[guhlutions]

Problem

A Java client disconnects when it receives a Bedrock cat's coat variant. ViaBedrock writes the cat's VARIANT with the generic VarInt serializer, and the client rejects the resulting Integer at the cat-variant metadata index. This was observed with Java 26.3 and 1.21.4 on ViaProxy 3.4.15-SNAPSHOT connected to Bedrock 1.26.60.

Fix

Map all 11 vanilla Bedrock coat IDs to their Java variant keys, resolve those keys in the cat registry sent for the session, and encode the result with catVariantType. Unknown Bedrock coat IDs use Java's default minecraft:black variant.

The source for the Bedrock IDs is Mojang's vanilla cat definition.

Verification

• ./gradlew build passed, including Checkstyle.
• A local packet test reproduced the generic serializer on the original build. It passed for all 11 variants and the unknown-ID fallback with the patch, checking Java 26.3 encoding and the ViaBackwards translation to Java 1.21.4. This includes Bedrock IDs 2 and 9 from the disconnect logs.
• Live retest with the patched ViaProxy and Java 26.3 passed on the affected Bedrock Realm. The client loaded the village and remained connected while the same villager and horse warnings appeared in the proxy log.