structura-core

Reusable Minecraft Java 1.21.1 structure-processing core. It owns:

• validated Java Structure NBT I/O;
• native Litematic v5, v6 and v7 reading and writing;
• native Sponge Schematic v2/v3 reading and lossless document copies;
• legacy schematic conversion and numeric analysis;
• NumPy/SciPy voxel geometry primitives (connected components, closing).

Structure input accepts gzip-compressed and raw NBT, including files with multiple palettes. Saving preserves all palettes, root metadata, additional block fields, block entities and entities. Repeated saves of the same data produce reproducible gzip bytes; they need not match the original file bytes.

The library targets Minecraft Java 1.21.1 by default. Version constants live in structura_core.version; callers can still pass an explicit Amulet translation target to the legacy converter. Native I/O retains the source Minecraft DataVersion and does not upgrade block states or entity payloads between game versions.

pip install structura-core
structura-analyze path/to/structure.nbt --json

Native conversion

structura-convert house.litematic house.nbt
structura-convert house.nbt house.litematic
structura-convert worldedit.schem house.litematic
structura-convert house.litematic house.schem --region Main

These commands need only the base package. Litematic is parsed directly with the existing NBT dependency. Litemapy is used to produce an interoperability test fixture, and is not an installation dependency.

from structura_core import Litematic, Structure, export_litematic, load_structure

document = Litematic("house.litematic")
print(document.region_names)
structure = load_structure("house.litematic", region="Main")
export_litematic(structure, "house-copy.litematic")

structure = Structure.from_bytes(nbt_bytes)
structure = Structure.from_root(nbt_compound)

from_root owns a copy; caller-owned NBT is not modified. Both in-memory constructors use the same validation as Structure(path).

Negative region sizes do not mirror the blocks. Entity positions and block positions use different Litematic coordinate conventions, both handled by the reader. Overlapping regions are rejected instead of depending on file order; choose a region explicitly. Unsupported versions and malformed arrays fail with a ValueError.

Cross-format conversion does not preserve Litematic region names/layout, placement origin, preview, scheduling ticks or arbitrary document metadata in Structure NBT. Keep the native Litematic document when these matter. Litematic export uses the active Structure palette; other palette variants and additional Structure block-record fields are not representable there. Minecraft entity id values are required for export. No IDs are guessed.

Native Litematic decoding and encoding default to at most 2,000,000 cells, checked before unpacking or allocating block arrays. Raise max_blocks in Python or --max-blocks in the converter for trusted larger files. This is an allocation guard, not a sandbox for arbitrary untrusted compressed files.

Sponge Schematic v2 and v3

Modern WorldEdit .schem files need no Amulet Core or version translation:

from structura_core import Schematic, load_structure

document = Schematic("house.schem")
print(document.size, document.offset)
structure = document.to_structure()
document.save("copy.schem")
structure = load_structure("house.schem", max_blocks=2_000_000)

Schematic.from_root(compound) owns a copy of the input. Native save() and .schem → .schem conversion preserve the original v2/v3 layout, offset, biomes, metadata and unknown NBT fields. Blocks, properties, block entities, entity NBT and fractional positions are available through to_structure(). Sparse palette indices and unsigned dimensions are supported. Invalid indices, truncated/overflowing VarInts, duplicate block entities and excessive volumes fail explicitly; the default cell limit is 2,000,000.

Block and entity positions stay local to the selection; source_origin holds its paste offset. Structure NBT and Litematic conversion do not carry Sponge biomes, paste offset, document metadata or unknown v3 entity-container fields. Keep the Schematic document when these matter. V3 documents without a Blocks container retain their entities without inventing air cells. A block palette is required when blocks are present; global numeric registries are unsupported. Sponge v1 is outside the native reader's contract.

Fixtures generated by Amulet Core 1.9.35 independently verify both layouts, nonzero offsets and multibyte block indices. Format details follow the Sponge v2 and v3 specifications.

Stable responsibilities

nbt.py owns Structure validation and serialization; litematic.py and schematic.py adapt their native formats; formats.py selects the reader; convert.py supplies the CLI. Readers retain block state IDs and properties rather than maintaining another Minecraft registry. A game upgrade does not silently rewrite source data.

New editing tools and interactive navigation belong to a separate future structura-edit package. Existing generation helpers remain available for compatibility.

Legacy input and existing helpers

The legacy extra is needed for legacy input conversion. Structure NBT processing and Sponge v2 .schem export do not require amulet-core.

pip install 'structura-core[legacy]'
structura-convert-legacy old.schematic structure.nbt
structura-export-schematic structure.nbt structure.schem

For local development, use pip install -e '.[legacy]' from this package's directory.

Legacy conversion keeps paintings and item frames by default, which is safe for generated structures. Preview tools can call convert(..., preserve_all_entities=True) to retain mobs, armor stands and loose items as well, including their exact fractional positions and NBT payloads.

For conversion that retains selection bounds, authored air, bedrock and block connections, pass prepare_for_placement=False as well, or use:

structura-convert-legacy old.schematic preserved.nbt --preserve-layout --all-entities

The converter's historical default still prepares a structure for datapack placement: it trims bounds, replaces bedrock, repairs pane/bar connections and selects interior/door-clearance air. Preview tools use the preserving mode. Conversion retains custom entity namespaces and supplies translated block entity IDs, allowing the result to be exported as Sponge without guessing IDs.

Generated additions fill missing cells and preserve authored cells, including explicit air. Use replacements to intentionally replace a cell; replacement also removes its old block entity NBT. Coordinates and palette indices must be integers in the NBT range. Every saved block is bounds-checked, and a failed write leaves an existing destination intact.

from structura_core import Structure, save_structure
from structura_core.export_schematic import export_schematic

structure = Structure("house.nbt", palette_index=0)
save_structure(structure, "copy.nbt", structure.size)
export_schematic(structure, "house.schem")

Selecting palette_index chooses the active view without discarding the other palettes on save. An integer addition selects the corresponding variant in each palette; a string such as "minecraft:stone" adds that literal state to every palette. Shifts update entity positions and known vanilla hanging-entity coordinates, while retaining unrelated custom NBT.

Sponge v2 has a single palette and a dense block array: export uses the selected palette and fills missing cells with air. Entities and block entity payloads are included; an entity without an id raises an error. This export does not translate Minecraft versions, and the output retains the source DataVersion.