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 the download page
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.