Client Time
Some players build during golden sunsets, others hunt mobs under a full moon, and a few just want to stop the rain from ruining a screenshot. Client Time is a small but wonderfully practical add-on that hands you the sky itself. It does not change the world for anyone else, does not require server permissions, and does not touch gameplay balance. It simply lets your own client see whatever time and weather you prefer.
That client-side philosophy is the whole point. Whether you are recording a cinematic, testing a redstone contraption at noon, or waiting out a thunderstorm in a survival world, Client Time quietly rewrites the clock on your screen only.
What Client Time Actually Does
The original description sums it up neatly: it overrides the time and weather on the client. Out of the box, the add-on does nothing at all. That surprises some players, but it is a deliberate design choice. You must first enable the overrides for time, moon phase and weather using the keybinds or the menu, toggling the relevant checkboxes.
Once enabled, you gain independent control over three separate layers of the sky:
- Time of day – lock the sun at dawn, freeze it at midnight, or scrub through a full cycle without waiting.
- Moon phase – choose any of the eight lunar phases, which also affects slime spawning in swamps on your client's view.
- Weather – clear skies, rain, or a full thunderstorm, regardless of what the server or your world seed has decided.
Each override is toggled separately, so you can freeze time while letting weather run naturally, or force a thunderstorm at high noon just to see how your build looks in dramatic lighting.
Supported Versions and Loaders
Minecraft Versions
Client Time has been maintained across a long stretch of modern Minecraft releases, with builds available for the 1.16, 1.17, 1.18, 1.19, 1.20 and 1.21 families. Older 1.12-era builds exist for legacy modpacks, though feature parity varies. Always check the file list on the project page and match the build to your exact game version, since a mismatch is the most common cause of a silent failure to launch.
Fabric, Forge and NeoForge
The add-on ships for Fabric and Forge, with NeoForge support arriving alongside the newer 1.20.5+ releases. It is a client-side mod in every sense: you can join vanilla servers, Realms, or modded worlds without the server ever knowing it is there. Other players will still see the real time and weather, which makes it perfect for personal recording and building sessions.
If you would rather skip the manual file juggling entirely, the foxygame.net launcher offers a one-click install path for Client Time, keeping the correct loader and version pairing handled for you while it manages the rest of your add-on catalog.
How to Install Client Time
Installation is straightforward for anyone who has modded Minecraft before.
- Install Fabric, Forge or NeoForge for your chosen Minecraft version.
- Download Client Time from the official project page, matching the build to your game version.
- Drop the .jar file into your mods folder.
- Launch the game and confirm the mod appears in your mod list.
- Open the controls menu and bind the toggle keys, or use the in-game configuration screen.
If you are unsure which loader you are running, check the version string on the title screen. Fabric installations show a small loader tag, while Forge and NeoForge display their own branding. Getting this right the first time saves a lot of head-scratching.
Keybinds, Menu and Checkboxes
The control scheme is intentionally simple. Keybinds let you flip time, moon phase and weather overrides on and off mid-game without opening a menu, which is ideal for quick comparisons while building. The configuration menu exposes the same options as checkboxes, plus finer controls for setting a specific time value or locking a particular moon phase.
A useful habit is to bind the time toggle to something easy to reach, then leave weather on manual only when you need it. Constant weather overrides can make it harder to judge natural lighting in a build, so many players keep that particular checkbox off by default.
Why Players Keep It Installed
Client Time fills a niche that few mods bother with. It is not a world-editing tool, not a cheat, and not a performance mod. It is a lighting and atmosphere remote control for your own screen. Builders use it to preview structures under every time of day. Cinematic creators use it to hold a perfect sunset for as long as a take requires. Survival players use it to skip the rain without sleeping.
Because it is client-side, it plays nicely with almost everything else in a typical modpack. There is no server plugin to configure, no permissions to request, and no risk of desyncing other players. Download Client Time, bind a couple of keys, and the sky becomes yours to schedule.
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