Minecraft Bedrock Add-on Beginner guide - Tools and Software; com.mojang folder; Referencing;

The com.mojang folder and your Workspace

Downloading the software.

In order to be able to code add-ons you'll need a certain set of software installed. The software in this list is for Windows 10, but it's possible to find analog software for iOS and android.

The official Minecraft v.1.16.0+ [Windows 10 Edition, Bedrock codebase], downloaded from the Microsoft Store. (Android and iOS versions will work too)
A code editor. This can be any text editor (even the pre-installed Notepad would do), however it's much more comfortable to work in a dedicated Code Editor, like Visual Studio Code, which I prefer. Sublime Text is another great code editor with huge theme customization capabilities. CoreCoder is a unique Code Editor developed specifically for Add-On creation. (Alternatives for Android:, iOS: Kodex)
Blockbench is a 'boxy 3D model editor ' typically used to create Minecraft entity models, textures and animations. Also provides a web-browser version compatible with mobile. An image editor, like GIMP, Photoshop or or paint.net, is recommended to be used along.

Alternatively, you could use Bridge (linked in Links and Contact), a visual software created specifically for Add-on creation, but personally, I prefer VSC. The process of creating add-ons in bridge is parallel to creating them in a Code editor, so once you grasped the basics you could easily switch to using Bridge.

As a further note, you may find other recommended software like AJG for repetitious task automation (e.g mass weapon generation) or FRG for quick custom structure creation linked in Links and Contact.

Now that you have your tools installed, let's move onto some pre-organisation.

^ Visual Studio Code Workspace

^ Blockbench Workspace

The com.mojang folder and your Workspace

The com.mojang folder is the folder we're going to be working with throughout the guide. It's the way to communicate with your game - you can find it in: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MinecraftUWP_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\games\com.mojang. (Android: Phone>games>com.mojang) I strongly recommend creating a shortcut to the folder on your Desktop, in order to be able to easily access it at any times. You'll find a lot of folders and files in the folder, among them: behavior_packs, development_behavior_packs, resource_packs, development_resource_packs.

development_..._packs are for developing add-ons - if you do some changes to them, then exit and re-enter a world with the packs applied, the packs will update. That way you can quickly test the changes without having to change the pack version and reloading the game. Thus we'll work with these folders. In ..._packs, on the other hand, stable add-ons, including those imported via .mcpack are stored. They're also used to submit add-ons to Realms. We do not need them right now.

Let's create you first add-on workspace in Visual Studio Code now.

Open VSC(Visual Studio Code, the code editor);
Create a folder named "YourPackName res" in development_resource_packs. I'll refer to this folder as res.
Create a folder "YourPackName bhv" in development_behavior_packs. I'll refer to this folder as bhv.
Go to File>Add folder to workspace... and choose bhv. Do the same with res.
Press File>Save Workpsace as... to save the folder to your Desktop. Whenever you're working on your add-on, all you have to do is open the workspace in VSC for quick access to both add-on folders.

com.mojang folder

Learning to reference

Referencing means looking at other add-ons to find out how certain results are achieved. Minecraft's unmodified files are a good place to start. Download these zips of the Example resource packs and Example behavior packs and get creative! I recommend adding them to your workspace, but not changing them.

The most important thing to check all the time are the official documentations. bedrock.dev is an amazing collection of all the documentations and schemes, and typing bedrock.dev/r in your search window will immediately show you the documentations of the most recent official Minecraft release. (bedrock.dev/b results in the latest beta's docs.)

Once you are though with this guide, you could download and reference some open-source add-ons from, for example, MCPEDL.com (or even share you own ones).

Your progress so far:

What you've done:

Installed the necessary software;
Downloaded the Vanilla Example files;
Located your com.mojang folder and created your add-on's workspace.

What are you to do next:

Create your add-ons manifests, pack icons;
Learn to use .mcfunction, .mcstructure, .mcpack and .mcaddon.