SmartSwap
by WatermelonMC
SmartSwap switches the held tool to a better one when a player starts mining or hitting, and a single keypress can turn that behavior off.
What it does
Once active, SmartSwap picks the tool that suits the block or target a player is working on, so swapping between an axe, a pickaxe or a sword happens without manual selection. The feature is meant to remove routine hotbar work during mining and combat, and a toggle key lets a player hand control back at any moment.
A short notification appears when the toggle is pressed. It fades in and out, shows Enabled in green or Disabled in red, and stays readable without covering the rest of the screen. The mod is written to stay out of the way, so it keeps the interface simple and avoids the odd behavior that heavy automation can cause.
SmartSwap is a Forge mod for 1.20.1 that runs only on the client, so singleplayer, vanilla servers, modded servers and Realms all accept it without any server installation. It is released under All rights reserved and is not open source.
Key features
Automatic tool switching
The held tool changes according to whether the player is mining a block or hitting a target.
Single-key toggle
One keypress turns the automatic switching off or back on, so manual control stays available.
Fading HUD notice
The status message fades in and out and uses green for Enabled and red for Disabled.
Lightweight design
The mod stays small and avoids extra screens, so it works alongside many modpacks.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Mining with combat gear
A player who switches between mining and fighting can let the held tool change on its own while keeping one key ready to take control back.
Modpack play
Players running large modpacks can add the switcher without changing server-side content, since it requires no server installation.
Who it’s for: Players on Forge 1.20.1 who want less hotbar switching during mining and combat, in singleplayer or on any server, and who prefer a mod that adds only a light status message.
How it compares
Epic Fight - Smart Items Addon is a Forge and NeoForge addon for 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 that runs on client and server and is not open source. Auto Elytra is a Fabric, Forge and Quilt mod for 1.20 – 1.20.4 that runs only on the client and is open source under the MIT License. Clean HUD is a client-side mod for Fabric, Forge and NeoForge covering 1.20.1 – 26.2 under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 license, and it is not open source.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SmartSwap | Forge | 1.20.1 | Client-side only | 2026-02-25 |
| Epic Fight - Smart Items Addon | Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client and server | 2026-04-10 |
| Auto Elytra | Fabric, Forge and Quilt | 1.20 – 1.20.4 | Client-side only | 2024-02-16 |
| Clean HUD | Fabric, Forge and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 26.2 | Client-side only | 2026-08-08 |
Questions
Does SmartSwap need to be installed on the server?
Which loader and version does SmartSwap support?
How does a player turn the switching off?
In the catalog
SmartSwap is one of 8,016 Management mods on ModsFinder, and one of 2,698 Management mods for Forge. 34,764 mods support Minecraft 1.20.1.
More from WatermelonMC
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What the author says
🟢 SmartSwap ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SmartSwap is a lightweight client‑side Forge mod for Minecraft 1.20.1 that makes tool switching faster, cleaner, and way less annoying. With a single keypress, you can toggle SmartSwap on or off and let the mod handle the busywork of swapping between…
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/smartswap
- Owner
- WatermelonMC
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-02-25
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15