You've seen those TikToks or YouTube shorts where a builder makes a fence post float in mid-air or forces a set of stairs to face a direction that physically shouldn't work. It looks like magic. It looks like a mod. Honestly, it's just a weird purple-glowing stick that most players will never actually see in their survival inventory. If you’re looking for how to get debug stick in minecraft, the first thing you need to realize is that you aren't going to find it in a crafting table. There is no recipe. You can’t find it in a Desert Temple chest or trade a stack of emeralds to a librarian for it.
It's an "operator-only" item. Basically, it’s a tool the developers at Mojang use to test block states without having to rewrite code every time they want to see if a door looks right when it's upside down.
If you are playing on Bedrock Edition—which is what you have if you're on a phone, an Xbox, a PlayStation, or a Switch—I have some bad news. You can't get it. It doesn't exist there. The debug stick is a Java Edition exclusive. It has been that way since it was added in the 1.13 "Update Aquatic" snapshot back in 2017. If you're on Java, though, you're in luck. You just need to know the right magic words to type into the console.
The Command: How to Get Debug Stick in Minecraft Right Now
Stop looking through the Creative Mode inventory. Seriously. Even if you type "debug" into the search bar in the creative menu, nothing will show up. It's hidden. To get your hands on it, you have to use a /give command.
Open your chat and type this exactly:/give @s minecraft:debug_stick
The @s part just tells the game to give the item to "self"—which is you. If you want to give it to a friend who is currently annoying you by messing up your build, you could replace @s with their username. Once you hit enter, a stick with the "enchanted" purple glint will pop into your hotbar.
Why isn't it working for me?
If you typed that command and got an error message saying "Unknown or incomplete command," there are usually two reasons. First, you might have cheats disabled. When you create a Minecraft world, there's a toggle for "Allow Cheats." If that is off, you’re locked out of the console commands.
There is a workaround for this, though. If you're in a single-player world with cheats off, hit the Esc key, click Open to LAN, and toggle Allow Cheats: ON. Then click Start LAN World. Suddenly, you have "god powers" until you quit the game and reload it. The second reason it might fail is that you aren't an "Operator" (OP) on a server. If you’re playing on a friend's Realm or a public server like Hypixel, you can't just give yourself admin tools. You need the server owner to give you permissions.
Using the Stick Without Breaking Your World
So you have the stick. Now what? If you just start whacking blocks, you're going to get confused. The debug stick works on "Block States." Every block in Minecraft has a set of hidden variables. A "Stairs" block has a "facing" state (north, south, east, west), a "half" state (top or bottom), and a "shape" state (straight, inner_left, etc.).
Left-clicking a block with the stick selects which state you want to change.
Right-clicking the block cycles through the values of that state.
Imagine you have a wooden fence. If you left-click it with the stick, the game will tell you in the action bar (right above your hotbar): "selected 'north' (false)". If you then right-click that fence, it will change "north" to "true," and a little connection piece will sprout out of the fence toward the north, even if there’s no block there to connect to. This is how people build those crazy "impossible" structures. You can make walls look like they're floating or make water blocks look like they're hovering without spilling over.
It’s worth noting that the debug stick is incredibly fickle. If you update a block next to one you’ve "debugged," the game might realize something is wrong. Minecraft's engine constantly checks for "block updates." If you use the stick to make a leaf block stay green even when it's not near a log, and then you place a torch next to it, the leaf block might suddenly realize it's supposed to decay and disappear. It’s a bit like gaslighting the game engine. You’re telling it a lie, and you have to hope the engine doesn't double-check your work.
Real-World Creative Uses
- Invisible Connections: Make walls or fences connect to nothing to create thin pillars.
- Directional Control: Force chests to face each other without becoming a "Double Chest."
- Lit vs Unlit: You can force a Redstone Lamp to stay "on" even without a power source. This is huge for builders who hate hiding levers and pressure plates everywhere.
- Growth States: You can take a sapling or a crop and "debug" it to its maximum growth stage instantly without using bone meal.
The Technical Reality and Limitations
We have to talk about why this thing exists. According to the official Minecraft Wiki and various developer logs from the 1.13 era, the debug stick was a byproduct of "The Flattening." This was a massive technical overhaul where Mojang moved away from using numeric IDs for blocks (like how Stone used to be ID 1) and moved to a system of "Block States."
Because the developers needed a way to test every single possible orientation of a block without manually building complex redstone circuits to trigger those states, they made the stick.
However, because it bypasses the game's logic, it can be dangerous. Well, "dangerous" is a strong word. It won't melt your CPU, but it can certainly ruin a build if you aren't careful. If you use the debug stick on a block that has a "persistent" tag, you might accidentally cause a localized lag spike if the game engine keeps trying to "fix" the state you've forced.
Also, it's important to remember that the debug stick is only for blocks. You can't use it on a Creeper to make it super-charged, and you can't use it on a Villager to change their profession. For those things, you'd need the /data command or the /attribute command, which are much more complicated and require a lot more typing.
🔗 Read more: Why Console Commands XCOM 2 Still Save My Sanity During Impossible Runs
Frequently Asked Questions (The Weird Stuff)
Does the debug stick work on Bedrock yet?
Nope. And honestly, it probably never will. Bedrock Edition handles block states differently than Java. In Java, a block state is a set of properties. In Bedrock, many of these are still handled via "Data Values," which are much harder to toggle with a simple click-tool. There are "Toolbox" mods for mobile players that mimic the behavior, but it isn't "official."
Can I lose the debug stick?
Yeah, it's just an item. If you fall in lava, it burns. If you throw it in a cactus, it's gone. Since you had to use a command to get it anyway, you can just type the command again. It’s not like a one-time-use item.
Does it have durability?
No. You can click until your mouse breaks. The stick has infinite "health" because it's a creative tool.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Build
If you're ready to move beyond basic survival building, here is how you should actually use the debug stick to improve your world:
- Switch to Creative Mode: If you aren't already there, use
/gamemode creative. The debug stick is basically useless in survival because you'll accidentally break blocks when you try to left-click to select a state. - Give yourself the stick: Use the
/give @s minecraft:debug_stickcommand. - Place a complex block: Start with something like an Iron Trapdoor or a Fence Gate. These have lots of states.
- Experiment with "Open" and "Powered" states: This allows you to have trapdoors that stay open as decorative shutters without needing a redstone signal behind the wall.
- Clean up: Remember that if you ever want to "reset" a block you've messed with, just break it and place it again. It will return to its natural, logical state.
The debug stick is the ultimate "I know what I'm doing" tool for Minecraft builders. It separates the casual players from the people who want to treat the game like a 3D modeling program. Just don't expect it to make your survival journey any easier—it's a tool for aesthetics, not for winning.