Provi's Health Bars is a client-side Minecraft mod by Provismet that surfaces the one piece of combat information the vanilla HUD hides, mob health. Point your crosshair at any creature and a sleek overlay reports its current and maximum health in real time, while matching bars float above every mob around you. It pairs cleanly with other HUD enhancements and turns guessing into knowing during fights, farming, and exploring.

How the Health Bar Overlay Works

The mod draws two distinct layers of feedback. The first is a targeting HUD that appears whenever your crosshair lands on a mob, showing a health bar, a numerical readout, and an animated mob icon that reacts to what is happening. A pig on fire literally burns in the portrait while its bar drains. The look of the bar shifts based on the mob's entity group, so undead, arthropod, aquatic, and illager targets each read differently at a glance.

The second layer is the in-world overhead bar. Every mob carries a small bar above its head that decays after a short window, giving you a fast read on crowd health during raids or mob farms without targeting each one.

Mobs riding mounts get a double bar, one for the mount and one for the rider, and the rendering accounts for stacked mobs so the information stays accurate even when creatures pile up.

Damage and healing spawn fully client-side particles beside the mob, positioned to the left or right of your view so they never block the screen. The entire kit is configurable through an in-game settings menu, letting you tune bar style, particle behavior, and which entity groups get custom treatment.

Other mods can hook the API entrypoint to add their own portraits and icons for custom entities, which makes Provi's Health Bars a friendly companion to content mods that introduce new mobs.

Installing Provi's Health Bars

This is a Fabric and Quilt mod, so start by installing Fabric (or the Quilt loader) and dropping the mod JAR into your mods folder. The basics of adding a mod to your profile are covered in the how to install Minecraft mods guide. The short version is to place the JAR alongside your loader of choice and launch the game. For the in-game config screen you will want Mod Menu and Cloth Config installed too, though the bars themselves work without them.

Compatibility and Dependencies

The hard requirement is the Fabric API library. Everything runs client-side, so it is safe on servers that do not have it installed, and it plays well with most content and HUD mods. If you want a different take on the same idea, ToroHealth Damage Indicators covers similar ground with its own style.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Provi's Health Bars work on multiplayer servers?

Yes. The mod is fully client-side, so it renders bars and particles from the data your client already receives. You do not need the server to install anything, and server admins do not have to approve or allowlist it.

Do I need Fabric API installed?

You do. Fabric API is the only required dependency. Mod Menu and Cloth Config are optional and only unlock the in-game config screen.

Can other mods add custom health bar portraits?

They can. Provi's Health Bars exposes an API entrypoint that lets other mods register custom HUD portraits and icons for their own entities, which is why it pairs well with mob-adding content packs.

Is the mod still maintained?

The most recent release shipped in May 2026, so the project is current. Verify on the project page before relying on a specific build.

Does it show health for bosses and custom mobs?

Boss bars and custom mobs both render, and entity-group styling applies automatically. Mods that add new entities can supply their own portrait through the API for a fully themed readout.