EMI Interface Guide: Controls and Navigation Basics

EMI is a Minecraft utility mod that helps you browse recipes and manage items through its interface. This guide explains how to use its main controls and navigate its screens.

Opening and Browsing Items

The sidebar is your main item browser. It can display different sets of stacks depending on the mode you choose. The available display modes include showing all stacks, showing only craftable stacks, showing your favorites, showing stacks you searched for previously, and showing stacks you have crafted before. You can switch between sidebars using the corresponding hotkey (set it in the controls menu). Each sidebar can also be compressed to the right side of the screen.

To find a specific item, type in the search bar. By default, the search can match item names, mod names, or tags, and you can toggle these search behaviors on or off. You can also choose to append the item’s mod ID to its tooltip for extra information.

Viewing Recipes and Recipe Trees

To see all recipes for a stack, click on it. A recipe screen will open showing the available crafting methods. If you press the key bound to view all recipes (the action is listed as “Press [ctrl + r]”), you can jump directly to that view.

The recipe tree is a visual representation of the steps needed to craft an item, including the base cost of each ingredient. You can pan and zoom around the tree display. Left click a node in the tree to choose which recipe should be used for that step. Hold shift while clicking to have EMI automatically pick a recipe based on what is in your inventory. Right click a recipe node to temporarily fold it away, or hold shift while right clicking to clear the recipe from that node entirely.

When you view a recipe tree, you can assign a specific recipe to a particular tree by clicking the recipe’s output. To make that recipe the default for all trees, click the recipe default button. You can also click the “Set as default recipe” action to apply it globally. The current default for a stack is shown with the “Currently the default recipe for” message. To remove a default, use the “Remove as default recipe” action.

Crafting and Cheating Items

The crafting area offers several actions. You can craft one item into your inventory, craft all possible items into your inventory, or craft one item to your cursor. In creative mode, you can also cheat items directly: one to inventory, a full stack to inventory, one to cursor, or a full stack to cursor. There is also an option to delete the stack currently held on your cursor.

The batch size for crafting can be adjusted by scrolling your mouse wheel. Hold shift while scrolling to change the batch size by increments of 16. You can craft as many batches as possible with one action, or craft all batches at once. The interface will also show whether you can craft all batches, only some batches, or none at all. If you cannot craft, it may be because you lack ingredients or the crafting grid is too small. To minimize leftover materials after crafting, use the “get minimal leftovers” action.

Favorites and Recipe Defaults

You can mark a stack as a favorite by pressing the corresponding hotkey (set it in the controls menu). Pressing it again will remove the favorite. Favorited stacks appear in a dedicated sidebar view. When working with recipe trees, synthetic favorites are added automatically to the favorites sidebar. These represent incomplete steps and can be used to craft the remaining materials.

Additional Interface Features

The recipe screen has several configurable options. You can adjust the maximum height and minimum width of the recipe screen, as well as the vertical margin around it. The workstation location can be set to control where recipe screens appear. You can also toggle the visibility of buttons for the EMI config, recipe tree, recipe default, recipe fill, and recipe screenshot.

If you want to capture an image of a recipe, use the “Take Recipe Screenshot” action. The screenshot scale can be adjusted in settings. Other useful settings include “Search Tooltip by Default,” “Search Mod Name by Default,” and “Search Tags by Default,” which control what the search bar matches. The “Empty Search Sidebar Focus” and “Search Sidebar Focus” options determine which sidebar receives input when you start typing.

Error and Status Messages

EMI shows various status messages. If the mod is disabled, it will tell you to toggle it. While waiting for data from a server, it displays a message about that. If a critical error occurs during reloading, you will see an error message. There is also a warning if the mod is experiencing a delay. When a workstation does not support a recipe, you will be informed. If a recipe cannot be filled because EMI is not running on the server, a specific message appears.

Recipe ID and Validation

For developers, EMI provides messages about recipe IDs. Recipes need unique IDs to be serialized. If an ID is null, duplicated, or duplicates a vanilla recipe, you will see an error explaining the problem. You can use a synthetic ID in the format [namespace]:/[path] to fix this. If a recipe’s inputs or outputs are null, or if its slots do not include any outputs, you will see messages explaining how to correct it.

Miscellaneous Features

EMI includes several optional features. You can invite another player to play chess from the search bar, and accept or decline invitations. There is also a global config option to share settings across all game instances instead of using a separate config per instance. Many item tag lists are available for reference, such as non-flammable wood, axolotl temptables, creeper drop music discs, and various enchantable equipment categories.