Rename project

[exaskye]

People are under the impression this is somehow official or required for NilLoader mods to function, generally due to blind trust of AI slop answers. Considering the relationship that Fabric API and Fabric Loader have, this isn't a particularly outrageous assumption.

Current versions of NilLoader will refuse to load your mod under this ID. It must be renamed, I don't care what to. e.g. "TamKungAPI", "KDL Lib", whatever. I don't know, ask Claude or whatever agent you're clearly using to come up with a better name.

Also, please do not use Nil internals so extensively via reflection. They are very likely to break in the future, and I do not understand the point of allowing bootstrapping of mods that use a completely custom and special KDL metadata format. At that point you should just make your own mod loader also based on Java agents.

[TamKungZ]

I don't have any malicious intent here. I created this project because I personally ran into difficulties while developing with NilLoader and wanted to build tooling that made the development experience easier.

NilLoader is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3, and I have tried to respect both the license and the original project throughout this work. If compatibility breaks in the future because of changes to NilLoader internals, I am prepared to maintain and update my project accordingly.

I have also tried to make the relationship with NilLoader as clear as possible and give full credit to the original project and its maintainers:
https://github.com/NilLoaderSDK/.github/tree/main/profile#readme

I would appreciate it if you could reconsider.

My intention is not to replace NilLoader, claim ownership of it, or make people believe this is an official component. I simply think the NilLoader community and ecosystem have room to grow, and that providing additional tooling around it is a worthwhile idea.

Regarding making my own loader: I don't really want to create another Java-agent-based mod loader when NilLoader already exists and already provides that foundation. I would rather build on top of an existing open-source project, create tooling around it, and help improve its ecosystem instead of unnecessarily creating a competing loader. To me, that is one of the strengths of open-source development.

Regarding AI: yes, I use AI tools as part of my development workflow. I don't consider that something I need to hide. However, I am still the person making the decisions, testing the project, maintaining it, and taking responsibility for the code that I publish. If an AI-generated suggestion is wrong or causes a problem, that responsibility is mine, not the tool's.

That's the spirit in which I've been working on this project.

[TamKungZ]

But if you're still uncomfortable with the current name, I'm willing to rename the project to NilKit API to make it clearer that it is an independent community project rather than an official NilLoader component.

[exaskye]

Removing "NilLoader" from your project name is not negotiable. I have already started enforcing that restriction. Additionally, the internals that the "KDL-only" loader was using have all been locked down. If you want to use NilLoader, then use NilLoader and go through its machinery. Reimplementing everything yourself and sideloading it into internal data structures is asking for significant bugs.

Your intent here may or may not have been benign, but it is confusing people, as is your usage of a logo that barely differs from the official one. From outside it really just looks like a Modrinth land grab, especially with the keyword spam.

Minecraft modding largely gets by on respect, the legal software licenses are basically decorative.

[exaskye]

"NilKit API" is perfectly fine by me.

[TamKungZ]

Understood. In that case, I'm happy to rename the project to NilKit API.

I'm sorry for the confusion and for making you uncomfortable with how the project was presented. I should probably have contacted you by email before publishing and expanding the project instead of making assumptions on my own.

Thank you for clarifying what you're comfortable with. I'll update the project name, branding, and documentation accordingly.

[TamKungZ]

I'll make the GitHub repositories and the Modrinth project private temporarily while I update the name, branding, documentation, mod IDs, and anything else that could cause confusion with the official NilLoader project.

Thank you for taking the time to clarify this with me. I'll make sure the project is clearly presented as an independent community project when it becomes public again.

[TamKungZ]

If there's anything else you'd like me to change or avoid while I'm doing the cleanup, please let me know.

[TamKungZ]

I have one additional question. I also made a NilLoader installer to make it easier for users to install NilLoader:

https://github.com/NilLoaderSDK/NilLoaderInstaller

It is separate from the API/SDK issue we discussed, but since it still uses the NilLoader name and branding, I wanted to ask what you think about it.

I'm happy to remove or rename it if you'd prefer, or, if you're interested, I'd also be open to developing the installer together with you instead.

[TamKungZ]

I have one more question just to make sure I handle the transition correctly.

Do you want me to remove or disable the old releases/files that still use the previous name and branding, or is it fine to leave them available and simply publish a new version under the new NilKit API name?

I understand that the older version may no longer work with current NilLoader versions anyway, but I wanted to ask explicitly rather than assume.

[exaskye]

There's not really a different reasonable name for an installer. Make it very clear it isn't official, at least.

Old versions can remain published, but please replace occurrences of "NilLoaderSDK" in the file metadata (version name, subtitle, changelog, etc) so they don't show in search results.

[TamKungZ]

Thank you for taking the time to discuss all of this with me and for clarifying your concerns.

I'm happy to keep working on tools that can help the NilLoader community and ecosystem grow in a positive direction, while being more careful about the distinction between my projects and the official NilLoader project going forward.

If anything comes up in the future, feel free to contact me at dev@tamkungz.me.

Thanks again.