NowsInstaller

Internet-first installer for Nows, plus per-Minecraft offline installer JARs with embedded Nows artifacts.

The installer itself contains no loader architecture. It reads install.properties from files.nows.space, installs each declared artifact under the selected Minecraft root's libraries directory, writes an inherited Launcher version whose mainClass is space.nows.loader.runtime.NowsLauncher, then either merges a Nows installation entry into launcher_profiles.json or writes an instance reference for third-party launchers.

The installer is compiled with Java 8 bytecode so it can run on Java 8 and newer.

Launcher profile safety

NowsInstaller writes only the Nows version directory and Nows launcher profile:

.minecraft/versions/nows-<nows-version>-<minecraft-version>/
.minecraft/nows/profiles/nows-<nows-version>-<minecraft-version>/
.minecraft/launcher_profiles.json

The default Minecraft directory follows the official launcher location for the OS:

Windows: %APPDATA%\.minecraft
Linux:   ~/.minecraft
macOS:   ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft

The installer logs the resolved minecraft dir at startup. If a profile does not appear in the launcher, confirm that path matches the launcher instance you actually use.

Before changing an existing launcher_profiles.json, it creates a sibling backup named launcher_profiles.json.nows-backup-<timestamp>. Existing Fabric, Forge, Quilt, vanilla, or other custom profiles are preserved; the installer only creates or replaces the profile whose id is nows-<nows-version>-<minecraft-version>.

By default, the launcher profile does not set gameDir, so the game runs on the launcher's normal Minecraft game folder. Nows mods are discovered from that game folder's mods directory first, matching other loaders, and from .minecraft/nows/profiles/nows-<nows-version>-<minecraft-version>/mods as an optional Nows-only overlay.

Use --profileGameDir from the command line, or the UI's advanced options button, to make the launcher profile use .minecraft/nows/profiles/nows-<nows-version>-<minecraft-version>/ as its game folder. Use --gameDir <path> to choose a custom folder.

The installer UI is the normal user-facing entrypoint. It lets players choose a supported Minecraft version, auto-detects the main Minecraft folder for Windows, macOS and Linux, and keeps launcher/instance options behind a small advanced options button. Offline installer JARs open the same UI, but lock the Minecraft version to the one bundled inside that offline package.

For launcher-managed instances, choose the launcher target in the UI or use the CLI:

java -jar NowsInstallerOffline-<version>-mc-<minecraft-version>.jar \
  --launcher modrinth \
  --minecraftDir /path/to/minecraft-root \
  --instanceDir /path/to/modrinth/profile

Supported launcher targets are official, modrinth, curseforge, prism, multimc and generic. Official installs still update launcher_profiles.json. Prism and MultiMC installs write mmc-pack.json plus patches/space.nows.json so the instance launches with space.nows.loader.runtime.NowsLauncher. Modrinth, CurseForge and generic instance installs put mods in the selected instance game folder and write nows/launcher-profile.properties; native app launch support still depends on that launcher accepting custom Minecraft version ids.

Version-specific space.nows:nows-mc-* adapter JARs are installed under the selected Minecraft root, but are not added to launcher-owned libraries. The generated profile passes -Dnows.minecraftAdapterPath=<adapter.jar> so the adapter is loaded inside Nows' game classloader alongside Minecraft, avoiding duplicate Minecraft classes across classloaders.

The profile icon is embedded from:

src/main/resources/META-INF/nows/branding/nows.png

Build outputs

./gradlew :repos:NowsInstaller:assemble

This builds the normal user-facing installer and offline installers for every supported Minecraft target:

build/libs/NowsInstaller-<version>.jar
build/libs/NowsInstallerOffline-<version>-mc-<minecraft-version>.jar

To build only the offline installer set:

./gradlew :repos:NowsInstaller:allOfflineJars

Run the installer with:

java -jar build/libs/NowsInstaller-<version>.jar

Embedded KDL4J

KDL4J is resolved from JitPack first when building the installer and embedded as an untouched JAR resource. GitHub Packages remains available to release environments as a fallback for legacy coordinates. Currently:

com.github.kdl-org:kdl4j:v1.0.1
 -> META-INF/nows/embedded-libs/kdl4j-v1.0.1.jar
 -> .minecraft/libraries/com/github/kdl-org/kdl4j/v1.0.1/kdl4j-v1.0.1.jar

End users therefore need no GitHub credentials.

Internet manifest

Default URL:

https://files.nows.space/releases/nows/<nows-version>/<minecraft-version>/install.properties

Use install.properties.template as the release template. Release automation should fill SHA-256 values before publishing. For source=internet artifacts, the normal installer first tries artifact.<n>.url; if that download fails or the URL is missing, it falls back to artifact.<n>.mavenUrl or mavenBaseUrl + artifact.<n>.path. External downloads must use HTTPS; plain HTTP is accepted only for localhost development.

Release manifests should not publish or reference Minecraft client JARs. NowsInstaller prepares the profile client JAR locally from the user's existing vanilla Minecraft install or from Mojang's official download metadata. Legacy Minecraft versions that ship obfuscated client JARs are remapped locally with Mojang's official client mappings during install.

The manifest may also include mod.<n> companion mod entries. These are copied to the active game folder's mods directory. The 0.5.0 default manifest does not use this for NowsApiMod; the title-screen badge is provided by the required mc/<minecraft-version> adapter instead.

Published installer

.publishing/releases/nows/<nows-version>/installers/NowsInstaller-<nows-version>.jar

The same installer selects the target Minecraft version at runtime and downloads the matching release manifest from files.nows.space.

Offline installers are published beside it, one per supported Minecraft version:

.publishing/releases/nows/<nows-version>/installers/NowsInstallerOffline-<nows-version>-mc-<minecraft-version>.jar

This JAR embeds the release manifest, Nows libraries and public runtime libraries. It does not embed Minecraft client files. Run it without --manifest or --artifactDir; the UI handles the common path and advanced launcher/profile options. For scripted installs, add --cli and pass options such as --minecraftDir, --launcher, --instanceDir and --gameDir. If the target vanilla client is not already available locally, the installer may still contact Mojang's official services to prepare the local launcher profile.

Offline local testing

Use the normal installer main class with --offline to test files already on disk. In local offline mode the installer never downloads the manifest or artifacts:

java -cp build/libs/NowsInstaller-<version>.jar space.nows.installer.NowsInstaller \
  --offline \
  --manifest /path/to/install.properties \
  --artifactDir /path/to/offline-libraries \
  --minecraftDir /path/to/test-minecraft

The local install.properties still uses the normal artifact.*.path values. For artifacts whose source is internet, place each JAR under --artifactDir using that same relative path, for example:

/path/to/offline-libraries/space/nows/nows-core/0.5.0/nows-core-0.5.0.jar

Artifacts marked source=embedded are still copied from inside the installer JAR. A manifest may also set artifact.<n>.source=local and artifact.<n>.file=relative/or/absolute.jar for one-off local test jars.