Point of Interest

Point of interest (commonly referred by the acronoym POI) refers to particularly important blocks in the game. In Minecraft, there is a dedicated space that saves only the location of points of interest, separate from the data for other blocks in the world, allowing quicker access to these points.

Mechanism

Points of interest are used by some entities, items, and blocks. They are saved as mca files in the following level format folders (the folder that stores world data inside the saves folder):

dimensions/minecraft/overworld/poi folder (for the Overworld)
dimensions/minecraft/the_nether/poi folder (for the Nether)
dimensions/minecraft/the_end/poi folder (for the End)

ID

Each point of interest is assigned an ID. The ID does not necessarily match the block's ID; for example, a bed has the minecraft:home ID.

The ID saved in the mca files corresponds to the point of interest, and the block's ID is not saved. The IDs are listed in the table below.

free_tickets

Each point of interest has a maximum number of entities that can be associated with it at the same time. The maximum number for each point of interest is shown in the table below.

The number of available slots is stored in a value called free_tickets for each point of interest. For example, a bell can be associated with up to 32 villagers. If twelve Villagers are already associated with it, the value of free_tickets will be twenty. For blocks like the Nether portal, which cannot be associated with entities, the value is always set to 0.

List of points of interest

ID	Block	User	Max Entity Count	Tags
`minecraft:armorer`	Blast Furnace	Villager	1	`#minecraft:village` `#minecraft:acquirable_job_site`
`minecraft:butcher`	Smoker
`minecraft:cartographer`	Cartography Table
`minecraft:cleric`	Brewing Stand
`minecraft:farmer`	Composter
`minecraft:fisherman`	Barrel
`minecraft:fletcher`	Fletching Table
`minecraft:leatherworker`	Cauldron
`minecraft:librarian`	Lectern
`minecraft:mason`	Stonecutter
`minecraft:shepherd`	Loom
`minecraft:toolsmith`	Smithing Table
`minecraft:weaponsmith`	Grindstone
`minecraft:home`	Bed^{[note 1]}			`#minecraft:village`
`minecraft:meeting`	Bell		32	`#minecraft:village`
`minecraft:bee_nest`	Bee Nest^{[note 2]}	Bee	0^{[note 3]}	`#minecraft:beehome`
`minecraft:beehive`	Beehive^{[note 2]}	Bee	0^{[note 3]}	`#minecraft:beehome`
`minecraft:lightning_rod`	Lightning Rod	Lightning	0	None
`minecraft:nether_portal`	Nether Portal Block	Nether Portal^{[note 4]}
`minecraft:lodestone`	Lodestone	Lodestone Compass
`minecraft:test_instance`	Test Instance Block	GameTest^{[note 5]}

↑ All colors. The coordinates for the head of the bed are saved as the Point of Interest.
↑ ^a ^b Bee Nests and Beehives are saved separately.
↑ Bees themselves store the location of Bee Nests and Beehives using the [NBT Compound / JSON Object] hive_pos and do not directly use Points of Interest.
↑ Used when searching for an exit Nether Portal after entering one.
↑ Used for finding block-based game tests.

History

Java Edition

Java Edition
1.14	19w11a	Added points of interest.
1.19	22w19a	The `/locate poi` command was added to search for points of interest.
1.21.6	25w16a	Added the `test_instance` POI.

Bedrock Edition

Bedrock Edition
26.50 Experiment Points of Interest (POI)			Preview 26.50.26				The `/locate poi` command was added to search for points of interest.

[1] All colors. The coordinates for the head of the bed are saved as the Point of Interest.

[Bee_Nest_and_Beehive-2] Bee Nests and Beehives are saved separately.

[3] Bees themselves store the location of Bee Nests and Beehives using the [NBT Compound / JSON Object] hive_pos and do not directly use Points of Interest.

[Nether_Portal-4] Used when searching for an exit Nether Portal after entering one.

[5] Used for finding block-based game tests.

[note 1]

[note 2]

[note 3]

[note 4]

[note 5]