Welcome to Shard

Shard is a minimal, content-addressed Minecraft launcher focused on stability, reproducibility, and low duplication. It features a core library and CLI written in Rust, with an optional desktop UI built with Tauri and React.

Philosophy

• Single source of truth: Profiles are declarative manifests; instances are derived artifacts
• Deduplication first: Mods and packs live in a content-addressed store (SHA-256); profiles only reference hashes
• Stable + boring: Plain JSON on disk, predictable layout, no magic state
• Replaceable parts: Authentication, Minecraft data, and profile management are isolated modules
• CLI-first: Everything is designed to be scripted and composed

Quick Start

1. Download the latest release from GitHub 
2. Open Shard Launcher
3. Sign in with your Microsoft account
4. Create a profile and start playing!

See the Installation guide for detailed instructions.

Features

Profile Management

Create and manage multiple profiles with different Minecraft versions, mod loaders, and content. Each profile is a declarative JSON manifest that can be versioned and shared.

Content-Addressed Storage

Mods, resource packs, and shader packs are stored by their SHA-256 hash. If multiple profiles use the same content, it’s only stored once on disk.

Mod Platform Integration

Browse and install mods directly from Modrinth  and CurseForge . Shard handles version compatibility and dependencies automatically.

Multi-Account Support

Add multiple Microsoft accounts and switch between them easily. Each account’s tokens are stored securely.

Requirements

• macOS (Windows and Linux coming soon)
• Java 17+ for Minecraft (Shard can help you install this)
• A Microsoft account for Minecraft authentication

License

Shard is open source software. See the GitHub repository  for license details.