Tamekind
Tamekind is a server-side Fabric mod that expands passive-animal AI with herding, threat awareness, trust, temperament, habitat behavior, and predator-prey interactions.
Only the server needs Tamekind. Players can join with an unmodified client. For singleplayer, install it in the usual mods folder. Fabric API is required.
Features
- Herd behavior: nearby animals form groups, elect a consistent leader, share useful locations, and follow the leader's recent route.
- Threat response: animals can notice danger, freeze, retreat, flee, warn nearby herd members, and avoid poor escape positions.
- Sentinels: herd adults rotate through a watch role and scan farther for threats.
- Trust: feeding builds per-player trust while attacks reduce it. Trusted players cause less fear and may be followed.
- Temperament: animals receive a stable skittish, steady, bold, or curious temperament that influences their reactions.
- Size variation: individual size varies, and offspring can inherit a blend of their parents' sizes.
- Habitat behavior: animals seek shelter, water, grazing locations, and remembered home positions when the relevant systems are enabled.
- Family behavior: young animals stay near adults, and parents react when their offspring are threatened.
- Predator-prey rules: datapack tags control which predators hunt which animals. Tamed predators do not independently hunt their owner's livestock.
- AI distance scaling: distant animals run a reduced set of behaviors to limit the cost of large farms and dense worlds.
Body condition and seasonal breeding are available but disabled by default. Body condition is non-lethal and cannot starve livestock.
Supported animals
Tamekind includes cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, goats, rabbits, wolves, and foxes. Modded animals can be added through datapack tags.
Installation
- Install Fabric API.
- Place Tamekind in the instance or server
modsfolder. - Start the game or server.
Existing worlds are supported. Back up a world before adding or updating any mod.
Configuration
The configuration file is generated at:
config/tamekind.properties
Most behavior systems can be enabled, disabled, or tuned independently. After editing the file, run /tamekind reload or restart the server.
Three presets are available through /tamekind profile:
vanilla+realismsimulation
Leashed, mounted, breeding, named, and tamed animals are excluded from movement-changing behavior by default. Each exclusion can be changed in the configuration.
Commands
Tamekind includes operator commands for configuration and diagnostics under /tamekind. Common commands include:
/tamekind config— show the active configuration/tamekind reload— reloadtamekind.properties/tamekind profile— show or apply a configuration preset/tamekind animal— inspect the nearest animal/tamekind dump— show detailed state for the nearest animal/tamekind leader— inspect herd leadership/tamekind goals— inspect installed AI goals and priority conflicts/tamekind forget— clear the nearest animal's Tamekind memory/tamekind disable— toggle Tamekind behavior for an entity type
See the commands documentation for syntax and the complete command list.
Datapacks and compatibility
Datapack tags control herd membership, predators, prey, grazing blocks, shelter blocks, water sources, and blocks animals should avoid. This allows modded mobs and blocks to participate without a code dependency.
Tamekind includes soft compatibility for:
Compatibility is not guaranteed with mods that replace the same animal goals or inject higher-priority movement behavior. Use /tamekind goals when diagnosing conflicts.
Additional documentation:

