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Nomad is a decentralised Minecraft server design that lets the online player who acquires an expiring lease run a vanilla world from their own computer. When that player stops, Nomad uploads the latest world archive, releases the lease, and lets another player take over. The world is therefore not permanently tied to the friend who originally created it, and the group does not need a machine running the server 24/7.
The project, published by Walnut Icecream on September 9, 2026, uses conditional storage writes to prevent two players from becoming host simultaneously. It supports Cloudflare R2, Git, and self-hosted S3-compatible storage, and provides both a command-line interface and a PySide6 GUI. It is still under development, so the design is promising for small groups but should not be treated as a production reliability guarantee.
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What problem does a host-switching Minecraft server solve?
A conventional small Minecraft server usually runs on one player’s desktop. That arrangement is simple until the owner logs off, loses power, closes the game, or has an unreliable connection. Everyone else is then locked out even if several friends remain online.
Nomad changes the ownership model. The server process runs on whichever participating player currently holds the world lease. Other players connect to that person’s address while the lease is active. When the host leaves normally, the world is synchronized to shared storage and the next online player can acquire it.
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This is different from merely sharing a save folder. A shared folder does not by itself decide who may write, does not stop two computers from launching the same world, and does not define what happens after a crash. Nomad combines a lock, an archive, and a server lifecycle so that only one computer is authoritative at a time.
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Walnut Icecream describes the goal as making the world no longer belong to one person: whoever is online can host it while everyone else joins them. The project is documented in the author’s DEV Community article.
How does Nomad decide who is hosting?
Each world has two storage objects: worlds/lease.json and worlds/world.tar.gz. The lease file records the current host, its address, the lease status, and an expiry time. The archive is the portable copy of the Minecraft world.
Host selection uses a compare-and-swap operation implemented with conditional writes. In practical terms, a player may claim the lease only if the storage service still contains the expected previous state. If two people try at once, one conditional write succeeds and the other is rejected; both computers cannot legitimately become host.
The lease timing
- The active host renews its lease every 20 seconds.
- The lease lasts five minutes before it expires.
- If renewals stop, another player can claim the world after expiry.
- The world archive is uploaded before the old lease is released.
The five-minute lifetime is a failure detector, not a guarantee that a crashed computer’s very last seconds of gameplay were saved. The most recent successful upload is the copy available to the next host.
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The complete lifecycle
- Acquire: a player performs the conditional lease claim.
- Pull: the new host downloads
worlds/world.tar.gz. - Boot: Nomad starts the vanilla Minecraft server on that computer.
- Renew: the host refreshes the lease every 20 seconds while the server runs.
- Stop: the host shuts down the Minecraft server when finished.
- Upload: Nomad writes the latest world archive to shared storage.
- Release: the lease is released so another player can acquire it.
This ordering matters. Releasing first would allow a new host to download an older archive while the previous host was still uploading. Uploading first ensures that a normal handoff exposes the newest completed save.
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What happens when the current host crashes?
No separate coordinator or recovery daemon is required for the basic failure case. A crashed or disconnected host stops renewing its lease; after the five-minute expiry, another player can attempt acquisition. The new host then pulls the last archive that was successfully uploaded.
There are two practical limits. First, changes made after the last successful upload may be lost because the old computer never reached the upload step. Second, expiry is deliberately conservative: the group may wait up to the remaining lease time before takeover, rather than instantly assuming that a slow computer has failed. Players should also avoid manually starting the same world outside Nomad, because the lease cannot protect against an unregistered server process.
Which storage backends can Nomad use?
Nomad keeps storage pluggable. The project currently names Cloudflare R2, Git, and self-hosted S3-compatible systems such as MinIO, Garage, and SeaweedFS. A VPS can also provide an S3-compatible endpoint. The Minecraft server remains vanilla; the backend stores coordination data and the compressed world archive.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare R2 | S3 API with conditional object writes | The author describes a free option up to 10 GB with generous upload and download allowances in 2026; current pricing and limits should be checked before deployment. | Managed storage reduces maintenance, but the group depends on an external provider and its credentials. |
| Git | Fast-forward-only pushes act as the compare-and-swap mechanism | No price, repository size limit, or bandwidth allowance is stated for Nomad. | Familiar version-control workflow, but large binary world archives can make repositories grow quickly and may require careful access control. |
| MinIO, Garage, or SeaweedFS | S3-compatible object operations, including conditional writes | Software and hosting costs are not stated; they depend on the machine, disk, and operator. | More control and possible local hosting, with responsibility for upgrades, backups, networking, and recovery. |
| VPS with an S3-compatible endpoint | The endpoint supplies the same object-storage semantics | No VPS price or capacity is specified. | Can centralize storage for a group, but introduces a continuously reachable server to administer. |
The important compatibility requirement is not simply “can it store a file?” The backend must support the conditional update behavior Nomad uses to arbitrate the lease. A storage service that permits unrestricted last-writer-wins updates would undermine host exclusivity.
What do I need to run Nomad?
The published requirements are Python 3.11 or newer and Java 21. Java is needed by the Minecraft server; Python runs Nomad’s lifecycle and coordination code. Each participant also needs access to the configured storage backend and a network path that allows friends to reach the active host.
- A computer capable of running the desired vanilla Minecraft version and Java 21.
- Python 3.11+ for the Nomad client.
- Credentials or access permissions for the selected R2, Git, or S3-compatible storage.
- Enough local disk for the extracted world and the compressed archive.
- A way for other players to connect to the current host’s address, such as appropriate firewall and router rules.
