i18n-tasks helps you find and manage missing and unused translations.

This gem analyses code statically for key usages, such as I18n.t('some.key'), in order to:

• Report keys that are missing or unused.
• Pre-fill missing keys, optionally from Google Translate or DeepL Pro.
• Remove unused keys.

Thus addressing the two main problems of i18n gem design:

• Missing keys only blow up at runtime.
• Keys no longer in use may accumulate and introduce overhead, without you knowing it.

i18n-tasks can be used with any project using the ruby i18n gem (default in Rails).

Add i18n-tasks to the Gemfile:

gem 'i18n-tasks', '~> 1.0.14', group: :development

Copy the default configuration file:

$ cp $(i18n-tasks gem-path)/templates/config/i18n-tasks.yml config/

Copy rspec test to test for missing and unused translations as part of the suite (optional):

$ cp $(i18n-tasks gem-path)/templates/rspec/i18n_spec.rb spec/

Or for minitest:

$ cp $(i18n-tasks gem-path)/templates/minitest/i18n_test.rb test/

Run bundle exec i18n-tasks to get the list of all the tasks with short descriptions.

i18n-tasks health checks if any keys are missing or not used, that interpolations variables are consistent across locales, and that all the locale files are normalized (auto-formatted):

$ i18n-tasks health

Add missing keys with placeholders (base value or humanized key):

$ i18n-tasks add-missing

This and other tasks accept arguments:

$ i18n-tasks add-missing -v 'TRME %{value}' fr

Pass --help for more information:

$ i18n-tasks add-missing --help
Usage: i18n-tasks add-missing [options] [locale ...]
    -l, --locales  Comma-separated list of locale(s) to process. Default: all. Special: base.
    -f, --format   Output format: terminal-table, yaml, json, keys, inspect. Default: terminal-table.
    -v, --value    Value. Interpolates: %{value}, %{human_key}, %{value_or_human_key}, %{key}. Default: %{value_or_human_key}.
    -h, --help     Display this help message.

Translate missing keys using a backend service of your choice.

$ i18n-tasks translate-missing

# accepts backend, from and locales options
$ i18n-tasks translate-missing --from=base es fr --backend=google

Available backends:

• google - Google Translate
• deepl - DeepL Pro
• yandex - Yandex Translate
• openai - OpenAI
• watsonx - watsonx

See where the keys are used with i18n-tasks find:

$ i18n-tasks find common.help
$ i18n-tasks find 'auth.*'
$ i18n-tasks find '{number,currency}.format.*'

$ i18n-tasks unused
$ i18n-tasks remove-unused

These tasks can infer dynamic keys such as t("category.\#{category.name}") if you set search.strict to false, or pass --no-strict on the command line.

If you want to keep the ordering from the original language file when using remove-unused, pass -k or --keep-order.

Sort the keys:

$ i18n-tasks normalize

Sort the keys, and move them to the respective files as defined by config.write:

$ i18n-tasks normalize -p

i18n-tasks mv <pattern> <target> is a versatile task to move or delete keys matching the given pattern.

All nodes (leafs or subtrees) matching <pattern> are merged together and moved to <target>.

Rename a node (leaf or subtree):

$ i18n-tasks mv user account

Move a node:

$ i18n-tasks mv user_alerts user.alerts

Move the children one level up:

$ i18n-tasks mv 'alerts.{:}' '\1'

Merge-move multiple nodes:

$ i18n-tasks mv '{user,profile}' account

Merge (non-leaf) nodes into parent:

$ i18n-tasks mv '{pages}.{a,b}' '\1'

Delete the keys by using the rm task:

$ i18n-tasks rm 'user.{old_profile,old_title}' another_key

i18n-tasks also provides composable tasks for reading, writing and manipulating locale data. Examples below.

add-missing implemented with missing, tree-set-value and data-merge:

$ i18n-tasks missing -f yaml fr | i18n-tasks tree-set-value 'TRME %{value}' | i18n-tasks data-merge

remove-unused implemented with unused and data-remove (sans the confirmation):

$ i18n-tasks unused -f yaml | i18n-tasks data-remove

Remove all keys from fr that do not exist in en. Do not change en:

$ i18n-tasks missing -t diff -f yaml en | i18n-tasks tree-mv en fr | i18n-tasks data-remove

See the full list of tasks with i18n-tasks --help.

i18n-tasks uses an AST scanner for .rb and .html.erb files, and a regexp-based scanner for other files, such as .haml.

i18n-tasks offers support for relative keys, such as t '.title'.

