Two health states: server and public address
The local Minecraft process can be healthy even when the public SPUDZWARE address is reconnecting. Likewise, a tunnel can exist while Minecraft is still starting and not ready to accept players. Treating these as one status produces confusing messages, so SPUDZWARE tracks them separately internally and presents one clear next action to the user.
| Minecraft server | Public address | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Running | Connected | Players can join through the SPUDZWARE address. |
| Running | Connection error | The server is alive locally, but remote players cannot use the public address yet. |
| Starting | Connecting | Setup is still in progress; wait for Minecraft readiness. |
| Offline | Offline | The server is stopped and no public route should be advertised as joinable. |
First-time setup
- Select or create the local server profile.
- Choose the Minecraft version and server software/loader.
- Download and verify required server files.
- Prepare the world and configuration.
- Start the local Minecraft process.
- Wait until the server is actually listening and ready.
- Connect the authenticated SPUDZWARE public address.
- Show Online only when the join path is usable.
Technical steps such as “reading official version metadata” are useful in logs, but a normal user should see friendly stages such as Preparing Minecraft, Installing Fabric or Connecting your SPUDZWARE address.
The public SPUDZWARE address
The address shown in Local Hosting is the player-facing hostname. It should be easy to copy and its state should be obvious: Connecting, Online or Offline. SPUDZWARE's central Minecraft service architecture remains separate from the local port used by an individual hosted process. A local-port display should describe the process that is actually bound on the user's machine, not expose an unrelated infrastructure port.
Why sign-in matters
The public route is an authenticated SPUDZWARE service. If the account is not signed in, the launcher should catch that before repeatedly attempting a tunnel and then presenting a cryptic authentication failure. The useful message is “SPUDZWARE sign-in required” with a Sign In action. Tunnel tokens or credentials should never be printed in the UI or logs.
Recovery states
A public-address failure should offer Retry Connection without unnecessarily restarting a healthy Minecraft server. A server crash should offer logs and a server restart. A port conflict should be identified as a local process problem. A network outage should explain that remote joining is unavailable while avoiding destructive repair actions.
Fix only the layer that failed. Restarting Minecraft because the relay lost its connection creates extra downtime and makes the original problem harder to diagnose.
Security and data ownership
Local Hosting should preserve the user's world data on their device and keep public routing credentials separate from Minecraft files. Worlds, configuration and logs should not be sent to the public relay merely to route connections. When a server is stopped or repaired, user content should be preserved unless the user explicitly chooses to replace it.
Players and memory
Metrics are most useful after the server is running. Before that, “Waiting for server” is more accurate than a row of Unknown values. Once online, player count, memory use, memory limit, view distance and simulation distance can help explain performance without forcing the user to inspect raw process output.