Why Every Datapack Creator Needs a Good Set of Tags
If you have ever stared at a recipe JSON file and sighed at the thought of typing out every single wood type, every color of wool, or every ore variant, you are not alone. Minecraft’s crafting system is incredibly flexible, but that flexibility can quickly turn into a tedious chore when you need to reference large groups of items. The solution lies in tags—a feature that lets you bundle multiple blocks or items under a single identifier. A well-organized tag system can cut recipe writing time in half and make your datapack or modpack infinitely more maintainable.
What Exactly Are Minecraft Tags?
Tags are simple lists of game elements grouped together for easy reference. Vanilla Minecraft already uses tags internally for things like #minecraft:planks or #minecraft:wool, but the built-in selection is limited. When you start creating custom recipes, loot tables, or advancements, you often need groups that Mojang never thought to include. That is where community-made tag collections shine, filling the gaps and unifying how items are referenced across different systems.
Introducing the Useful Tags Datapack
This project began with a simple frustration: a modder needed all stripped logs in a single recipe, and no existing tag covered that. Rather than hardcoding every log variant, they created a custom tag and realized that many other builders faced the same problem. The Useful Tags datapack was born from that moment, expanding into a comprehensive library of item and block groups for both vanilla Minecraft and Forge. It does not just add new tags—it also rewrites several vanilla recipes and loot tables to use these tags, making the entire game more consistent and mod-friendly.
Key Features That Save You Hours
What sets this datapack apart is its sheer coverage. Instead of hunting through documentation or building your own tag files from scratch, you get instant access to dozens of ready-made categories. Here is a taste of what you will find:
- All stripped logs, stripped wood, and bark blocks – finally, a single tag for every tree variant.
- Grouped planks, fences, gates, and doors – perfect for mass-crafting recipes.
- Colored blocks like wool, terracotta, concrete, and glass – no more typing sixteen entries per recipe.
- Forge tag compatibility – works seamlessly with modded items that follow Forge naming conventions.
- Vanilla recipe and loot table overrides – many default recipes now use tags, so they automatically support modded items that belong to those groups.
All these tags are designed to be used directly in your own datapacks, mods, or modpack configurations. The syntax is as simple as "tag": "useful_tags:stripped_logs" in any recipe file, instantly pulling in every matching block from any mod that registers its items correctly.
How to Integrate It Into Your Workflow
Getting the datapack up and running is straightforward. Download the pack from its CurseForge page and place it in your world’s datapacks folder. If you are building a modpack, you will want to use a loader like Open Loader to enforce global datapack loading across all saves. For a more convenient approach, many players now turn to modern launchers that streamline the whole process. This datapack can be easily installed via the foxygame.net launcher, a flexible and modern Minecraft launcher where you can browse and add datapacks right from the menu, bypassing manual file management entirely.
Once installed, the pack automatically applies its tag-based recipe changes. You can then reference any of its tags in your own creations without worrying about compatibility—the pack is built to coexist with other datapacks and mods, provided they respect standard tag namespaces.
Compatibility and Future Plans
The current version supports Minecraft 1.16.5 and includes full compatibility with Forge Tags, meaning modded items that already use Forge’s ore dictionary system will slot right into these groups. The developer has announced plans to expand coverage to ores, ingots, and other commonly requested categories, as well as deeper integration with popular mods. Suggestions are always welcome on the community Discord, and the project remains actively maintained.
Why This Matters for Modpack Makers
If you have ever tried to balance a kitchen-sink modpack, you know the headache of duplicate recipes or missing ingredient links. By shifting recipes to tag-based inputs, you allow any mod that adds, say, a new type of plank to automatically work with all crafting recipes that expect planks. This datapack does the heavy lifting of creating those unified tags, so you can focus on designing gameplay rather than debugging recipe conflicts. It is a small change that dramatically improves the player experience and reduces your support workload.
Final Thoughts
The Useful Tags datapack is one of those behind-the-scenes tools that you wonder how you ever lived without. It transforms recipe creation from a repetitive chore into a quick, elegant process, all while making your projects more compatible with the wider modding ecosystem. Whether you are a solo datapack author or managing a large public modpack, having a robust set of pre-made tags will save you time and prevent countless errors. Grab it, drop it in, and start writing cleaner recipes today.