Version: 6.0.x

NBT & Data Components

A plain items entry gates every stack of that item. An entry with a criterion gates only the stacks that match it — the enchanted books carrying Sharpness, the potions with a specific effect, the mod item in a particular state.

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "minecraft:enchanted_book",
      "nbt": {
        "StoredEnchantments": [
          { "id": "minecraft:sharpness", "lvl": "1-4" }
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}

Only Sharpness I–IV books are locked here. Every other enchanted book behaves normally.

In the editor

Right-click the entry in the Items, Tags or Exceptions list and pick Edit NBT. Criteria are built as cards, with presets for the fields items commonly carry and a free-form dialog for anything else, plus live validation.

The quickest route is not to build one at all: hold the item and Ctrl-click an inventory slot to import that exact stack's state. Failing that, /history debug nbt preset, /history debug nbt custom and /history debug nbt components print what the held item carries, ready to copy.

Legacy NBT and data components

Minecraft 1.21 moved most item state out of free-form NBT and into data components. History Stages reads both, and they live in the same nbt object — components go under a components key alongside the older fields:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "minecraft:leather_chestplate",
      "nbt": {
        "components": {
          "minecraft:dyed_color": { "rgb": 16711680 }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

That is how a stage targets anything storing its state the modern way — dyed leather armour, food, jukebox playables, custom components from other mods. → Data component format

Which of the two a given item uses is not a guess: /history debug nbt preset, /history debug nbt custom and /history debug nbt components print what the item in your hand actually carries, ready to paste. → Commands

Criteria on tag entries

tags entries take the same nbt and components criteria. When a criterion is present, only tag members that also match it are locked — the rest of the tag stays open:

{
  "tags": [
    "minecraft:swords",
    {
      "id": "minecraft:swords",
      "nbt": {
        "components": {
          "minecraft:enchantments": { "minecraft:sharpness": 5 }
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

A criterion needs a real item to look at

Tag entries carrying an NBT criterion are skipped in code paths where no item stack exists — a loot-table check without context, for example. There is nothing to match against, so the entry cannot answer. Plain string tag entries are unaffected and still apply everywhere.

Enchantments are written this way too

There is no enchantment field in a stage file. Gating an enchantment means writing an minecraft:enchanted_book entry with a StoredEnchantments criterion, which the mod then also consults when an anvil or enchanting table is used. The lvl field takes a number, a "min-max" range, or nothing at all for every level. → Items, Tags & Mods

Building criteria without writing JSON

The in-game editor has a visual NBT editor: criteria are built as cards, with presets for the fields items commonly carry (enchantments, custom model data, damage) and a free-form dialog for anything else. It writes exactly the JSON shown on this page, so the two approaches mix.

Where criteria are accepted

Field	Criteria?
`items`	yes
`tags`	yes, with the caveat above
`mod_exceptions`	yes
`dependencies` → `items`	yes — an entry can demand a specific enchanted book at the pedestal
`trades` → `offers`	yes
`entities` → `interactionlock` → `lock_items`	yes
`fluids`	no — see below
`mods`	no, by nature: a mod id is not an item

Why fluids have no criteria

Of the four places the mod is asked about a fluid, only the container item could ever supply something to match against. A fluid block in the world and an entry in the recipe browser carry nothing — so a criterion would have done nothing on the two surfaces a pack author checks first. The omission is deliberate rather than missing. → Fluids

In the editor​

Legacy NBT and data components​

Criteria on tag entries​

Enchantments are written this way too​

Building criteria without writing JSON​

Where criteria are accepted​

Why fluids have no criteria​

See also​