Compass to Map: Xaero's Minimap & Explorer's Compass & Nature's Compass Addon

Auto-register found structures (Explorer's Compass) and biomes (Nature's Compass) as permanent Xaero's Minimap waypoints. No prompt, no edit screen — the waypoint just appears the instant you find it.

Found a structure or biome with Explorer's Compass or Nature's Compass, then had to manually punch the coordinates into Xaero's? This addon does it for you, the instant you find it. The waypoint appears silently on the minimap with zero UI interruption.

✨ Auto-waypoint on discovery — no prompt, no edit screen, no clicks
🧭 Explorer's Compass + Nature's Compass supported — structures, biomes, or both
🎨 Brand-purple waypoint — visually consistent, doesn't clash with vanilla Xaero colours
🛡️ OP-only /tp suggestion — operators get a clickable teleport suggestion in the chat notification; survival players just see the coordinates. Server-friendly.
🔁 Duplicate-proof — re-discovering the same structure won't add a second waypoint (server + client double dedupe)
💡 Pure addon — no items, no blocks, no textures. Just the automation.
🛟 Safe without Xaero's — silent fail if Xaero's isn't installed; no crash

How it works

Server side

Explorer's Compass / Nature's Compass store their discovery results on the compass item itself (DataComponent on 1.21+, NBT on 1.20.1). This mod watches each player's inventory in a server-side tick handler and detects fresh discoveries. When one fires, the server sends a single S2C custom packet (DiscoveryPayload: name + x + y + z) to that one player only — never broadcast.

Client side

On packet receive, work is marshalled to the main client thread, then reflection is used to reach into Xaero's internal API:

xaero.hud.minimap.BuiltInHudModules.MINIMAP
  .getCurrentSession()
  .getWorldManager()
  .getCurrentWorld()
  .getCurrentWaypointSet()
  → Construct a permanent (non-temporary) Waypoint and add it directly

A client-side dedup pass skips the add if an identical (name, x, y, z) waypoint already exists in the set. Combined with the server-side SEEN_KEYS dedup, you won't see duplicates from re-scans or session restarts.

All reflection paths swallow exceptions silently, so an Xaero update / API rename / Xaero absence just yields a no-op (no crash, no console spam). This mod has zero compile-time reference to Xaero's classes.

Both sides required

Because the architecture is server-side detect → custom packet → client-side reflect, this mod must be installed on both server and client. Xaero's Minimap itself is client-side only as usual.

Supported loaders / versions

Minecraft	NeoForge	Forge	Fabric
1.21.1	✅	✅	✅
1.20.1	—	✅	✅

NeoForge has no 1.20.1 release.

Configuration

config/compasstomapxaeros-common.toml or the Mod Settings GUI:

Key	Default	Description
`feature.enabled`	true	Master switch
`feature.enableStructure`	true	Explorer's Compass structure waypoints
`feature.enableBiome`	true	Nature's Compass biome waypoints
`notification.notifyOnFound`	true	Chat notification on discovery (waypoint registration is independent)

Compatibility

Mod	Support	Note
Explorer's Compass	optional	Structure-detection host
Nature's Compass	optional	Biome-detection host
Xaero's Minimap	optional (CLIENT only)	Waypoint target
Xaero's World Map	optional (CLIENT only)	Shares the same waypoint store with Minimap
JourneyMap	not targeted by this build	Use the JourneyMap sister mod instead

At least one of Explorer's Compass / Nature's Compass is required for detection to do anything; with neither, the mod loads and stays idle.

Install

Install NeoForge / Forge / Fabric for 1.21.1 or 1.20.1
Install at least one of Explorer's Compass / Nature's Compass (both is fine)
Install Xaero's Minimap and/or Xaero's World Map on the client (recommended)
Fabric only: add Forge Config API Port
Drop compasstomapxaeros-<version>.jar from the releases page into mods/ on both server and client

License

MIT — modpack use, modification and redistribution OK, credit not required (welcome).

Author: KURONAMI · Built on Explorer's Compass / Nature's Compass / Xaero's Minimap / Xaero's World Map. Sister mod: Ping to Map: Xaero's edition.