✔ Keys relative to the file path they are used in (see relative roots configuration) are supported.

✔ Keys relative to controller.action_name in Rails controllers are supported. The closest def name is used.

✔ Plural keys, such as key.{one,many,other,...} are fully supported.

✔ Reference keys (keys with :symbol values) are fully supported. These keys are copied as-is in add/translate-missing, and can be looked up by reference or value in find.

✔ scope keyword argument is fully supported by the AST scanner, and also by the Regexp scanner but only when it is the first argument.

✔ default argument can be used to pre-fill locale files (AST scanner only).

By default, dynamic keys such as t "cats.#{cat}.name" are not recognized. I encourage you to mark these with i18n-tasks-use hints.

Alternatively, you can enable dynamic key inference by setting search.strict to false in the config. In this case, all the dynamic parts of the key will be considered used, e.g. cats.tenderlove.name would not be reported as unused. Note that only one section of the key is treated as a wildcard for each string interpolation; i.e. in this example, cats.tenderlove.special.name will be reported as unused.

I18n.localize is not supported, use i18n-tasks-use hints. This is because the key generated by I18n.localize depends on the type of the object passed in and thus cannot be inferred statically.

Configuration is read from config/i18n-tasks.yml or config/i18n-tasks.yml.erb. Inspect the configuration with i18n-tasks config.

Install the default config file with:

$ cp $(i18n-tasks gem-path)/templates/config/i18n-tasks.yml config/

Settings are compatible with Rails by default.

By default, base_locale is set to en and locales are inferred from the paths to data files. You can override these in the config.

The default data adapter supports YAML and JSON files.

i18n-tasks can manage multiple translation files and read translations from other gems. To find out more see the data options in the config. NB: By default, only %{locale}.yml files are read, not namespace.%{locale}.yml. Make sure to check the config.

For writing to locale files i18n-tasks provides 2 options.

Pattern router organizes keys based on a list of key patterns, as in the example below:

data:
  router: pattern_router
  # a list of {key pattern => file} routes, matched top to bottom
  write:
    # write models.* and views.* keys to the respective files
    - ['{models,views}.*', 'config/locales/\1.%{locale}.yml']
    # or, write every top-level key namespace to its own file
    - ['{:}.*', 'config/locales/\1.%{locale}.yml']
    # default, sugar for ['*', path]
    - 'config/locales/%{locale}.yml'

Conservative router keeps the keys where they are found, or infers the path from base locale. If the key is completely new, conservative router will fall back to pattern router behaviour. Conservative router is the default router.

data:
  router: conservative_router
  write:
    - ['devise.*', 'config/locales/devise.%{locale}.yml']
    - 'config/locales/%{locale}.yml'

If you want to have i18n-tasks reorganize your existing keys using data.write, either set the router to pattern_router as above, or run i18n-tasks normalize -p (forcing the use of the pattern router for that run).

Isolating router assumes each YAML file is independent and can contain similar keys.

As a result, the translations are written to an alternate target file for each source file (only the %{locale} part is changed to match target locale). Thus, it is not necessary to specify any write configuration (in fact, it would be completely ignored).

This can be useful for example when using ViewComponent sidecars (ViewComponent assigns an implicit scope to each sidecar YAML file but i18n-tasks is not aware of that logic, resulting in collisions):

• app/components/movies_component.en.yml:

  en:
    title: Movies

• app/components/games_component.en.yml

  en:
    title: Games

This router has a limitation, though: it does not support detecting missing keys from code usage (since it is not aware of the implicit scope logic).

A special syntax similar to file glob patterns is used throughout i18n-tasks to match translation keys:

Example of usage:

$ bundle exec i18n-tasks mv "{:}.contents.{*}_body" "\1.attributes.\2.body"

car.contents.name_body ⮕ car.attributes.name.body
car.contents.description_body ⮕ car.attributes.description.body
truck.contents.name_body ⮕ truck.attributes.name.body
truck.contents.description_body ⮕ truck.attributes.description.body

If you store data somewhere but in the filesystem, e.g. in the database or mongodb, you can implement a custom adapter. If you have implemented a custom adapter please share it on the wiki.

i18n-tasks uses an AST scanner for .rb and .html.erb files, and a regexp scanner for all other files. New scanners can be added easily: please refer to this example.

