ViaVersion

Allows you to connect to servers that are older than your client version. See our GitHub page for more information.

On Fabric, use either ViaFabric or ViaFabricPlus. To override the included version

in ViaFabric, put ViaVersion into the mods folder
in ViaFabricPlus, put ViaVersion into the ViaFabricPlus/jars folder

Bungee and Sponge also have their own platform implementations.

Requires Java 17. See here how to update your installed Java version. As a last resort, you can download Java 8 downgraded builds from our ci.

Get access to Via* with new MC version support early

Starting with 1.20.5, ViaVersion and ViaBackwards will only be released a day or so after a Minecraft update unless the protocol changes of the update were trivial. If you want early-access, usually days or even weeks before the final release, you can subscribe to either:

GitHub Sponsors (preferred option. Use the /verify command on this Discord after), or alternatively
Patreon (see the highest tier and make sure to link Patreon to your Discord account under Discord Settings->Connections)

Note on release channels

It is recommended to always use the latest beta release. Alpha builds are used for work on snapshot version compatibility or other cutting-edge changes.

Always use the same build channel across the ViaVersion, ViaBackwards, and ViaRewind projects.

Releases/Dev Builds

You can find official releases in the following places:

Hangar (for our plugins): https://hangar.papermc.io/ViaVersion/ViaVersion
Modrinth (for our mods): https://modrinth.com/mod/viaversion
GitHub: https://github.com/ViaVersion/ViaVersion/releases

Dev builds for all of our projects are on our Jenkins server:

Jenkins: https://ci.viaversion.com

ViaVersion as a Dependency

JavaDocs: https://jd.viaversion.com

Maven:

<repository>
    <id>viaversion-repo</id>
    <url>https://repo.viaversion.com</url>
</repository>

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.viaversion</groupId>
    <artifactId>viaversion-api</artifactId>
    <version>[4.0.0,5.0.0)</version>
    <scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>

Gradle:

repositories {
    maven("https://repo.viaversion.com")
}

dependencies {
    compileOnly("com.viaversion:viaversion-api:VERSION") // Replace the version
}

Resources

Via Mappings Generator
Mojang mappings (Thank you, Mojang, very cool)
wiki.vg (Used for historic information regarding packet structure, we also contribute back)
Burger (See PAaaS)

Special thanks to all our Contributors.