Fabric vs Quilt Loom

Fabric is a free, modular mod loader for Minecraft, with tools for playing and building mods. The Fabric Loader download supplies the basic loader; most mods also need Fabric API in the mods folder for the extra APIs they use. Players can install through options including Minecraft Launcher, Minecraft Server, MultiMC, CurseForge, GDLauncher, ATLauncher, MCUpdater, Technic, portablemc, and Metadata API. For developers, Fabric offers an online template generator, project templates, command-line tools, and an example mod repository. Fabric Loom is a Gradle plugin for developing and debugging mods. Its wider toolchain includes Yarn, open Minecraft mappings offered under CC0; Intermediary, which provides match information for cross-version mods; and Tiny Remapper for JAR files. Documentation covers player installation and troubleshooting as well as developer topics from setup through rendering and networking. Fabric is free, supports Java mods, and is described as mostly version independent. Its site says it is not an official Minecraft product and is not approved by or associated with Mojang.

Quilt Loom is a Gradle plugin that adds Quilt support to the Fabric Loom Gradle plugin for Minecraft modding projects. It reads `quilt.mod.json` metadata to enable features such as jars-in-jars, transitive access wideners, and interface injection. The plugin automatically adds the Quilt Releases repository and applies the Quilt Mappings on Loom plugin. It uses Quiltflower by default through loom-quiltflower by Juuxel. The project is based on a fabric-loom subproject with Quilt-specific patches, and its repository includes Gradle wrapper scripts for build tasks. Contributors are directed to work in the patched-quilt-loom subproject and submit changes as patches for maintainers to merge into the patch series. The software is free under an MIT license, subject to its conditions, and supports Linux, macOS, and Windows. The GitHub Releases page has no releases listed. Quilt describes itself as an independent maker of Minecraft modding tools, not an official Minecraft product and not approved by or associated with Mojang Studios.