The core library nearly every Fabric mod depends on. Install it first; most of your mod folder needs it.
Fabric API is the lightweight, modular library that provides the hooks and interoperability layer Fabric mods are written against. It adds nothing to the game by itself — it is the thing everything else is built on.
WHY IT IS FIRST IN EVERY GUIDE
The Fabric loader is deliberately minimal and exposes very little. Almost anything a mod wants to do — register a block, add an item to a creative tab, hook a render stage, send data between client and server — goes through Fabric API. A Fabric mod folder without it will usually fail to start with a missing-dependency screen.
It is versioned per Minecraft release and updated alongside snapshots, so a Fabric API build is tied to one Minecraft version. Mixing versions is the most common cause of a Fabric install that will not launch.
Over 229 million downloads on Modrinth as of August 2026.
Requirements
Game versions
26.2
26.1.2
1.21.1
REQUIRES
The Fabric loader, and a Fabric API build matching your Minecraft version exactly.
CLIENT AND SERVER
Install it on both. A server running mods that need Fabric API needs its own copy.
CONFLICTS WITH
Forge and NeoForge — these are different mod loaders and mods are not interchangeable between them. A Fabric mod will not load on Forge and vice versa.
NOTE
Quilt users need the Quilted Fabric API instead; plain Fabric API is not the right file there.
Installation
1. Install the Fabric loader for your Minecraft version using the official Fabric installer.
2. Download the Fabric API build for that same Minecraft version.
Tell us if something is wrong — a file that will not work, content taken from
someone else, or anything that looks unsafe. Reports go to our review team, not
to the author.
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