TorchPilot

TorchPilot

Never fumble for torches again. Mark an area, preview exactly where every torch will go, and let TorchPilot build the whole thing as you walk — or instantly in creative.

TorchPilot is a 100% client-side Fabric mod. It doesn't place blocks directly on a server — every placement goes through the same interaction a player would send, so servers stay fully in control and can reject anything they don't allow.

How it works

1. Select an area. Hold a wooden shovel and left-click one corner, right-click the other. Your selection is remembered per world and per dimension.
2. Generate a plan (G, or the Actions settings page). TorchPilot scans the area in the background — even huge selections won't freeze your game.
3. Preview before anything is placed. Translucent blue ghost torches — using the real vanilla torch model — show exactly where each torch will go. A color-coded outline tells you the state: green = ready to place, orange = retryable, red = blocked, yellow = not scanned yet.
4. Build it. Turn on Auto Build (Alt+T) and walk, sprint, jump, or sneak through the area — torches go in automatically. Or place them by hand; TorchPilot notices and marks the plan complete as you go.
5. Fine-tune the plan. Sneak + shovel right-click any planned spot to disable it (sneak-click again to re-enable).

A real placement solver, not a fixed grid

Every torch spot is chosen, not just stamped onto a grid. For each planned position, TorchPilot checks every Y level in that column, expands outward in rings if the ideal point is blocked, and scores the options — preferring solid open floor over pillar tops or ceilings, and staying close to the ideal grid point. If no floor spot works and wall torches are allowed, it falls back to a wall-mounted torch on a solid neighboring face. Torches already placed in the area are recognized automatically, so nothing gets doubled up.

Six placement modes:

• Smart (recommended) — balances everything automatically
• Ground — floors only
• Wall — wall torches preferred
• Light Level — only lights spots that are actually dark
• Grid — strict grid points, no searching
• Hybrid — light-aware smart placement

Auto Build

Auto Build fetches torches from your own inventory, just like a player would. It uses a torch from your hotbar first — briefly switching to that slot and switching straight back, so your selected slot is never left somewhere unexpected. When the hotbar runs dry, it swaps the next torch stack in from your inventory using a normal hotbar swap (whatever was held moves to where the torch came from — nothing is lost or duplicated). If you're completely out of torches, it tells you on the action bar instead of failing silently. If a server rejects a placement, that spot simply stays retryable — nothing is faked or skipped.

Creative fill (single player)

The Actions settings page has a Place All button that instantly fills the entire plan without you needing to walk anywhere. It only runs against your own integrated single-player server — on multiplayer, this button is inert by design, and Auto Build is the way to go.

A settings screen worth opening

Press N (or open it from Mod Menu) for a full settings screen: General, Gameplay, Visuals, Performance, Controls, Advanced, and Actions pages, with a live search bar across the top that filters every page at once. Every setting has a short description, changes apply and save instantly, and right-clicking any setting resets it to default. Hotkeys support full combinations (Shift/Ctrl/Alt + a key or mouse button), and a compact, draggable status panel shows what TorchPilot is doing at a glance.

Built for real worlds

TorchPilot has been tested against the situations that actually break naive torch-placement mods:

• Uneven terrain — torches land on walkable ground, not treetops or roofs
• Multi-floor buildings — the lower floor wins unless it's out of reach
• Stairs, slabs, water, and lava — handled correctly, not just flat ground
• Unloaded chunks — entries stay retryable and resolve as you get close
• Dimension switching — selections don't leak between worlds or dimensions
• Very large selections — thousands of columns scan gradually with no freeze

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21.11
• Fabric Loader 0.18.4+
• Fabric API
• Java 21

Optional: Mod Menu for one-click access to the settings screen.

Notes

• Client-side only — no server-side install needed, and it works fine on servers that don't have it installed (it just won't do anything for those players).
• No network access, no telemetry, nothing sent anywhere.
• Licensed under MIT.

Found a bug or have a suggestion? Feel free to open an issue.