Enchantment Preview

Enchantment Preview

See exactly what you’re getting before you spend your levels.

Vanilla’s enchanting table shows you one enchantment and then . . . ?, leaving you to gamble on the rest. Enchantment Preview replaces that teaser with the complete list of enchantments each option will actually apply.

Just hover over an option in the enchanting table. That’s it, no configuration, no extra keybinds, no new items.

What it looks like

Instead of vanilla’s single clue, the tooltip shows every enchantment you will receive:

Will enchant with:
 Unbreaking III
 Looting II
 Sharpness IV

The lapis and level lines are untouched: you get strictly more information, in the same familiar place.

Client-side only

This is a client-side mod. You do not need it on the server, and the server does not need to know it exists. Install it in your own mods folder alongside Fabric API and you’re done.

It works in singleplayer and on plain vanilla / Paper / Fabric servers. It does not work everywhere, see Where it works below, and please read that section before reporting a bug.

How it works

The server never tells your client the full enchantment list, that’s the whole point of the vanilla . . . ?. It sends only three level costs, one random “clue” enchantment per option, and (because of how container data is transmitted) just half of your 32-bit enchantment seed.

Enchantment Preview reconstructs the rest, entirely on your machine:

1. It scans all 65,536 possible values of the hidden half of your seed.
2. It keeps only the seeds that reproduce everything the client can already verify, the three costs (using the bookshelf count it reads from the world around the table, exactly the way the server counts it) and all three clues.
3. It regenerates the resulting enchantment lists using Minecraft’s own enchantment code, so the prediction is the real algorithm, not an approximation.

Your enchantment seed only changes when you actually enchant something, so every item you place in the table adds more constraints. In practice, after swapping in a second item, the prediction usually narrows to exactly one possibility.

The mod never guesses. It shows only what it can prove from the data:

| Situation | What the tooltip shows |
|—|—|
| One possible outcome | The exact enchantment list |
| Two or three possible outcomes | All of them: “Will enchant with either: … or: …” |
| Too many to list | The enchantments guaranteed in every outcome, then “And possibly:” for the rest |
| Nothing can be determined | A short note that the preview is unavailable |

If it can’t be sure, it says so instead of showing you something that might be wrong.

Where it works

This mod reconstructs vanilla enchanting math. That means it works wherever the server actually uses vanilla enchanting:

Works:

• Singleplayer
• Vanilla, Paper, Spigot, and Fabric servers with unmodified enchanting
• Servers running an older Minecraft version behind ViaVersion, as long as enchanting itself is unmodified (verified against a real Paper 1.21.8 + ViaVersion server)

Does not work:

• Servers with custom enchantment plugins (AdvancedEnchantments, EcoEnchants, ExcellentEnchants and similar). If a plugin decides your enchantments, no amount of client-side math can predict them.
• Servers that deliberately randomize or hide the enchantment seed as an anti-seed-cracking measure.
• Any server that otherwise changes how enchanting offers are generated.

On those servers the mod fails safely: you’ll see partial hints or an “unavailable” note, never a confidently wrong list.

Not sure about your server? Run the built-in diagnostic

Open an enchanting table, put a couple of different items in it, then run:

/enchantment-preview

It reports what it has observed and tells you in plain language whether the server looks vanilla, appears to re-roll or hide the seed, or is running modified enchanting. This is the fastest way to find out whether the mod can work on a given server, and the most useful thing to include if you do report a problem.

Tips

• Swap in a second item. The first item after a fresh seed is the hardest case. Putting a different item in the table (a book, a pickaxe, anything) adds constraints and usually collapses the prediction to the exact list.
• More bookshelves help. They make the cost values more informative, which narrows things faster.
• Enchanting resets it. When you actually enchant, the game re-rolls your seed, that’s vanilla behavior, and the mod starts learning again from scratch.
• Give it a moment. The mod waits until the table data has settled (about half a second) before trusting it, which is what keeps it accurate on servers with ping.

Requirements

• Fabric Loader
• Fabric API
• Client-side installation only

License

Distributed under the MIT License.