Documentation Resources

This page aims to be a complete list of developer documentation resources for Minetest. They are ordered rougly in how useful they are and how beginner-friendly they are.

The Minetest Modding Book

The Minetest Modding Book by rubenwardy is a friendly introduction to Minetest modding and game creation, introducing you to various aspects of the API. It is a perfect resource for learning to develop with Minetest's API, even if you are already experienced with programming.

Lua API reference

The Lua API reference (also known as lua_api.md, formerly lua_api.txt) is a Markdown file detailing the entire Minetest Lua API. It is bundled with Minetest and can be found in the doc/ folder, or online on GitHub here. There is also a prettier HTML version available at api.minetest.net.

It is the official reference for the Lua API, it is maintained by the Minetest core developers and is usually seen as the source of truth, but can be overly dry at times.

minetest_docs

minetest_docs was a project that sought out to create better documentation for Minetest. This fell flat and is currently dormant but contains some gems, most of which is available on the Voxelmanip Wiki.

Minetest Wiki

The Minetest Wiki (not to be confused with the Voxelmanip Minetest Wiki) is the official Wiki, originally meant for "players". The contents mostly consist of outdated information about Minetest Game, but also contains some useful documentation gems about the engine.

Minetest Developer Wiki

The Minetest Developer Wiki is intended to be a Minetest Wiki for developers, as opposed to the "player" Wiki. Outside of a tiny amount of gems for core engine development, it is lacking and sometimes worse than useless.