Inventory Profiles Next

Overview

Inventory Profiles Next (IPN) is a client-side utility mod that completely overhauls how you manage your inventory. It works on any server without requiring server-side installation, which means you can use it on multiplayer servers, singleplayer worlds, and modded instances alike. The mod revolves around five core systems: inventory sorting, locked slots, auto-refill, gear profiles, and continuous crafting.

Rather than adding new items or blocks, IPN injects small buttons into your existing inventory screens and chest GUIs. These buttons let you sort, move items between containers, and manage your inventory with minimal effort. The mod also adds a robust keybinding system so you can perform most actions without ever clicking a button. Press R while hovering over any inventory to sort it, or press R then C to open the configuration menu where you can customize every aspect of the mod's behavior.

IPN is purely a quality-of-life mod. It does not change gameplay balance, add progression, or modify world generation. It simply makes inventory management faster, smarter, and less tedious.

Inventory Sorting

Sorting is the most immediately useful feature in IPN. The mod provides three distinct sorting modes, each with its own button and optional keybinding. Regular sort organizes all items in the target inventory area. Sort-by-columns arranges items vertically, filling each column before moving to the next. Sort-by-rows arranges items horizontally, filling each row before moving down. Each mode can be configured independently with its own sorting method and post-action.

Sorting Methods

IPN offers five sorting methods. The default method sorts items by their Creative menu order, which groups items by category the same way the Creative inventory does. Item Name sorts alphabetically by the item's display name. Item ID sorts by the Minecraft resource location (like minecraft:diamond_sword). Raw ID sorts by the internal numeric ID. Custom sorting uses user-defined rule files, which are text files where you specify exactly how items should be ordered using a pattern-matching syntax.

Post-Sort Actions

After sorting completes, IPN can perform an optional post-action. Group In Rows takes the sorted items and organizes them into neat rows. Group In Columns does the same vertically. Distribute Evenly spreads items across available slots so each stack is roughly equal. Fill One consolidates partial stacks into as few slots as possible. Shuffle randomizes the order (useful for minigames or challenge runs). Reverse flips the sorted order. You can set different post-actions for each of the three sort modes.

Sorting Keybindings

The default keybinding for regular sort is R while a GUI is open. Sort-by-columns and sort-by-rows have no default keybindings but can be assigned in the config menu. You can also configure whether sorting includes or excludes your hotbar by default, and whether the Restock Hotbar option automatically refills hotbar slots from your main inventory after a sort.

Locked Slots

Locked slots are one of IPN's most valuable features for keeping your inventory organized during extended play sessions. When you lock a slot, it becomes invisible to sorting, moving, and throwing operations. The item in that slot stays exactly where you put it, no matter what inventory actions you perform. If you lock an empty slot, it stays empty, meaning items will not be sorted into it.

How to Lock and Unlock Slots

By default, hold Left Alt and left-click a slot to toggle its lock state. The modifier key behavior can be set to either Hold or Toggle mode. In Hold mode, you must keep holding Left Alt while clicking. In Toggle mode, pressing the modifier key switches you into lock-editing mode until you press it again. A visual overlay appears on locked slots showing both a background tint and a foreground icon. You can choose from six different foreground styles in the configuration menu.

Locked Slot Protections

Locked slots provide several layers of protection. Shift-clicking and Ctrl+Q dropping are blocked on locked items by default. For non-stackable items like tools and armor, the regular Q-drop is also blocked. These protections can be individually toggled. The mod also supports per-server and per-world lock configurations, so your locked slots on a survival server do not interfere with your creative world setup.

Auto-Refill

Auto-refill monitors your held items and equipped armor, automatically swapping in a replacement from your inventory before the current one breaks. This prevents the frustrating experience of having a Diamond Pickaxe shatter mid-mining because you were not watching the durability bar. The system works for tools, weapons, armor, and any other items with durability.

Durability Thresholds

The default damage threshold is 10, measured in absolute durability points. When your tool's remaining durability drops to 10 or below, IPN swaps it out for a matching replacement from your inventory. You can change the threshold unit to percentage-based if you prefer. There is also a maximum durability threshold of 256, meaning items with very low total durability (like Gold tools) can optionally be excluded from protection. Non-enchanted items can be allowed to break if you enable the Allow Break Non-Enchanted option, saving your enchanted gear while letting disposable tools expire naturally.

Durability Notifications

IPN provides both visual and audio notifications for durability events. When a tool approaches the threshold, you can receive a warning as a large subtitle overlay, a small hotbar message, or a chat message. You can configure how many warnings you receive and the durability interval between each alert. Separate notification settings exist for successful replacements and failed replacements (when no backup item is available).

Auto-Refill Blacklist

If there are specific items you do not want auto-refill to manage, add them to the blacklist as a comma-separated list of item IDs. For example, adding minecraft:golden_axe will prevent IPN from ever auto-swapping Golden Axes. Items with the Loyalty enchantment (like Tridents) are excluded by default since they return to you automatically.

Gear Profiles

The profile system lets you save your entire inventory layout as a named profile and restore it later with a single keypress. This is invaluable for players who switch between different activities like mining, building, combat, and exploration, each requiring a different set of tools and materials in specific hotbar positions.

