Better Librarians FAQ

Why is there no card when I look at a villager?

The usual suspects, in order: the villager is not a librarian (only librarians get cards), you have never traded with them yet (trade once to catalogue their books), a screen is open (the card hides while any GUI is up), the mod is disabled (enabled is false), or you turned showUncataloguedHint off and this villager is still uncatalogued. If none of those fit, see troubleshooting.

Do I really have to trade first?

Yes, once per villager. The client only receives a villager's offers while their trading screen is open, so there is no way to know their books beforehand. After that first trade the books are stored locally and the card works from a distance ever after. Your catalogue survives restarts in config/betterlibrarians_data.json.

Does the server need the mod?

No, and it would not do anything there anyway. This mod is client-side only: every player who wants cards and renames installs it (plus Mycel) in their own client. Joining a vanilla server with it installed works fine.

Will other players see my renames?

Only if they have the mod too. Renames live in your own config/betterlibrarians_data.json and render through your client alone. Nothing is sent to the server or to other players.

Can I rename non-librarians?

Yes. /vname works on any villager you point at, whatever their profession. Only the book card is librarian-only.

Why was my name rejected?

Names with no visible text are refused (codes alone do not count), and input is clamped to 48 characters. Unknown codes are kept literally rather than erroring, so check for a typo like a stray & (write && for a literal ampersand). See commands for the full code list.

Can I turn it off without uninstalling?

Yes. Set enabled to false in config/betterlibrarians.json and run /mycel reload betterlibrarians. The card disappears and any renames are hidden (original nameplates come back) until you flip it back on.