Introduction
Steel is a Minecraft Java Edition server implementation written in Rust, targeting Minecraft 1.21.11. It’s designed for performance, reliability, and a clean developer experience.
What is Steel?
Section titled “What is Steel?”Steel is a from-scratch implementation of the Minecraft server protocol. Unlike traditional Java-based servers, Steel leverages Rust’s memory safety guarantees and zero-cost abstractions to deliver exceptional performance.
The server uses a dual async runtime architecture:
- Main runtime handles ticking, networking, and player updates
- Chunk runtime handles chunk generation and loading without blocking the tick loop
Important: All game logic (ticking, world state, entities, blocks) is synchronous. Only networking and disk I/O are async. This design keeps the core game deterministic and easy to reason about.
Who is Steel for?
Section titled “Who is Steel for?”Server Administrators
Section titled “Server Administrators”If you’re running a Minecraft server and looking for:
- Better performance - Lock-free data structures and efficient concurrency
- Lower memory usage - Rust’s efficient memory management
- Reliability - Memory-safe code means fewer crashes and exploits
Developers
Section titled “Developers”If you’re building tools or contributing to server software:
- Modern codebase - Rust 2024 edition with 9 focused workspace crates
- Type safety - Catch errors at compile time, not runtime
- Behavior system - Extensible block and item behaviors
Current Features
Section titled “Current Features”Steel currently supports:
- TCP networking with Java Edition clients
- Mojang authentication and encryption
- Zlib packet compression
- World generation (flat generator)
- Chunk loading, generation, and persistence
- Block placement and breaking
- Player movement with collision validation
- Chat system with signed messages
- Inventory and container management (chests, barrels)
- Block entities
- Custom favicon and server links
Current Status
Section titled “Current Status”Steel is under active development (v0.0.0). Core networking and world systems are functional, with basic gameplay mechanics working. Check the GitHub repository for the latest updates.
Community
Section titled “Community”- Discord: https://discord.gg/MwChEHnAbh
- GitHub: https://github.com/Steel-Foundation/SteelMC
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”Ready to get started? Head to the Installation guide.