Saving and Loading Profiles

To save a profile, arrange your inventory exactly how you want it, then use the Save As Profile hotkey (unbound by default, assign it in the config). IPN saves a snapshot of which items are in which slots. To load a profile, use the Apply Profile button that appears below your inventory, or press the Apply Profile hotkey. IPN will rearrange your inventory to match the saved layout, moving items into their saved positions. Note that profiles save slot assignments, not items themselves. If you no longer have a specific item, that slot will be left empty.

Quick Profiles and Rotation

IPN supports up to three quick-access profile slots that can be bound to individual hotkeys. This lets you instantly switch to your mining loadout, combat loadout, or building loadout without opening any menus. The Next Profile and Previous Profile hotkeys cycle through your saved profiles sequentially, with the active profile name displayed in the UI. Profiles are stored per-server by default, so your singleplayer profiles will not appear on multiplayer servers.

Continuous Crafting

When continuous crafting is enabled, IPN automatically refills the Crafting Table grid with ingredients from your inventory after you take the crafted result. A small checkbox appears near the crafting output slot that lets you toggle this feature on or off per session. This is extremely useful for bulk crafting, such as converting Logs to Planks, Planks to Sticks, or crafting large quantities of any recipe.

The checkbox state can be configured to remember your last choice, always start checked, or always start unchecked. The saved default persists across game sessions, so if you always want continuous crafting active, set the checkbox value to Always Checked in the config.

Moving and Throwing Items

Beyond sorting, IPN provides powerful item transfer actions. The Move All button on container screens transfers items between your inventory and the container. By default, it only moves matching items, meaning it transfers items that already have at least one copy in the destination. This is perfect for restocking a sorted storage chest without dumping unrelated items into it.

Hold Left Shift while clicking Move All to override this behavior and move everything regardless of whether it matches. Hold Left Alt to include hotbar items in the transfer. The Throw All action drops all items from the target area, which is useful for quickly emptying your inventory. All of these actions respect locked slots, so your protected items remain untouched.

Swipe Moving

IPN adds swipe-move functionality to container screens. Hold Shift and drag your mouse across multiple slots to Shift-click each one in sequence, rapidly moving items to the other inventory. Hold Ctrl and drag to perform Ctrl+Q throws on each slot you pass over. Container swipe is enabled by default and can be toggled in the config. Crafting result swipe is disabled by default to prevent accidental mass-crafting.

GUI Editor and Button Positioning

If the default button positions conflict with other mods or feel awkward, press R then G to open the GUI editor. This overlay mode lets you drag IPN's buttons to different positions on any inventory screen. The editor saves positions per-screen-type using a hints system, so your button layout for the player inventory can differ from your Chest layout.

Individual buttons can also be hidden entirely from the GUI settings. If you prefer using only keybindings and never click the sort button, simply disable Show Regular Sort Button in the config. The same applies to the sort-by-columns, sort-by-rows, and move-all buttons.

Configuration

IPN's configuration is accessed by pressing R then C in-game. The settings are organized into several categories. Mod Settings controls sorting methods, post-actions, move-all behavior, click intervals, and the Restock Hotbar option. GUI Settings controls button visibility, continuous crafting checkbox behavior, profile UI, and the inventory editor button. Locked Slots Settings manages all locked slot behavior including display style, protection level, and per-server isolation. Auto-Refill Settings handles durability thresholds, notifications, armor refill, and the item blacklist.

One particularly useful setting is Add Interval Between Clicks, which inserts a configurable delay (default 10ms, range 1-500ms) between each inventory action. This can help on laggy servers where rapid clicks sometimes fail to register. The Highlight Clicking Slot option shows a visual indicator on each slot as IPN interacts with it, which helps you understand what the mod is doing during sort operations.

For modpack developers, the For Modpack Devs toggle enables additional tools. The Debug section provides trace logging, render debugging, and utilities for dumping packet IDs and generating rule documentation.

Custom Sorting Rules

For advanced users, IPN supports custom sorting rule files. These are text files that define sorting priority using a pattern-matching syntax. Rules are evaluated hierarchically, with sub-rules and named definitions. You can create rules that sort tools before materials, prioritize enchanted items, or group items by mod. The rule system uses an ANTLR-based parser, which means it supports complex matching patterns including item properties, NBT data, and mod namespaces.

Rule files are loaded from the mod's config directory. After editing a rule file, press R then Y in-game to reload without restarting. If a rule contains errors, IPN falls back gracefully and logs the issue. You can use the Generate Rule List debug command to output documentation for all available rule parameters.

Compatibility

IPN requires libIPN and Kotlin For Forge as dependencies on Forge. On Fabric, it requires Fabric API, Fabric Language Kotlin, libIPN, and optionally Mod Menu for config access from the mods list. The mod automatically detects most container types from other mods and adds sorting buttons to them. If a modded container is not recognized, enable Treat Unknown Screens as Containers in the GUI settings to force IPN buttons onto it.

The hints system allows IPN to position its buttons correctly on non-standard inventory screens. If buttons overlap with another mod's GUI elements, use the GUI editor (R then G) to reposition them. Button positions are saved per-screen-class, so repositioning on one mod's screen will not affect other screens.