Packrat Fork

Packrat Fork — Storage Browser

Fork of the original mod by dizzyd — GitHub

View, search, and sort the contents of all nearby containers at once — perfect for the compulsive hoarder in all of us.

What is a pack rat?

The term "pack rat" comes from the North American woodrat, famous for collecting and storing an eclectic variety of objects in its nest. Like its namesake, any dedicated Vintage Story player eventually accumulates room after room of carefully organized — or not-so-carefully organized — supplies.

Packrat helps you find what you need without opening every chest.

Features

One-key browsing	Press R to open a unified view of all containers within 5 blocks.
Room detection	In an enclosed room, opens everything regardless of line-of-sight. In open areas, requires visibility to each container.
Container highlighting	Each container's slots are color-coded so you always know which chest or crate holds what.
Search & filter	Type to filter by item name, block material (stone, wood, metal), or food category (protein, grain, vegetable). Press / to focus the search box instantly.
Sorting	Sort all slots by name (A–Z), category, material, or spoilage time. Re-clicking the same sort mode re-sorts after item changes. Empty slots can be shown or hidden via the toggle.
Smart transfers	Shift-click prioritizes crates with matching items, then empty crates, then chests.
Crate awareness	Respects single-item-type restrictions and shows ghost items in empty crate slots.

How to use

1. Build a storage room with chests and/or crates.
2. Press R (rebindable in controls) while standing inside.
3. Browse the unified grid — colored backgrounds indicate different containers.
4. Use the search box (or press /) to filter by item name, material, or food category.
5. Use the sort dropdown to order slots by name, category, material, or spoilage time.
6. Toggle Show Empty (appears while a sort mode is active) to hide or show empty slots.
7. Click or shift-click to move items as usual.

Packrat respects reinforced and locked containers — if you can't open it normally, Packrat won't open it either.

Sort modes

None	Original container order, grouped by container.
A–Z	Alphabetical by item display name.
Category	Grouped by type: tools, weapons, food, clothing, blocks, resources.
Material	Grouped by material (copper, iron, wood, stone, …).
Perishable	Soonest-to-expire items first; non-perishables at the end.

Mod compatibility

Packrat works out of the box with vanilla chests and crates, plus these storage mods:

• ContainersBundle
• BetterCrates
• StorageController
• Primitive Survival (tree hollows)
• MoreInventorys (racks, closed crate & basket)

Adding support for other storage mods

The list of supported container types lives in a config file, so you can add support for another storage mod yourself — no new Packrat release needed.

On first start Packrat creates an empty VintagestoryData/ModConfig/packratfork/containers.json. Entries you add there are merged on top of Packrat's built-in list (which always ships current with each release). Each entry looks like this:

{
  "Type": "SomeMod.BlockEntityFancyChest",
  "NeedsPatch": false,
  "DirectAccess": false,
  "HiddenLeadingSlots": 0,
  "HiddenLeadingSlotsField": null
}

Type	Full .NET type name of the container's block entity (find it in crash logs or with a decompiler like ILSpy).
NeedsPatch	true if the type has its own OnReceivedServerPacket override that opens its dialog on the vanilla OpenInventory packet. Prevents the mod's own window from popping up during browsing.
DirectAccess	true if the container never sends the vanilla OpenInventory packet (custom network protocol, or contents already synced). Without it, browsing waits 3 seconds for a packet that never arrives.
HiddenLeadingSlots	Number of leading inventory slots to hide in the browser (for inventories whose first slots aren't storage, e.g. slots holding the container blocks themselves).
HiddenLeadingSlotsField	Instead of a fixed number: name of a public int field on the inventory class to read the hidden-slot count from at runtime. Overrides HiddenLeadingSlots when the field exists.

Typical starting point for a normal chest-like container: just Type with everything else at defaults. If the mod's own dialog opens together with the browser, set NeedsPatch: true. If the browser only opens after a 3-second delay, set DirectAccess: true.

Entries for mods that aren't installed are ignored, so it's safe to keep them in the file. If you get a mod working this way, please open an issue with your entry so it can be added to the defaults for everyone.

The config file only holds your entries — built-in mod support always comes with Packrat itself, so updates never require touching your file. An entry with the same Type as a built-in one replaces it; add one with "Enabled": false to turn a built-in off.