Mods

Mods (short for modifications) are software packages that change the behavior of Minecraft in various ways. Developers of mods are referred to as mod authors or mod developers. Over 30,000 mods for Minecraft currently exist, all with various functions. Most mods are created for the Java Edition, because it is easy to decompile it due to it being written in Java, and because of the portability that Java provides. Mods for the Bedrock Edition are called add-ons and are mostly distributed to the Minecraft Marketplace. There are little to no mods for the Legacy Console Edition or for other editions.

Early mods for the Java Edition were patches of the minecraft.jar, although now most mods are created using Minecraft Forge or Fabric or Quilt.

History
The earliest forms of mods were texture packs. One of the earliest "mods" to change content was called Omen. It was a map editor, and it was used heavily on servers. One of the earliest mods to modify the game's code was Lava + Water = Glass, which made Glass be produced when Lava touched Water, instead of Stone.

Later, hMod was released, the predecessor to Bukkit.

Risugami's ModLoader was released in late 2010. It allowed for greater compatible between mods. Minecraft Coder Pack (later renamed to "Mod Coder Pack") was released around the same time; it allowed for the deobfuscation of Minecraft's code, which allowed it to be easier to read and understand, hence allowing it to be easier to modify. During Minecraft Beta, many large mods that still have varying amounts of popularity today were released, including IndustrialCraft, BuildCraft, Railcraft, and Better Than Wolves. After another framework called Minecraft Forge was created, originally to allow more mods to be able to be used at the same time.

During the later versions of beta, a user named KakerMix released one of the earliest modpacks named Technic on a website named Something Awful. It only had a few downloads, until it was reviewed by a member of The Yogscast. It then got a multitude of downloads. With the newfound popularity, KakerMix assembled a team to make the Technic Launcher and further modpacks, including a multiplayer version of Technic, Tekkit.

Feed The Beast (FTB) was released on February 24, 2012, as a modded map. After being played by Direwolf20 and TheMattaBase, it gained a large following. The creator, slowpoke101, decided to make modpacks for general usage after many users using the modpack without the map. Many "kitchen-sink" FTB modpacks have been released since then, including FTB Ultimate and FTB Infinity. One of the things that initially separated FTB from Technic was that FTB asked for permission from all included mod's authors before releasing modpacks, which had caused Technic problems previously.

After a partnership with Curse, Inc., FTB discontinued the FTB Launcher in favour of the Curse Client application, later known as the Twitch Desktop App. The Twitch Desktop App application allows for easy management of mods for its integration with CurseForge. However, the Twitch Desktop App has received criticism from the community for its lack of Linux support, as well as some other factors.

On June 22, 2020, Overwolf announced that it had acquired CurseForge from Twitch Interactive for an undisclosed amount. After November 30, 2020, the Twitch Desktop App no longer manages mods. CurseForge's mod management functionality can since be found in the CurseForge app, which is for Windows (Overwolf required) and macOS (Standalone, Overwolf not required). In June 2022, the standalone CurseForge app was released for Linux and Windows, starting with World of Warcraft support, later adding support for Minecraft: Java Edition.

The FTB App is now the recommended way to install and play FTB modpacks.

Modrinth is a newer mod host that mainly features Fabric mods. Modrinth features a more open API compared to CurseForge and features an easier to use interface, modloader filtering and a fast and simple website. CurseForge has adopted some of these features.