Network Channels

Declare Nows network channels and register packet handlers through the networking integration.

Some APIs may still change or behave unevenly because they do not have enough real-world use cases and test coverage yet.

Network Channels

integrations/network exposes a small networking surface over Minecraft’s existing Netty stack without importing version-specific Minecraft packet classes.

Declare channels in metadata, then use NowsNetworking from the runtime context:

mod id="my_mod" name="My Mod" version="1.0.0" minecraft="26.2" {
    runtime {
        network-channel "my_mod:main"
        clientbound-channel "my_mod:sync"
        serverbound-channel "my_mod:action"
        entrypoint "com.example.MyMod"
    }
}

The runtime registration step reads network-channel, network, clientbound-channel and serverbound-channel declarations. A plain network-channel is bidirectional by default.

NowsNetworking networking = NowsNetworking.service(context);
networking.registerChannel("my_mod:main");
networking.registerHandler("my_mod:main", NetworkDirection.CLIENTBOUND, (packet, payload) -> {
    int bytes = payload.size();
    ByteBuf buffer = payload.buffer();
});

Payloads are backed by Netty ByteBuf. Nows expects Minecraft launcher/runtime libraries to provide Netty and does not bundle a second copy.

Sending goes through NetworkTransport, which is installed by version-specific code. Until a concrete transport is present, canSend(...) and send(...) return false.

byte[] payload = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3 };
if (networking.canSend("my_mod:action", NetworkDirection.SERVERBOUND)) {
    networking.send("my_mod:action", NetworkDirection.SERVERBOUND, payload);
}

NetworkDirection also validates side usage. A client runtime can receive CLIENTBOUND packets and send SERVERBOUND packets. A server runtime is the opposite. If a packet is received on the wrong side, Nows throws an error instead of silently dispatching it.

Handler Shape

Handlers receive a NetworkPacketContext and a NetworkPayload.

API	Use
`payload.size()`	inspect readable byte count
`payload.buffer()`	work with the backing Netty `ByteBuf`
`NetworkPayload.of(byte[])`	create an owned payload from bytes
`NetworkPayload.of(ByteBuf)`	create a copied payload from a buffer
`NetworkPayload.wrap(ByteBuf)`	wrap an existing receive buffer

Keep protocol validation in the mod. Nows only owns channel registration, side checks and transport dispatch.