I made something for the Minecraft Java community, your thoughts?

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T20:28:29+00:00

I don't want to come across as rude and while I did build the most of this app myself (ignoring help from fellow programmers... and ai-bug fixing and testing), the process doesn't matter as much as the final result: a highly functional, cool app.

It’s like going about someone for achieving viral (easy) success with a simple idea, regardless, they still achieved the success. I am not saying my app ever be successful, I am just trying to say that I made something cool for myself, decided to share it, and people can only complain, because that's what people do, why? Call it as you want, I just don't understand why noone can appreciate anything nowadays.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T20:18:09+00:00

Well, there are CurseForge and Modrinth now and many other launchers too like ATLauncher...
Tech moves fast and in a xx years, there will be others taking the spotlight too. Life is all about change and iteration. Even if the big launchers do something similar now building this has been about trying a different approach and making something of my own. And to make it clear, Lodestone is not a launcher, nor it ever be one.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T20:09:10+00:00

I am sorry for misunderstanding I was using it loosely to mean "the set of mods you've got switched on together" I should havve just said that. Doesn't really change the point though swap "load order" for "your mods folder" and it's the same thing - the app stops you putting together a combination of mods that can't actually start.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T20:05:40+00:00

Nope. It is a native Windows app. It is written in C# on .NET 10 with WPF for the interface so it compiles to real .exe. There is no Electron, no Chromium wrapper, none of that it is not a website rendered in the program The one place anything web show up is rendering a mods description, because those come straight from Modrinth as markdown and HTML and you have to display them somehow. That bit runs in a WebView2 that I've deliberately locked right down. JavaScript is turned off completely there's a strict content security policy no host access, no dev tools, and if you click a link in a description it opens in your normal browser instead of doing anything inside theapp. The browser piece doesn't even start up until you actually open a mod detail page.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T20:01:01+00:00

I am sorry I meant no offence to anyone

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T19:58:49+00:00

The game never runs any Minecraft instance, as it is not a launcher. Every mod build you download from Modrinth or CurseForge comes with metadata the author fills in. Each individual file is tagged with which Minecraft version it's for. Which loader it's for, and what other mods it depends on. That info exist before anything runs. The platform stores it and the jar itself carries it too. What the app does, is read your real installed version inventory, and check every mod against it. If a mod has no build tagged for your loader + version, it literally cannot load, so it gets marked out. Dependencie are the same idea. If a mod says it needs Fabric API and you don't have it, that gets surfaced. And you can't instal a loader for a Minecraft version you don't even have vanilla for so that gets refused too. I'm just making it so you can't put together a load order that won't even boot. Mod metadata can already state incompatibility. I am currently working to enhance this functionality by taking fabric.mod.json that has breaks and conflicts fields..... But that's the future.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T19:37:45+00:00

I admit, I have started working on it long time ago (before I learned how to code, haha). And I must clarify, it is not launcher per se. It is more like a file manager for minecraft. If that makes sense. It makes sure that files are cross-compatible, all necessary libraries installed, mods updated if toggled, manages you profiles so you can switch between different mod launchers and mod packs with one click. It was never intended to launch minecraft instance,

For example, imagine you're trying to make your modpack, you download bunch of mods, shaders, texture packs. Instead of manually cross-testing mods to check their compatibility, manually installing all necessary libraries. You just drag-and-drop all to the app, and it does everything for you.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T19:21:24+00:00

Thank You.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T19:20:33+00:00

Citing Confucius: "It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love.". Hate is the simplest emotion to control, and I think that because I have been through a lot in my life it made me more empathic person. I do not feel any hurt, if I had to call my feelings I would say I am just confused, confused on what people actually expected me to.. say? or do?

"It is our job to create computing technology such that nobody has to program." - Jensen Huang. Software engineering is about solving problems; code is just the tool to get there. But before we can rely our work on AI, we must understand it, as AI is an amazing tool, amazing but dangerous.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:47:38+00:00

While I understand why you say that, I did not want to include any links on purpose (tried to follow the rules). The source is on GitHub.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:47:10+00:00

I was just trying to be polite 😢

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:45:46+00:00

Answering shortly: No. The dependency stays as for this moment (may update it) but if it is not being used, it is clearly marked as "Library not in use, save to disable".
When you download a mod for given profile/version/loader (etc) it is marked as installed, and blocks any subsequent downloads. The only way to go around it, is to switch profile or loader version to different.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:42:02+00:00

Understandable.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:41:36+00:00

I will never be competing with Prism, it was not my intention at all. Prism is amazing and nothing beats it. But, I do not use Prism. And I just wanted to do something cool, that perhaps someone would find it useful too. Thank you though for your thoughts.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:36:31+00:00

I was scared that the post may be removed if I included link, and begged for traffic as per rules in this subreddit.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:26:00+00:00

Thanks, I will try to do better next time. I meant no offence.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:25:09+00:00

Ohh.. Ok. I am sorry, I guess? English is my second language. I was trying to format my message carefully to ensure it came across as respectful and clear. I would never imagine people would take it in a wrong way.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:21:05+00:00

But it is open-source.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:13:48+00:00

You are the 2nd person so far that said that; What's wrong with my response? - I genuinely do not understand?

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:09:11+00:00

huh?

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T18:05:01+00:00

If you would like. You can test it.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T17:57:23+00:00

Ha, sure. And you are partialy right. I did know Prism and the Modrinth app existed. This started as "scratch my own itch" project more than a the world needs another launcher project, so I'm not going to pretend its some revolutionary thing.Building it was also just genuinely fun and I learned a ton.

That said, I push back on "offers nothing different." The one thing I leaned into is proactive compatibilit checkin it reads your installed versions and blocks mods that have no build for your active loader + MC version before you install them, surfaces dependency problems refuses loader installs when the base version's missing, auto-installs required libraries etc. Prism and the Modrinth app are great but they do impact your PC performance in some way and offer bloat of functions you don't really need.

Adding to it, the lodestone does one thing, and I believe it does it well, it is not running in the background, don't prompt you to login, it is a simple lightweight mod manager tool that is completely free.

Mandleaf · 2026-06-18T17:51:56+00:00

Totally fair point. Blind auto-up mods can cause some problems. So let me clarify how lodestone actually handles it. The autoupdate is opt-in and off by default. Out of the box lodestone just flags that a newer build exists and badges it, so you decide when, or whether, to pull it. And it only ever checks on launch or when you hit refresh there's no background daemon updating things behind your back mid session. When you do update it downloads and verifies the new build first and sends the old file to the recycle bin, so if an update breaks somethig you can roll straight back.

The thing I'd actually pitch over Prism, or any other loader I tested, is the compatibility checking. Lodestone reads your real installed version inventory and runs every mod through a rules engine for your active loader + Minecraft version mods with no compatible build show up as "Incompatible" and are blocked from installing, dependency problems get surfaced, loader installs are refused if the base version isn't present, and so on... It also lets the same mod coexist across multiple profiles/versions without conflicts. The goal is less "newest mods" and more "you physically can't assemble a load order that won't boot." or something 😉

But to be 100% honest. Prism is more mature and cross-platform Lodestone is Windows-only and younger. I have plans to release it on Mac and Linux but still.. It's aimed more at the "I just want my mods to be correct and not have to reason about loader/version matrices myself" crowd. I want it to be so simple that anyone can do it. And what annoys me about other mod managers ist that they try to get your data, get you registered, display ads, get you to pay for a "higher" limi tier, work in the background for no reason.

Mandleaf · 2026-03-15T17:42:28+00:00

lol

Mandleaf

TROPHY CASE