Lodestone: Minecraft Mod Manager

Install and manage Minecraft mods, resource packs and shaders without the busywork. No profiles to wrangle, no config files to hand-edit.

 ·  Windows · .NET 10 · WPF · MIT

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Lodestone is a native Windows app for Minecraft (Java Edition). Drop a .jar on the window and it goes straight into the right folder for whatever game version you have selected. You can search thousands of mods on Modrinth, see at a glance when something is missing a dependency or clashes with another mod, and keep the whole set current. None of it involves opening a config file.

It is free, and it stays that way. Every feature is there for everyone; supporters pick up a few cosmetic extras and my thanks. More on that under Supporters.

Download and install

Get the latest release →

Either build is self-contained, so there is nothing else to install (no .NET, no separate runtimes):

• Lodestone-win-Setup.exe is the one I would recommend. It updates itself from then on.
• Lodestone-win-Portable.zip runs without installing. To update, download the newer zip.

Installing the Setup.exe

1. Grab Lodestone-win-Setup.exe from the latest release.
2. Run it. Windows might show a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen. That happens because the app is not code-signed yet, and it is not a virus warning. Choose More info, then Run anyway. You only do this once.
3. Lodestone installs and opens by itself. There is no wizard to click through.

After that it keeps itself current: when a new version ships, it downloads and applies on the next launch, so you will not reinstall.

Rather not install anything? Take Lodestone-win-Portable.zip, unzip it wherever you like (a USB stick works fine), and run Lodestone.exe. The portable build does not auto-update, so grab a newer zip when you want one.

Maintainers: how releases and auto-update work is written up in docs/DEPLOYMENT.md.

What it does

• Drag and drop to install. Drop a .jar, .zip, .litemod or .mcpack anywhere on the window. Lodestone works out whether it is a mod, resource pack or shader and puts it in the correct folder for the game version you currently have selected.
• Browse mods. Search Modrinth (CurseForge is pluggable), filter by category, sort by downloads or followers, and install in a click.
• My Content. Per-version "profiles", category filters, enable or disable without deleting, uninstall, and search.
• Compatibility and dependency checks. Everything in the list gets scanned, and a symbol shows up next to anything that needs a missing library, conflicts with another mod, was built for a different game version or loader, or is duplicated. Hover to read the reason.
• Updates when you ask for them. Lodestone checks for mod updates on launch and when you hit refresh; there is no background daemon. Optional auto-update keeps enabled mods current.
• Settings that actually do something. Game directory, default loader, concurrent downloads, update and notification behaviour, CurseForge fallback, close-to-tray. Each one is wired to real logic.
• App auto-update via Velopack; new releases install themselves.
• Light footprint. Nothing runs in the background, and closing the window ends the process (unless you opt into the tray). Your .minecraft only changes when you do something to it.

Architecture in brief

Clean/Onion layering with MVVM at the edge. Dependencies always point inward, which keeps the core logic unit-testable and means a future macOS port mostly comes down to swapping the UI layer.

Lodestone.Domain          pure entities, value objects, rules (no dependencies)
Lodestone.Application     ports (interfaces) + use-cases + the compatibility engine
Lodestone.Infrastructure  adapters: Modrinth API, archive readers, file system, settings, updater
Lodestone.App  (WPF)      views + viewmodels + DI composition root
Lodestone.Cli             headless surface (handy for scripting and integration tests)

Beyond Dependency Inversion, the code leans on a fair range of patterns: Strategy, Factory, Chain-of-Responsibility, Specification, Decorator, Adapter, Repository, Result/Railway, Options, Observer, Null-Object, Template-Method, Command and a light Mediator. docs/ARCHITECTURE.md walks through them, and docs/RISK-ANALYSIS.md covers the per-feature failure modes.

Getting started (developers)

# Requires the .NET 10 SDK (see global.json)
dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet test                                   # runs the full unit-test suite
dotnet run --project src/Lodestone.App        # launches the app

Releases and auto-update

Tag a commit v* and the release workflow builds a Velopack installer and publishes it to GitHub Releases. Installed clients update from that feed. A pre-release tag (say v1.3.0-beta.1) ships a patrons-first beta: it goes out as a GitHub pre-release that only the supporter early-access channel sees, until you cut the stable vX.Y.Z. There is a plain-English walkthrough (cutting a release, betas, how auto-update behaves, SmartScreen, troubleshooting) in docs/DEPLOYMENT.md.

Maintainer setup (Patreon link, supporter keys, CurseForge key, signing, cutting a release) lives in docs/HANDOFF.md.

Supporters

Donations go through Patreon and are completely optional. Pledge on any paid tier and, while that pledge is active, you get a redeemable code that switches on cosmetic extras: a supporter badge, a few extra accent themes, and an opt-in beta update channel. No payment happens inside the app, and nothing about how the app works is ever locked behind a donation. Details in docs/SUPPORTERS.md.

License

MIT. Not affiliated with Mojang, Microsoft, Modrinth or CurseForge.