See the search section in the config file for all available configuration options. NB: By default, only the app/ directory is searched.

Add hints to static analysis with magic comment hints (lines starting with (#|/) i18n-tasks-use by default):

# i18n-tasks-use t('activerecord.models.user') # let i18n-tasks know the key is used
User.model_name.human

You can also explicitly ignore keys appearing in locale files via ignore* settings.

If you have helper methods that generate translation keys, such as a page_title method that returns t '.page_title', or a Spree.t(key) method that returns t "spree.#{key}", use the built-in PatternMapper to map these.

For more complex cases, you can implement a custom scanner.

See the config file to find out more.

i18n-tasks translate-missing requires a Google Translate API key, get it at Google API Console.

Where this key is depends on your Google API console:

• Old console: API Access -> Simple API Access -> Key for server apps.
• New console: Nav Menu -> APIs & Services -> Credentials -> Create Credentials -> API Keys -> Restrict Key -> Cloud Translation API

In both cases, you may need to create the key if it doesn't exist.

Put the key in GOOGLE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY environment variable or in the config file.

# config/i18n-tasks.yml
translation:
  backend: google
  google_translate_api_key: <Google Translate API key>

or via environment variable:

GOOGLE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY=<Google Translate API key>

i18n-tasks translate-missing requires a DeepL Pro API key, get it at DeepL. You can specify alias locales if you only use the simple locales internally.

# config/i18n-tasks.yml
translation:
  backend: deepl
  deepl_api_key: <DeepL Pro API key>
  deepl_host: <optional>
  deepl_version: <optional>
  deepl_glossary_ids:
    - f28106eb-0e06-489e-82c6-8215d6f95089
    - 2c6415be-1852-4f54-9e1b-d800463496b4
  deepl_options:
    formality: prefer_less
  deepl_locale_aliases:
    en: en-us
    pt: pt-br

or via environment variables:

DEEPL_API_KEY=<DeepL Pro API key>
DEEPL_HOST=<optional>
DEEPL_VERSION=<optional>

i18n-tasks translate-missing requires a Yandex API key, get it at Yandex.

# config/i18n-tasks.yml
translation:
  backend: yandex
  yandex_api_key: <Yandex API key>

or via environment variable:

YANDEX_API_KEY=<Yandex API key>

i18n-tasks translate-missing requires a OpenAI API key, get it at OpenAI.

# config/i18n-tasks.yml
translation:
  backend: openai
  openai_api_key: <OpenAI API key>
  openai_model: <optional>

or via environment variable:

OPENAI_API_KEY=<OpenAI API key>
OPENAI_MODEL=<optional>

i18n-tasks translate-missing requires a watsonx project and api key, get it at IBM watsonx.

# config/i18n-tasks.yml
translation:
  backend: watsonx
  watsonx_api_key: <watsonx API key>
  watsonx_project_id: <watsonx project id>
  watsonx_model: <optional>

or via environment variable:

WATSONX_API_KEY=<watsonx API key>
WATSONX_PROJECT_ID=<watsonx project id>
WATSONX_MODEL=<optional>

There is an experimental feature to parse Rails with more context. i18n-tasks will support:

• Translations called in before_actions
• Translations called in nested methods
• Model.human_attribute_name calls
• Model.model_name.human calls

Enabled it by adding the scanner in your config/i18n-tasks.yml:

<% I18n::Tasks.add_scanner( 
  'I18n::Tasks::Scanners::PrismScanner',
  only: %w(*.rb)
) %>

To only enable Ruby-scanning and not any Rails support, please add config under the search section:

search:
  prism_visitor: "ruby" # default "rails"

i18n-tasks irb starts an IRB session in i18n-tasks context. Type guide for more information.

See i18n-tasks wiki: CSV import and export tasks.

Tasks that come with the gem are defined in lib/i18n/tasks/command/commands. Custom tasks can be added easily, see the examples on the wiki.

• Install dependencies using bundle install
• Run tests using bundle exec rspec
• Install Overcommit by running overcommit --install

• SKIP=RuboCop git commit
• OVERCOMMIT_DISABLE=1 git commit