Factor'I/O

Factorio's inserters and transport belts, in Minecraft. Items move between the inventories you already have — vanilla or from any other mod — without a hopper in sight.

Forge 1.20.1 · MIT · GitHub · Wiki · CurseForge · Discord

This is a beta. Inserters and belts are complete and tested.

Inserters

An inserter takes items out of the block behind it and puts them into the block in front. Seven of them, differing in how fast, how far, and how selectively.

Throughput sits within 8 % of Factorio's, converted to 20 ticks per second.

Filters hold five ghost items, whitelist or blacklist, and each slot matches either that exact item or its whole tag — your choice, per slot. #forge:ingots in one slot and a single plank in the next is a normal setup, and it keeps working when you add another mod.

Redstone is a comparison, not a switch: always on, on below a signal strength, or on at or above it. A comparator reading a chest can run an inserter only when that chest is nearly empty, with no additional circuit.

Transport belts

Two lanes of four slots, as in Factorio. Belts curve, merge from the side, compress against an obstacle, and a closed loop keeps turning when full.

An inserter drops on the far lane — the one furthest from it. That is the rule every two-lane build in Factorio rests on, and it is the belt that enforces it, from the side the request comes from. Hoppers and pipes from other mods follow the same rule without knowing belts exist.

Belts expose an inventory on every face. A hopper above loads one; a hopper below drains one, taking the front-most item first, because a belt is a queue. A belt never fills a chest by itself and never empties one — that is what inserters are for.

You can also load a belt by hand: right-click with an item to drop one on the lane and slot you clicked, right-click empty-handed to take the front one back.

Upgrades

Three axes — speed, capacity, efficiency — three tiers each, and they stack: two Speed Module 3 are worth more than one. How many fit is a property of the machine, from one on a burner to four on a stack filter inserter.

Speed shortens the swing without changing what a swing costs, so a faster inserter draws more power per second and the same per item. Efficiency is the axis that lowers cost per item.

Data-driven

An inserter is a data file, not a Java class. Drop a JSON into config/factor_io/inserters/ and you have a new one — block, item, block entity, menu and screen are built from the definition, and its models, translations, loot table and tags are generated in memory. No assets to draw, no code to write.

A datapack retunes the shipped inserters live and applies on /reload. Everything the mod recognises goes through item tags, never a hardcoded list, so another mod's wrench or another pack's component becomes usable by joining a tag.

Belt speeds, and which of the seven inserters exist at all, are config options. Belt speed changes apply to belts already placed.

Energy

The mod consumes Forge Energy and produces none — bring a generator from Mekanism, Thermal, or anything outputting FE. Burner inserters need no power at all and refuel themselves from the chest they draw from, so a whole line can run on coal.

The Creative Energy Source covers creative and testing, and is deliberately recipe-less.

What is not in this build

Said plainly, because finding out in-game is worse:

• No machines — no furnaces, assemblers or ore processing.
• Modules and the configurator have no recipes and are creative-only.
• No splitters and no vertical belts.
• No JEI plugin.
• Belt worlds may not survive a 0.x update. Back up.

Compatibility and permissions

Anything exposing an IItemHandler works with both inserters and belts, which is essentially every storage mod on Forge 1.20.1. Vanilla hoppers work in both directions.

Modpacks: yes. No permission needed, public or private, monetised or not. Credit appreciated, never required.

Getting help

The wiki is the reference — player guide, config, datapack docs and FAQ. Bugs go to GitHub issues, questions to Discord.