---
type: User Story
title: "US-003: Harvest connected mature crops"
description: Animate bounded harvesting across connected mature crops when a player performs a normal crop break.
status: in-progress
---

# US-003: Harvest connected mature crops

As a **player**, I want one normal crop break to harvest a connected area at a visible pace so that unlocked farming feels powerful and satisfying without harming server performance.

## Acceptance criteria

- [ ] Normally breaking a fully grown supported crop starts auto-harvest when the player has at least Level I for that crop.
- [ ] Breaking while sneaking performs normal single-crop harvesting and never starts auto-harvest.
- [ ] The manually broken triggering crop is included in the operation's maximum crop count.
- [ ] Auto-harvest traverses only fully grown crops of the same type as the triggering crop.
- [ ] A crop is connected when its horizontal position touches the current crop in any of the eight directions and its Y coordinate differs from the current crop by no more than one block.
- [ ] Connectivity is evaluated per link, allowing a connected operation to follow gradual rises and drops.
- [ ] Traversal is deterministic and never processes the same block more than once in an operation.
- [ ] The operation stops when it reaches the player's crop-level cap or no eligible connected crop remains.
- [ ] Auto-harvest processes a configurable number of crops per server tick, defaulting to one.
- [ ] A player can have no more than one active auto-harvest operation at a time.
- [ ] A normal crop broken while that player already has an active operation is harvested normally and may contribute progress, but it does not start or join another operation.
- [ ] Auto-harvest does not force-load chunks or continue into unloaded chunks.
- [ ] A crop that is no longer mature or matching when its turn arrives is skipped safely.
- [ ] Crop breaks denied by the server or another protection plugin are left unchanged, yield no drops, and contribute no progress.
- [ ] An operation ends safely when exhausted, cancelled, the player disconnects, or the plugin disables.
- [ ] Separate players may run independent auto-harvest operations concurrently.

## Related

- [US-002: Unlock crop auto-harvest levels](us-002-unlock-crop-auto-harvest-levels.md)
- [US-004: Replant crops and distribute drops](us-004-replant-crops-and-distribute-drops.md)
- [US-007: Configure and persist harvesting behavior](us-007-configure-and-persist-harvesting-behavior.md)