Quilt
A community-driven fork of the Fabric mod loader that can load most Fabric mods alongside its own.
Quilt is a mod loader for Minecraft Java Edition that was forked from Fabric. It was started by members of the Fabric community who wanted a different project structure and governance. Quilt has its own loader and its own API, and it aims to stay compatible with Fabric mods.
Fabric compatibility
Quilt can load most Fabric mods. To make that work it provides a replacement for Fabric API (the Quilted Fabric API), so mods that depend on Fabric API still find what they need. Compatibility is not guaranteed for every mod, particularly ones that hook deeply into Fabric Loader internals.
Why it matters for server owners
In practice you rarely choose Quilt on your own. You end up with it when a modpack or a mod you want is built for Quilt. In that case the server must run Quilt too, and players need the same loader on their clients.
If you are building your own modded server from scratch and all your mods support Fabric, plain Fabric is the more common and better documented option. Most server-side optimisation mods and tools are published for Fabric first.
A few points that apply to Quilt servers:
- Mods go into the
modsfolder, content mods must match on client and server. - Bukkit plugins do not run on Quilt; see datapack vs plugin vs mod.
- Forge and NeoForge mods do not load on Quilt.
Practical tip
When a Fabric mod fails on Quilt, check whether the mod author lists Quilt as supported, and whether a newer Quilted Fabric API version fixes it, before looking for a replacement mod.