They spawn in villages in groups of six, equipped with either an iron sword or a crossbow. They're prepared to fight any threat to the village (possibly including you!). To make new guards, crouch and right click on a nitwit or unemployed villager with a sword or crossbow.

Guards can 'gossip' with villagers and will trust the player to open their inventory if they have a high enough reputation, have hero of the village, or was converted by the player. Right clicking will open up the guard inventory, allowing you to give them armor, and swap out their weapons! For their offhand slot, you can either give them a shield, or some food. If they have a shield, they will use it to block attacks. Crossbow guards with a shield won't be able to kick enemies if they're blocking. If they have food (or a potion), they will start eating or drinking if they are low on health.

Players are able to make guards stand on a specific area by clicking on the 'patrol' button seen on the right. If the player has hero of the village, the 'follow' button, seen on the left, will be unlocked and as the name implies will allow guards to follow the player and fight for the player. Ringing a village bell with the hero of the village effect will also allow multiple guards in the bell's area to follow the player. 

Other minor additions include:

Big-headed baby villagers from bedrock have been added*(true by default)

Witches attack villagers. *true by default 

In raids, illagers kill any animal they see. *true by default 

Villagers and Illagers are scared of polar bears. *true by default 

Clerics heal low-health guards, villagers, and players with Hero of the Village using regeneration potions, and smiths repair iron golems with ingots.

Villagers that have excess food in their internal inventory will give food to the guards. 

Golems will now float on water in order to avoid being stuck in rivers and ponds. *true on default

Can you port to an older version/fabric?

No. Maintaining one version is hard enough already, and I've never learned fabric. However, the mod's license permits you to make ports yourself. A fabric version of this mod also currently exists.4

What about [insert newest version]?

Sorry, but this mod will only be updated to major version changes (1.20, 1.21, 1.22, etc) for the simple fact that I cannot physically dedicate all my existing time to updating my mods to every single new drop.

Can you port to Windows 10 Edition/Xbox/Mobile?

No. Mods for the Bedrock ediiton use a completely different framework that I've also never learned. The mod's license allows you to try yourself, but since the modding API on Bedrock is less capable than forge you probably won't be able to replicate all of it.

Why don't guards have a workstation like other villager professions?

I haven't thought of a suitable block that would let you have a large number of guards without being inconvenient to store.

How would you make guards spawn with modded equipment?

To make guards spawn with custom equipment, simply override these files in a custom datapack:

If using 1.20.1 and up, override the files in the armor_sets folder: https://github.com/seymourimadeit/guardvillagers/tree/main/src/main/resources/data/guardvillagers/loot_table/entities 

If using 1.19.2 and below, override the guard_(equipment slot) files: https://github.com/seymourimadeit/guardvillagers/tree/1.19/src/main/resources/data/guardvillagers/loot_tables/entities

See an example datapack for 1.21.1 (which can be made compatible for 1.20.1 by changing the loot_table folder to loot_tables): https://github.com/seymourimadeit/Guard-Datapack-Example 

How do I make the mod less laggy?

Any extreme amount of lag is unintended by the mod and should be reported to the github. However, disabling the ability to guards to patrol villages in the config can help.

Is this mod compatible with X?

Try and see!