bedrockR vs JsonForge

bedrockR is a free, open-source visual maker for Minecraft Bedrock add-ons. It runs on Windows and Linux and is intended to make add-on creation less confusing and tedious. Windows downloads provide a portable EXE in a ZIP archive and an MSI installer for 64-bit systems. Linux releases include Debian DEB installers and portable builds for ARM64 and AMD64; the maker says Debian builds can be installed on Chromebook. Universal JAR builds require Java 25, and other Java versions are unsupported. The project wiki includes guides for making a basic item, block and recipe, plus a food tutorial video. bedrockR describes itself as alpha, so features and behavior may change. Feedback is requested through Discord and GitHub issues. Since version a2.0, its add-on creation code can be used in other projects through a Maven library on JitPack; earlier releases do not work there and are discouraged as libraries. The project says it is not associated with Mojang AB or Microsoft Corp.

JsonForge is a visual editor for building Minecraft Bedrock JSON UI screens and exporting UI for resource packs. It runs in modern browsers and as a native Electron application on Windows, macOS and Linux. Users can place interface elements on a canvas, adjust their properties, add textures and inspect JSON. The editor includes 10 element types, such as panels, images, labels, buttons, toggles and custom elements. Its workspace has dockable Toolbox, Hierarchy, Canvas, Properties, Textures, Bindings and JSON Preview panels. The canvas uses anchors and the game’s nine-slice texture behavior, with an Edit/Preview toggle. Export targets include form screens, HUD overlays and restyled vanilla scoreboards, with .mcaddon or .mcpack output as applicable. The app includes five ore-UI texture sets and Minecraft fonts. Projects can be saved as .jfproject bundles with an element tree, bindings and textures, or imported and exported as raw Minecraft Bedrock JSON UI .json files. The desktop app can locate worlds on the machine and install exported packs into resource and behavior pack folders. JsonForge is open source under the MIT license. Its guide notes that resource packs cannot create new values that the game does not draw.