- Agreement among players about who may use the shared world and how credentials are protected.
The source does not publish a universal installation command, supported Minecraft release matrix, bandwidth requirement, or concurrent-player limit. Those details should be confirmed in the project’s current documentation before a group standardizes on it.
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How does a normal handoff work for players?
A handoff is safest when the current host uses Nomad’s stop flow rather than simply killing the process. The exact button names can vary between the CLI and PySide6 GUI, but the sequence is consistent.
- Choose a backend and configure every client. Point each participant at the same storage location and give only the permissions Nomad requires. Keep access keys private; anyone who can write the lease or archive can interfere with the world.
- Start Nomad on the first player. The client attempts the conditional lease acquisition. A successful claim identifies that computer as host; a rejected claim means another player already owns the lease.
- Let Nomad pull the archive before booting. The host should use the downloaded world as the server’s data directory and allow the vanilla server to finish its normal startup.
- Share the active address. Other players connect to the host’s current address, not to a permanent central server address. The lease record is the authoritative place for the active host information.
- Stop through Nomad when leaving. Shut down Minecraft cleanly, wait for the world archive upload to complete, and then release the lease. The next player can acquire and pull the new archive.
- Recover after an unexpected exit. Wait for lease expiry, then have one player acquire it. If acquisition is rejected, another client still believes it owns the lease; do not launch a second copy until the state is resolved.
Because the whole archive is synchronized, handoff time depends on world size, compression, storage latency, and upload bandwidth. Nomad’s source provides no benchmark, so groups should time their own worlds before relying on rapid rotations.
Is this actually a decentralised Minecraft server?
It is decentralised in the sense that no permanent central game host chooses the leader. Storage provides shared coordination, while any eligible player’s computer can run the server. The design still relies on a shared storage service and on the current host’s network connection, so it is not an entirely peer-to-peer system with no infrastructure.
The distinction is useful when setting expectations. A managed object store or a self-hosted S3 service remains a coordination dependency, and the active player’s computer must stay online for others to play. Nomad removes the single-player hosting bottleneck; it does not remove the need for a reachable host or durable storage.
Which deployment choice fits a small group?
Choose based on who is willing to operate storage and whether the group accepts that an online player’s machine will run the server.
- Use managed object storage when the priority is the least maintenance. R2 is the explicitly named managed option, but verify its current free-tier, request, egress, and storage terms because the 10 GB description comes from 2026 project documentation.
- Use Git when the group already understands repository permissions and accepts that binary archives are a poor fit for indefinitely growing history. Nomad’s fast-forward-only push model supplies the lease race protection.
- Use MinIO, Garage, or SeaweedFS when someone can operate a storage server and wants control over where worlds reside. Plan disk capacity, backups, TLS, authentication, and external reachability yourself.
- Use a VPS endpoint when a group wants a stable storage location without running it at home. This still does not make the VPS the Minecraft host unless you deliberately configure it that way.
None of these choices provides an established uptime percentage, player-count ceiling, or performance benchmark for Nomad. Those figures are not published, so they should not be inferred from the storage provider’s specifications.
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What are the main risks and failure modes?
Two players try to claim at once
Conditional writes are designed to reject the losing claim. The losing client should wait, refresh its state, and connect to the host recorded in the lease rather than retrying aggressively or starting a local server.
The host disappears during play
The lease eventually expires, but only the last completed archive is recoverable. Establish a group rule that players treat an unclean takeover as potentially losing recent progress.
The upload fails during a normal stop
The old host should not release the lease until the upload succeeds. Check storage credentials, free space, connectivity, and the archive’s timestamp before allowing another client to take over.
Players connect to the wrong address
Addresses change with the host. Use the current lease information or the address displayed by Nomad rather than bookmarking one player’s private address permanently.
Credentials or archives are exposed
Object-store keys and Git credentials can grant write access to the lease and world. Use separate credentials for this world, restrict permissions where possible, and rotate them if a participant’s machine is compromised.
The project does not meet production expectations
Nomad is described as under development. The available material does not establish audited durability, compatibility across every Minecraft release, automated backups, or a tested high-concurrency limit. Treat it as an experimental or small-group solution until your own testing demonstrates otherwise.
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Can Nomad replace a 24/7 paid server?
For a friends-only world whose players are rarely online at the same time, it can avoid paying for a continuously running game host: the server exists on an online player’s computer only when someone is playing. The trade-off is availability. If nobody is online to acquire the lease, the world is offline, and the current host’s upload speed, hardware, power, and network determine the session quality.
A conventional always-on server remains preferable when players need access at arbitrary hours, when no participant can expose a reachable host, or when the group needs predictable uptime and centralized administration. Nomad’s value is flexibility and shared responsibility, not a promise of equivalent service levels.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can several people host the same Minecraft world at the same time?
No. The lease is intended to have one active owner, and conditional writes reject competing acquisitions. Players can remain connected as clients, but they should not run separate copies of the same world concurrently.
How much progress can be lost after a crash?
Potentially all changes made since the most recent successful world upload. The five-minute lease expiry enables recovery, but it does not create a snapshot of gameplay that was never uploaded.
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Does Nomad work with modded Minecraft?
The published project specifically describes the Minecraft server as vanilla and does not establish support for mod loaders or mod packs. Modded use would require confirming that every host has matching files, Java settings, and compatible server behavior.
Can I keep a permanent server address while hosts change?
The documented design records the active host’s address in the lease, so players normally follow the current host information. A permanent public address would require an additional networking or proxy layer, which is not described as part of Nomad.
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