WorldEdit works primarily through chat commands. Depending on your key bindings, you can invoke chat entry with the "t" key, and open the chat console with the "F10" key.
WorldEdit has a huge potential for abuse by untrusted players. Therefore, users will not be able to use WorldEdit unless they have the "worldedit" privelege. This is available by default in single player, but in multiplayer the permission must be explicitly given by someone with the right credentials, using the follwoing chat command: `/grant <player name> worldedit`. This privelege can later be removed using the following chat command: `/revoke <player name> worldedit`.
For in-game information about these commands, type `/help <command name>` in the chat. For example, to learn more about the `//copy` command, simply type `/help /copy` to display information relevant to copying a region.
The coordinate system is the same as that used by MineTest; Y is upwards, X is perpendicular, and Z is parallel.
When an axis is specified in a WorldEdit command, it is specified as one of the following values: x, y, z, or ?.
The value ? represents the axis the player is currently facing. If the player is facing more than one axis, the axis the player face direction is closest to will be used.
Node names are required for many types of commands that identify or modify specific types of nodes. They can be specified in a number of ways.
First, by description - the tooltip that appears when hovering over the item in an inventory. This is case insensitive and includes values such as "Cobblestone" and "bronze block". Note that certain commands (namely, `//replace` and `//replaceinverse`) do not support descriptions that contain spaces in the `<searchnode>` field.
Second, by name - the node name that is defined by code, but without the mod name prefix. This is case sensitive and includes values such as "piston_normal_off" and "cactus". Nodes defined in the `default` mod always take precedence over other nodes when searching for the correct one, and if there are multiple possible nodes (such as "a:celery" and "b:celery"), one is chosen in no particular order.
Finally, by full name - the unambiguous identifier of the node, prefixes and all. This is case sensitive and includes values such as "default:stone" and "mesecons:wire_00000000_off".
Most WorldEdit commands operate on regions. Regions are a set of two positions that define a 3D cube. They are local to each player and chat commands affect only the region for the player giving the commands.
Each positions together define two opposing corners of the cube. With two opposing corners it is possible to determine both the location and dimensions of the region.
Regions are not saved between server restarts. They start off as empty regions, and cannot be used with most WorldEdit commands until they are set to valid values.
Entities are used to mark the location of the WorldEdit regions. They appear as boxes containing the number 1 or 2, and represent position 1 and 2 of the WorldEdit region, respectively.
To remove the entities, simply punch them. This does not reset the positions themselves.
WorldEdit is accessed in-game through an interface. By default, the mod distribution includes a chat interface for this purpose. It is documented in the [Chat Commands Reference](Chat Commands.md).
If visual manipulation of nodes is desired, the [WorldEdit GUI](http://minetest.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3112) mod provides a simple interface with buttons and text entry fields for this purpose.
WorldEdit exposes all significant functionality in a simple interface. Adding WorldEdit to the file "depends.txt" in your mod gives you access to all of the `worldedit` functions. The API is useful for tasks such as high-performance node manipulation, alternative interfaces, and map creation.
Most importantly, the Affero variant of the GPL requires you to publish your modifications in source form, even if the mod is run only on the server, and not distributed.
