UpdateBeacon

A server-side Minecraft mod that automatically checks for updates to your installed mods on Modrinth and CurseForge, then notifies your operators — and can download and apply the updates for you. No client installation required.

Features

Update detection

• Checks every installed mod against both Modrinth and CurseForge (CurseForge is enabled by adding a free API key).
• Hash-based matching — compares the SHA-512 of each installed jar against Modrinth's file records (and CurseForge fingerprints), eliminating false positives from version-string quirks (e.g. 1.4.147 vs 1.4.147+v240613).
• Nested and bundled sub-mods are skipped automatically.
• Per-mod update channels — track release, beta, or alpha independently for each mod.
• Pins — freeze a mod at its current version to silence update notices until you unpin it.

Notifications

• Console — logs available updates on every check.
• In-game chat — colored output with clickable download links, sent to eligible ops.
• Player login — ops see any pending updates when they join.
• Webhooks — post to any number of endpoints at once (see below).

Downloads & applying

• Download pending updates to a staging area with hash verification against the source's expected hash.
• Apply staged jars on the next server stop, or run a timed apply countdown that restarts the server for you.
• Replaced jars are backed up first, so any update can be rolled back.

Maintenance

• Integrity scan — verify your installed jars against their published hashes.
• Hot reload — re-read the config without restarting.
• Optional scheduled checks on a repeating timer.

Commands

All commands are under /updatebeacon and require permission level 2 (op).

Webhooks

Add one [[webhooks]] block per target, each with its own URL and format:

[[webhooks]]
url = "https://discord.com/api/webhooks/..."
format = "discord_embed"

[[webhooks]]
url = "https://your-endpoint.com/hook"
format = "generic_json"

Supported formats:

• discord_embed — rich embed for Discord webhooks
• generic_json — simple JSON payload for custom integrations

Installation

Drop the mod jar that matches your Minecraft version and loader into your server's mods/ folder, then start the server once to generate the config.

Requirements:

• A supported Minecraft version (see table above)
• Fabric Loader with Fabric API, or NeoForge
• A free CurseForge API key (optional — only needed for CurseForge update checks)

Configuration

Generated at config/updatebeacon.toml on first run:

[general]
enabled = true
check_on_startup = true
check_interval_minutes = 0   # 0 = disabled; any positive value = minutes between checks

[ignore]
mod_ids = []                 # mod IDs to skip, e.g. ["mymod", "anothermod"]
quiet_when_no_updates = true # suppress all notifications when everything is up to date

[console]
enabled = true

[chat]
enabled = true
ops_only = true              # only notify server operators
permission_level = 2         # minimum permission level to receive notifications

# Add one [[webhooks]] block per target. Supported formats: discord_embed, generic_json
# [[webhooks]]
# url = ""
# format = "discord_embed"

[downloads]
auto_download = false        # automatically download updates after each check
auto_apply = false           # swap staged jars into mods/ on server stop
backup = true                # keep replaced jars in .updatebeacon/backup/
allowed_mod_ids = []         # empty = all mods eligible; non-empty = whitelist
apply_countdown_seconds = 300 # default countdown length for /updatebeacon apply

[curseforge]
# Get a free API key at https://console.curseforge.com/
api_key = ""                 # leave blank to check Modrinth only

# Per-mod update channel: "release", "beta", or "alpha"
[mod_policy]
# lithium = "beta"

# Pin a mod to prevent update notifications. Use /updatebeacon pin <modid>
[mod_pins]

Staged downloads and backups live under .updatebeacon/staged/ and .updatebeacon/backup/.

Notes

Mods are matched on Modrinth by default; CurseForge checks turn on once you set a curseforge.api_key. Mods that aren't published on either platform are silently skipped.