Work Tasks

A work task connects a profession to a work engine. The engine does the pathfinding, reservations, recovery, safety checks, and tick behaviour. The work.json of the Career chooses the engine and limits what the engine can use.

Data cannot add a new AI. It can declare a Job for one of Townstead’s general executors. The task ID of the Job automatically becomes a valid work-task type, so a pack can add new kinds of work with any name. A block-interaction Job can describe a long block procedure. The executor brings the worker, the target, and the required item together. Then Pheno actions do the procedure: block changes, loot, effects, and item wear.

These pages describe work:

• Work Jobs
• Targets And Scope
• Work History

Minimal Example

{
  "schema": "townstead:profession_work/v1",
  "tasks": [
    {
      "type": "townstead_work:cook",
      "workstations": [
        "minecraft:smoker",
        "#example:ovens"
      ],
      "recipes": [
        "edible",
        "#example:beekeeper_food"
      ],
      "weight": 10,
      "scope": "worksite"
    }
  ]
}

Put this file at data/<namespace>/profession/<career>/work.json.

Field Reference

Field	Default	Description
type		Required. A registered work-task ID. A short ID refers to the townstead_work namespace.
workstations	[]	Allowed block IDs or block tags. When empty, the engine uses its default stations.
entities	[]	Allowed entity IDs or entity tags. When empty, the engine uses its default targets.
recipes	[]	Allowed recipe IDs, output item IDs, output tags, or classification tokens.
deny_recipes	[]	Recipes or outputs to refuse. Townstead checks deny rules first.
recipe_inputs	[]	Required input item IDs, tags, or classification tokens.
deny_recipe_inputs	[]	Input items that stop a recipe. Townstead checks deny rules first.
weight	1	How much the worker prefers this task to other available tasks.
scope	worksite	Where the task looks for a workstation.
requirements	Always	Pheno condition. The task is available only when it passes.
order		The name and icon of the task on a worksite order sheet, for players: { "name": "Slaughter", "icon": "minecraft:iron_sword" }. When present, both fields are required. For the screen, see the Orders guide.
access	profession	Path work only. path gives the task only to workers who are on the Path now. See Path Work.

Target lists can only limit what the engine already accepts. They cannot make an engine use a target that its code rejects. For example, an entity list cannot get past the rules of the slaughter engine about animals that it must never kill.

Built-In Task Types

Each type below names one of Townstead’s work engines. The engine controls what the villager does. The task entry says where the villager can work and what the villager can make. There are three groups of types.

Recipe stations

These engines read recipes from the installed mods and make them at a station. The entry names the stations with workstations, and can limit the recipes. The station block needs a workstation definition, so that the engine knows how to load it.

Type	What the villager does	Used by
townstead_work:cook	Gets ingredients, loads a pot, skillet, stove, campfire, furnace, or a similar station, waits, and puts the dish on a shelf or a plate.	Cook, Baker
townstead_work:chop	Uses a tool to cut an item on a cutting board. Counts as cooking.	Cook
townstead_work:brew	Makes drinks at brewing stations, kegs, kettles, and bars.	Beverage Artisan
townstead_work:smoke	Smokes food in a smoker. Use it with recipe_inputs, so that the villager does not make every output of a shared smoker.	Butcher
townstead_work:smelt	Makes furnace recipes, and adds fuel.	Armorer, Toolsmith, Weaponsmith, Mason
townstead_work:craft	Makes recipes at a station that holds no items: crafting table, stonecutter, smithing table, cartography table, lectern. Always limit recipes, because without a limit it accepts every recipe in the game.	Armorer, Baker, Cartographer, Fletcher, Librarian, Mason, Toolsmith, Weaponsmith
townstead_work:brew_potion	Makes potions at a brewing stand.	Cleric
townstead_work:grind	Uses a grinder or mortar.	Butcher
townstead_work:taxidermy	Uses a taxidermy table.	Butcher

Zone work

These engines work in an area, not at a station. The entry usually needs only type and weight. The workplace comes from the job block of the career, and the engine reads the area from the world.

Type	What the villager does	Used by
townstead_work:harvest	Tills, plants, waters, and harvests the fields that a Field Post marks. Records harvested, planted, tilled, groomed, irrigated, and farmed activity. See Farming.	Farmer
townstead_work:fish	Gets a rod, walks to open water, casts, reels in, and brings the catch back to the barrel. See Fishing.	Fisherman

Tending

Type	What the villager does	Used by
townstead_work:shear	Shears sheep in a livestock pen and carries the wool to storage. Records tended activity. See Shepherding.	Shepherd
townstead_work:store	Carries wool to a wool shed when the shepherd cannot shear.	Shepherd

Job-defined types

A Work Job in a data pack defines each other type. A Profession can use the type when that Job exists. Townstead’s own Jobs define townstead_work:slaughter, townstead_work:butcher, townstead_work:dismantle, townstead_work:cure, townstead_work:clean, townstead_work:hammer, and townstead_work:maintain_climate in this way. Several Jobs can use the same task ID when they are different ways to do the same work.

A task type does not tell Townstead how an unknown machine stores inputs or finishes recipes. The workstation definition does that.

Troubleshooting

Run /pheno validate after a reload. It reports an unknown task type or a malformed target entry with the profession resource and the JSON path.

If a task loads but villagers do not do it, check these items in order:

1. The registered profession of the villager matches this career definition.
2. The career has a valid workplace and a free seat.
3. The requirements condition of the task passes.
4. The search scope includes the station.
5. The station block matches workstations.
6. The recipe matches the output and input filters.
7. A workstation definition or integration supports the machine.
8. No other worker has claimed the station.

To see the work trace, set debugVillagerAI in the server config.