How to Use the Minecraft Tag Command | /tag Command Tutorial (Java Edition)

Hey everybody, it’s UnderMyCap and welcome back to another video! Today I’m going to be showing you how to use the /tag command in Minecraft Java Edition. The tag command is a very useful and extremely simple command, and I’m going to show you all the ways you can use it along with all the key components that make it work. If you’d prefer to follow along visually, you can watch the full video here.

What Is the Minecraft Tag Command?

The tag command is honestly one of my favourite commands in Minecraft — it’s incredibly simple but opens up so many possibilities. To give you a practical example of what you can use tags for, imagine you have a specific mob that you want to find amongst a whole bunch of other mobs. By using the tag command, you can identify and target specific mobs to perform actions on them. In the video, I demonstrate this by tagging a sheep and then teleporting only that tagged sheep to me, leaving the untagged sheep behind. This shows just how powerful and precise the tag command can be when used alongside other commands.

The Three Parts of the Tag Command

Much like many other Minecraft commands, the tag command consists of three key parts: add, list, and remove. These three components make up everything you need to work with tags in the game.

Add

The add function allows you to add a tag to a player or entity. For example, if you wanted to add a tag to yourself, you would type /tag [your username] add [tagname]. In the tutorial, I use /tag UnderMyCap add test as an example, which immediately adds the tag “test” to my player.

List

The list function does exactly what you’d expect — it lists all of the tags that a player or entity currently has. This is a great way to keep track of which tags have been applied.

Remove

The remove function allows you to remove a tag from a player or entity. You simply use the same format as the add command but swap “add” for “remove”, followed by the tag name you want to remove. For example: /tag UnderMyCap remove test.

Important: The Tag Command Is Case Sensitive

One really important thing to keep in mind is that the tag command is case sensitive. This means that if you add a tag using capital letters, you need to remember to use those same capital letters when referencing that tag later. If you misspell it or use the wrong capitalisation, the command simply won’t work. To keep things simple, I personally recommend using all lowercase letters for your tag names — it makes everything much easier to manage!

How to Give Mobs a Tag Automatically Using a Spawn Egg

If you want to add tags to a large number of mobs without having to go up to each one individually, there’s a really handy way to do it using a modified spawn egg. By using the /give command with an added NBT tag, you can spawn mobs that already have a tag applied to them right from the moment they are spawned.

To do this, you start with the standard give command — /give @s — and then select the spawn egg you want, for example a sheep spawn egg. After that, you add an NBT tag to the command. The structure you want to follow is: /give @s sheep_spawn_egg{EntityTag:{Tags:["test1"]}}. When the command turns yellow in the console, that means it has been recognised correctly. Once you use this spawn egg, every sheep spawned from it will automatically carry the tag you specified. In the video, I demonstrate this by spawning a group of tagged sheep alongside normal sheep, and then teleporting only the tagged ones to me — it works perfectly!

How to Tag a Specific Mob In-Game

If you already have a specific mob in the world that you’d like to tag, there’s a quick and easy way to do it without needing to know the mob’s exact ID ahead of time. Simply point your crosshair at the mob, open your command console, and type the tag command followed by a space. You’ll notice that a long string of random letters and numbers appears — this is the unique ID for that particular mob. Select it, add your tag name, and hit enter. The tag will be applied instantly to that specific mob, which makes targeting individual entities really straightforward.

Wrapping Up

And that’s really all there is to it! The Minecraft tag command is a brilliantly simple yet powerful tool that can seriously level up the way you use commands in your world. Whether you’re tagging players, specific mobs, or bulk-spawning entities with pre-applied tags, the possibilities are fantastic. I hope this tutorial has been helpful — if you enjoyed it, please make sure to leave a like and subscribe to the channel. I love making Minecraft content covering all kinds of commands and I’d truly appreciate the support. Thank you so much for reading and I can’t wait to see you in the next one!