Toolwise

Always the right tool, and never a broken one.

Toolwise picks the best tool from your hotbar the moment you start mining a block, picks your strongest weapon when you hit a mob, and puts you back on the slot you were holding once you are done. It also stops you from spending the last few uses of a tool, so your favourite pickaxe does not vanish in the middle of a tunnel.

Client-side only, no setup needed, works out of the box.

Features

• Best tool for every block – start mining and Toolwise switches to the right hotbar tool: pickaxe for stone, shovel for dirt, axe for logs. It first prefers a tool that actually gets the block's drops, then the fastest one (Efficiency is taken into account). If nothing in your hotbar is better than what you hold, nothing changes.
• Best weapon for mobs – when you attack a living mob, Toolwise switches to the hotbar item with the best damage × attack speed (for example a sword instead of a pickaxe).
• Back to your slot – shortly after you stop attacking (10 ticks = 0.5 s, configurable) you are returned to the slot you had before. If you pick a slot yourself in the meantime, Toolwise leaves your choice alone.
• Break protection – a tool with 3 or fewer uses left (configurable, 0 turns it off) is never selected automatically, and mining with it is blocked with a short message above the hotbar. If another suitable tool is in your hotbar, Toolwise uses that one instead. Protection for weapons is optional and off by default, so a fight is never blocked.
• Stays out of the way – only your hotbar is used (nothing is moved around in your inventory), it is inactive in Creative and Spectator, and you can pause it by holding Sneak (optional).
• Toggle key and command – bind "Toggle Toolwise" in Options → Controls → Key Binds (unbound by default), or use /toolwise.
• English and German translations.

Screenshots

1. Mining deepslate: Toolwise switched from the sword to the diamond pickaxe on its own.
2. Hitting a mob: Toolwise switched from the pickaxe to the diamond sword.
3. Break protection: a wooden pickaxe with 1 use left is kept instead of being used up.
4. /toolwise shows and changes all settings in game.

Installation

1. Install Fabric Loader (0.20.1 or newer) for Minecraft 26.3.
2. Put Fabric API and the Toolwise jar into your mods folder.
3. Start the game. Java 25 is required (the official Minecraft launcher ships it for 26.3).

Configuration

Type /toolwise to see the current settings. Every change is saved to config/toolwise.json right away.

Good to know

• Only items in your hotbar are considered.
• Silk Touch and Fortune are not treated specially in 1.0.0; among equal tools the fastest one wins.
• Like a manual switch in vanilla, changing the held item resets the attack cooldown, so the first hit right after an automatic weapon switch can be weaker.
• Toolwise only changes your selected hotbar slot, the same thing the mouse wheel does. It has not been tested on multiplayer servers. Some servers do not allow automatic tool switching, so check the server rules first.
• Tested on Minecraft 26.3 with Fabric Loader 0.20.1 and Fabric API 0.165.0+26.3 in singleplayer, and additionally together with Sodium 0.9.3-beta.1. Other mod combinations have not been tested.

FAQ

Do I need it on the server? No. Toolwise is client-side only.

How do I switch it off quickly? Bind the "Toggle Toolwise" key or type /toolwise toggle.

Will it ever use up my tool? Not with the default settings. Mining stops at 3 uses left. Set /toolwise protect 0 if you want to use every last point.

Is there a Forge or NeoForge version? Not in 1.0.0. Only Fabric for Minecraft 26.3 is supported.

Is there a config screen? Not in 1.0.0. Use /toolwise or edit config/toolwise.json.

Community & Support

Questions, bug reports or ideas? Join our Discord

License

Toolwise is released under the MIT License.