CraftFlow

CraftFlow is a recursive crafting planner and automation mod for Minecraft Forge 1.20.1. It connects JEI or EMI recipe browsing with player inventories, storage networks, and supported modded workstations, allowing complex items to be planned and crafted through a single workflow.

Instead of manually crafting every intermediate component, moving ingredients between machines, and repeatedly checking recipes, you can select the item you want, choose an amount, review the generated plan, and let CraftFlow execute the required steps.

How It Works

When you request an item from a supported JEI or EMI recipe page, CraftFlow analyzes the recipe and recursively searches for the ingredients required to produce it.

For example, if the requested item requires planks, sticks, tools, and several intermediate components, CraftFlow can:

1. Check which materials are already available.
2. Resolve recipes for missing intermediate items.
3. Calculate the quantities required by every step.
4. Reuse available catalysts and tools where appropriate.
5. Display a preview of the complete crafting plan.
6. Execute each recipe in the correct order.
7. Collect intermediate and final outputs.
8. Deliver the requested result to the selected destination.
9. Return surplus materials to storage when possible.

CraftFlow does not add replacement recipes. It plans and executes recipes provided by Minecraft, datapacks, CraftTweaker/KubeJS scripts, and supported mods.

Main Features

Recursive Crafting Plans

CraftFlow can resolve multi-step crafting chains automatically. Intermediate products are treated as usable materials for later steps, allowing large recipe trees to be completed without manually crafting every component.

The planner calculates:

• Required ingredients
• Available materials
• Missing materials
• Intermediate products
• Requested output quantities
• Reusable tools and catalysts
• Surplus items produced by recipes
• The correct execution order

Before crafting begins, a preview shows the planned steps so that you can check what will be crafted and where each operation will take place.

JEI and EMI Integration

CraftFlow adds its crafting controls directly to supported JEI and EMI recipe displays.

You can start planning from the recipe you are currently viewing instead of opening a separate crafting interface. Both ordinary recipes and supported special workstation recipes can participate in recursive plans.

Only one recipe viewer is required. CraftFlow can operate with either JEI or EMI, depending on the mods installed in the pack.

Inventory and Storage Access

CraftFlow can obtain ingredients from the player's inventory or from a supported storage network.

Supported storage integrations include:

• Refined Storage
• Tom's Simple Storage Mod
• Beyond Dimensions storage systems

CraftFlow selects the available storage integration according to the installed mods. Multiple supported storage mods may be installed at the same time.

Depending on the selected destination, the requested final product can be delivered to the player's inventory or returned to storage. Intermediate products and surplus materials are kept within the crafting workflow and returned to storage when possible.

Modded Workstation Automation

Many modded recipes cannot be completed inside a normal crafting grid. CraftFlow includes a modular special-executor system for supported workstations and recipe types.

Special executors can handle operations such as:

• Inserting ingredients into a workstation
• Supplying catalysts or tools
• Reusing non-consumed recipe components
• Applying real tool durability
• Waiting for the workstation to finish
• Collecting output slots
• Collecting multiple outputs
• Recovering dropped recipe results
• Returning unused materials
• Passing completed products into later recursive steps

Workstations can be bound to a compatible terminal or storage access item. Once bound, CraftFlow can direct the corresponding recipe step to that workstation.

Supported integrations may include workstations and recipe systems from mods such as Farmer's Delight, Youkai's Homecoming, Ars Nouveau, The Aether, Malum, Goety, Forbidden and Arcanus, Apotheosis, Eidolon, TerraCurio, Immortalers Delight, Crock Pot, and other compatible mods.

The exact integrations available depend on the installed version of CraftFlow and the mods present in the modpack.

Quantity-Aware Crafting

CraftFlow supports ordering more than one copy of an item.

The planner accounts for:

• Recipe output stack sizes
• Batch crafting
• Intermediate item demand
• Reusable catalysts
• Tool durability
• Recipes that produce multiple result stacks
• Recipes that create surplus materials

This prevents reusable tools from being crafted once per requested item and avoids treating every catalyst as a consumable ingredient.

Tools and Catalysts

Tools are handled according to their real item state. CraftFlow does not simulate durability by creating artificial copies or imitating enchantments.

When a recipe damages a tool, the actual tool is used and its durability is updated normally. If the requested quantity requires more durability than the available tools provide, the planner can account for the additional requirement instead of assuming one tool can complete an unlimited number of operations.

Reusable catalysts are retained and reused across compatible crafting steps whenever the recipe allows it.

Special Recipe Outputs

Some workstations place results into output slots, inventories, tanks, or the world instead of returning a normal crafting-grid result.

CraftFlow's special executors are responsible for monitoring these outputs and collecting them after the operation finishes. Collected products can then be:

• Used by later recursive steps
• Returned to a storage network
• Delivered to the player's inventory
• Combined with other outputs from the same request

Protected collection logic is used for supported dropped-item recipes so that expected outputs are not taken by unrelated item collection effects before CraftFlow processes them.

Multiplayer Support

CraftFlow is designed for multiplayer use. Crafting requests are validated and executed on the server rather than trusting client-side inventory data.

For multiplayer, CraftFlow should be installed on both the client and the server. Players use the client integration to create and preview plans, while the server performs storage access, workstation interaction, item movement, and crafting execution.

Each request is associated with the player who created it. Storage access and workstation operations use the available server-side context rather than sharing one global client cache between all players.

Server owners should test large crafting plans with the modpack's configured storage systems, recipe scripts, chunk- loading rules, and protection mods before enabling unrestricted automation.

Configuration

CraftFlow provides configuration options for automation features beyond basic recursive crafting.

Special integrations are enabled by default and can be disabled individually when they are not wanted or when a modpack uses heavily customized workstation behavior.

Disabling an integration prevents CraftFlow from planning or executing that special recipe type. It does not remove the original recipe or disable the workstation itself.

This modular design allows a modpack to keep ordinary recursive crafting while selectively disabling incompatible or undesired automation systems.

Compatibility Notes

CraftFlow is intended for modded environments, so compatibility can depend on the exact recipe definitions and workstation implementation used by a modpack.

Recipes created through datapacks, KubeJS, or CraftTweaker can generally participate when they expose valid ingredients and outputs through Minecraft's recipe system or a supported JEI/EMI recipe category.

Some recipes may require dedicated handling when they:

• Use hidden internal inventories
• Create world entities as outputs
• Require multiblock structures
• Consume fluids or energy outside the normal recipe interface
• Depend on player-specific progression
• Use random outputs
• Require manual interaction during processing
• Do not expose enough recipe information to JEI or EMI

A visible recipe does not automatically mean that its workstation can be automated. CraftFlow only executes special recipes for which a compatible executor is available.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.20.1
• Forge
• JEI or EMI
• CraftFlow on both client and server for multiplayer

A supported storage mod is required for storage-network automation. Inventory-based behavior and the exact available destinations depend on the installed integrations.

No specific version of an optional storage or workstation mod is forcibly required by CraftFlow unless stated on the corresponding release page.

Intended Use

CraftFlow is designed for players and modpacks with long crafting chains, large storage networks, and many specialized workstations.

It is especially useful when:

• One item requires many intermediate recipes
• Ingredients are distributed across a storage network
• A modpack uses several different crafting machines
• The same complex item must be crafted repeatedly
• Special recipe outputs need to continue into later steps
• Players want to inspect material requirements before starting

CraftFlow turns recipe browsing into an executable crafting workflow while preserving the behavior of the original recipes, tools, storage systems, and workstations.