Handy Indicator

You're staring at a row of hoppers in your item sorter. Are they flowing? Are they stuck? Is that dropper loaded? The only way to know is to right-click each one individually.

The Fix

Handy Indicator adds a subtle colored border on top of container blocks when they have items inside. Loaded hopper? Cyan crown. Empty barrel? Nothing. No GUI needed.

Features

🔲 Visual overlay indicators — a colored border appears on containers that hold items

📦 Wide block support — hoppers, droppers, dispensers, crafters, barrels, chests, trapped chests, copper chests (all variants), furnaces, blast furnaces, smokers, and decorated pots

🔥 Furnace detail — furnaces show separate indicators for input and fuel slots with distinct colors

🪧 Double chest awareness — double chests show a single unified indicator spanning both halves

🎨 Custom colors — pick your own indicator and fuel colors via the config screen

⚙️ Per-block toggles — enable or disable indicators for each block type individually

🧩 Resource pack friendly — the indicator sits on top of the block as a "crown," so it works alongside texture packs like Redstone Levels and hopper direction indicators

Why not just use a comparator?

You can! But comparators take up space, need redstone dust, and don't help when you're just walking past your storage room trying to spot which barrel is empty.

Compatibility

• Requires Fabric API
• ✅ Compatible with Redstone Levels, hopper direction packs, and other resource packs
• ⚙️ Optional: Mod Menu + YACL for in-game config screen (not required — edit config/container-indicator.json by hand or just use the defaults)

Installation

Single Player

1. Install Fabric Loader
2. Install Fabric API
3. Drop handyindicator-x.x.x.jar into your mods/ folder
4. Launch the game!

Server

The mod is required on both the server and all connecting clients. Players without the mod installed will not see container indicators.

1. Install Fabric Loader on your server
2. Place Fabric API and Handy Indicator in the server's mods/ folder
3. Each connecting player needs Fabric Loader, Fabric API, and Handy Indicator installed

Inspiration

This mod exists because of TangoTek, who mentioned during a stream that he wished he could just look at a hopper and know if there's something in it. This is my attempt to solve that.

Part of the Handy series

Also check out Handy Shulker (bundle-like interactions for shulker boxes) and Handy Trader (bookmark your favorite villager trades).

Handy Indicator is open source under the MIT license.

Handy Indicator

You're staring at a row of hoppers in your item sorter. Are they flowing? Are they stuck? Is that dropper in your redstone contraption loaded? The only way to know is to right-click each one individually.

The Fix

Handy Indicator adds a subtle colored border on top of container blocks when they have items inside. Loaded hopper? Cyan crown. Empty barrel? Nothing. No GUI needed.

Features

🔲 Visual overlay indicators — a colored border appears on containers that hold items

🔥 Furnace detail — furnaces show separate indicators for input and fuel slots with distinct colors, so you can tell a stalled furnace from a fuel-starved one at a glance

🪧 Double chest awareness — double chests show a single unified indicator spanning both halves, not two disconnected crowns

📦 Wide block support — hoppers, droppers, dispensers, crafters, barrels, chests, trapped chests, copper chests (all variants), furnaces, blast furnaces, smokers, and decorated pots

⚙️ Per-block toggles — enable or disable indicators for each block type individually

🎨 Custom colors — pick your own indicator and fuel colors via the config screen

🧩 Resource pack friendly — the indicator sits on top of the block as a "crown," so it works alongside texture packs like Redstone Levels and hopper direction indicators

Why not just use a comparator?

You can! But comparators take up space, need redstone dust, and don't help when you're just walking past your storage room trying to spot which barrel is empty. For technical survival setups — automation, item sorters, farms — this acts as a heads-up display over your whole storage system with no extra wiring.

Compatibility

• Requires Fabric API
• ✅ Compatible with Redstone Levels, hopper direction packs, and other resource packs
• ⚙️ Optional: Mod Menu + YACL for in-game config screen (not required — edit config/container-indicator.json by hand or just use the defaults)

Installation

Single Player

1. Install Fabric Loader
2. Install Fabric API
3. Drop handyindicator-x.x.x.jar into your mods/ folder
4. Launch the game!

Server

The mod is required on both the server and all connecting clients. Players without the mod installed will not see container indicators.

1. Install Fabric Loader on your server
2. Place Fabric API and Handy Indicator in the server's mods/ folder
3. Each connecting player needs Fabric Loader, Fabric API, and Handy Indicator installed

Inspiration

This mod exists because of TangoTek, who mentioned during a stream that he wished he could just look at a hopper and know if there's something in it. This is my attempt to solve that.

Part of the Handy series

Small Fabric mods that smooth over vanilla friction points:

• Handy Shulker — bundle-like interactions for shulker boxes
• Handy Bookshelf — enchantment glint and name tags for chiseled bookshelves
• Handy Trader — bookmark your favorite villager trades

Handy Indicator is open source under the MIT license.