Hover Hints is a lightweight utility mod that shows small contextual hints for hidden vanilla Minecraft mechanics.

It gives useful information exactly when you need it, while you are holding a relevant item, looking at a matching block or entity, and intentionally asking for a hint.

Hover Hints preview

Hover Hints does not add new gameplay mechanics or change vanilla balance. It only reveals information that already exists in Minecraft.

How it works

By default, hints are shown while holding Left Alt.

For example, if you hold a compostable item and look at a composter, Hover Hints shows the chance that the item will raise the compost level. If you hold fuel and look at a furnace, it shows how long that fuel will burn. If you hold bone meal and look at a plant, it shows what effect bone meal can have there.

Examples

Composting

Composting Example

Fuel burn time

Fuel Example

Bone meal behavior

Bone Meal Example

Entity hints

Entity Hints Example

Available hints

Hover Hints works fully client-side for mechanics that are already known to the client. Some hints use server-only data, such as loot tables or villager POI ownership, and require Hover Hints to be installed on the server to show accurate results.

Hint	What it shows	Server installation required
Composting	Compost chance for the held item when looking at a composter	No
Fuel Burn Time	Burn time for the held item when looking at a furnace, smoker, or blast furnace	No
Grindstone XP	Estimated XP from removing enchantments with a grindstone	No
Bone Meal	Growth effect, chance, stage increase, spreading, or item drop behavior	No
Taming Chance	Taming or trust chance for tameable animals	No
Redstone Power	Current redstone power level of the targeted block	No
Silk Touch Requirement	Whether the targeted block needs Silk Touch to drop itself	No
Animal Feeding	Breeding state, baby growth time, love mode timer, and breeding cooldown	Yes, for exact timers
Mob Loot	Possible drops from the targeted mob	Yes
Archaeology Loot	Possible loot from suspicious sand or suspicious gravel	Yes
Villager POI	Whether a villager workstation, bed, or bell is occupied	Yes

Configuration

The config screen is available through ModMenu or the /hoverhints config command. Cloth Config is required.

Config Menu