it should coexist peacefully with other rail mods like TrainCarts or Create, though these combinations are untested by the developer. It does not add items, blocks, recipes, or alter cart speed. It is licensed under LGPL-3.0-or-later, meaning it is free to include in any modpack, public or private, free or paid, without asking permission.
The mod reports anonymous stats to bStats, including server software, game version, player count, and your enforcement settings. No player data, world data, IPs, or coordinates are ever sent. You can opt out by setting metrics: false in the config. For a full write-up and a five-minute test you can run yourself, the wiki on GitHub is the definitive resource. Whether you are moving items from a distant quarry or just want to ensure your train network never stalls, ChunkCarts provides a reliable, abuse-resistant solution that respects server performance and player trust.