Choosing a carrier
A carrier is a concrete runtime environment, fixed by three components: the platform, the parent plugin loader (none in the self-hosted case), and the native API provider — LLAPI for LeviLamina, the Endstone API for Endstone, and MCAPI for the self-hosted BDS 1.21.3. The framework depends only on the platform and the parent loader; the native API side comes from the projection. Pick the carrier before you install anything; the install steps differ per carrier and are not interchangeable.
| Carrier | Platform | Parent | BDS |
|---|---|---|---|
| LeviLamina | Windows x64 | LeviLamina | 1.26.51+ with LeviLamina 26.51+ |
| Endstone | Windows x64, Linux x64 | Endstone | 1.26.52+ with Endstone 0.11+ |
| Self-hosted | Linux x64 | none | 1.21.3 |
Parented or self-hosted
Section titled “Parented or self-hosted”Under LeviLamina or Endstone, the framework is a plugin manager inside someone else's plugin system. The parent discovers, enables, disables, and unloads us; we pass those calls to the plugins we manage. This is the choice when you already run that loader, and it is the only choice on Windows.
The self-hosted carrier has no parent: the framework is the outermost plugin system. It is the only carrier that runs on stock BDS without a third-party loader, and it is also the most constrained one:
- The launcher runs one BDS version, 1.21.3.
- The server needs the .NET 10 runtime installed. So do the parented carriers — the runtime lookup lives in shared native code — but under a parent it is easy to overlook.
- There is no runtime enable or disable yet. A plugin package under
plugins/loads and enables before the server'smain; today "disabling" it means moving the package out and restarting. Plugin management commands are planned on top of the projection's command MCAPI and the plugin manager API; until they land, that is the only way. Under a parent, the parent's own registry drives enable and disable, and those calls work normally.
What decides it
Section titled “What decides it”- You already run LeviLamina or Endstone. Use that carrier; nothing else is supported for it.
- Windows without a loader. LeviLamina and Endstone are both options; both are Windows x64.
- Linux without a loader, BDS 1.21.3. Self-hosted.
- Linux without a loader, newer BDS. Use the Endstone carrier.
What a carrier does not change
Section titled “What a carrier does not change”Plugin packages are identical on every carrier: a directory under plugins/ with a manifest.json. The plugin contract, the lifecycle, and the isolation model are the same. Moving a plugin package between carriers does not need a rebuild.
The plugin manager itself is installed as a lip dependency of the carrier package; you do not install it separately.