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Quick start

Let's build our first quest — "Escape": a required task "Find and pull the lever" and an optional one "Find out what became of the survivors". A quest here isn't just a checkbox in a list: it moves through stages and can end in success or failure.

There are two ways to do it — both produce the same quest:

  • With commands — to try it out in-game right away, without creating files. This kind of quest (a dynamic quest) is saved inside the world and exists only as part of it.
  • Through a datapack — when the quest becomes part of your content. A datapack can live in the world and, when needed, be detached and distributed on its own — as a standalone set of quests.

Start with commands if you just want to get a feel for the system.

Path 1. A quest from commands

InkQuest commands require operator level 2+. In a single-player world, turn on cheats for that.

We create the quest and its two tasks — one required, one optional:

/quest new example:escape "Escape"
/quest modify example:escape tasks add required push_the_lever "Find and pull the lever that opens the hatch"
/quest modify example:escape tasks add optional look_for_survivors "Find out what became of the survivors"

We give the quest to the player and pin it to the HUD:

/quest give PlayerName example:escape
/quest pin PlayerName example:escape

After the quest is granted, the player sees a hint about the new quest, and the pinned quest appears in the HUD on screen. The full quest list opens with the J key — more in Player interface.

To complete the tasks, you can hide command blocks around the map with commands like these:

/quest complete PlayerName example:escape task push_the_lever success
/quest complete PlayerName example:escape task look_for_survivors success

Tasks added by command are completed only by the quest complete command. For a task to complete on its own — say, by a scoreboard score or a Minecraft predicate — you need a datapack quest (see below and Task completion conditions).

Path 2. The same quest in a datapack

A static quest is described in JSON and lives in a datapack — you can keep it together with the world or distribute it separately. Unlike the command version, its tasks can complete on their own — by the conditions you set. Put the files in the world's datapack:

<world>/datapacks/example/
├── pack.mcmeta
└── data/example/quests/escape.json

pack.mcmeta — the datapack's metadata file (pack_format: 15 matches Minecraft 1.20.1):

{
    "pack": {
        "pack_format": 15,
        "description": "Example quests"
    }
}

escape.json — the quest itself. The file name (escape) and the folder (example) together give the identifier example:escape:

{
    "version": 3,
    "variant": 1,
    "title": "Escape",
    "description": "There's no staying here any longer — but how do I get out?",
    "tasks": {
        "push_the_lever": {
            "title": "Find and pull the lever that opens the hatch",
            "description": "When one of the guards stepped out, I caught a click somewhere at the far end of the room"
        },
        "look_for_survivors": {
            "title": "Find out what became of the survivors",
            "description": "I should search the cells — maybe I'll find someone else who made it out alive"
        }
    },
    "stages": [
        ["push_the_lever", "look_for_survivors"]
    ]
}

A few things about the structure:

  • version and variant are required. They guard against loading in an incompatible mod version; the current values are version: 3, variant: 1. The breakdown is in Quest file format.
  • stages is a list of stages, and each stage is a list of task IDs. The first task in a stage is required, the rest are optional. Here there's one stage: push_the_lever drives progress, look_for_survivors runs alongside.

Load the datapack with /reload and check that the quest was read:

/quest list static

If example:escape is in the list — you're all set; from here the quest is granted with the same quest give command. If it isn't — check the server log and Common questions and errors.

Not every quest has to be a "task with progress". You can make a note-quest with no tasks — a journal page, a rumor, a piece of lore — or an event with shared progress. Ready-made recipes are in Quest patterns.

What's next

The example quest is the simplest case. From here the documentation branches by interest: