@eliware/translate

A CLI tool for translating Discord JSON files with OpenAI.

It supports two workflows:

• Locale translation: translate en-US.json into all other supported Discord locales in the same directory.
• Command manifest translation: translate Discord application command JSON files in the current directory.

Features

• Translates en-US.json to supported Discord locales
• Can also process command manifest JSON files in place
• Parallel translation with a simple progress indicator
• Uses OpenAI chat completions
• Designed for use with the skeleton Discord.js app template

Requirements

• Node.js 26 or newer
• An OpenAI API key
• A .env file next to the repository root

Installation

cd /path/to
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/eliware/translate.git
cd translate
npm install
# Copy and edit the .env file
cp .env.example .env
# Run the required validation
npm test
npm run lint
# Optional: symlink for global CLI usage
# Requires sudo/root
ln -s /path/to/translate/translate.mjs /usr/local/bin/translate

Setup

1. Obtain an OpenAI API key and add it to your .env file:

   OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here

2. For locale translation, place your English source translations in en-US.json in the directory you want to process.

3. For command translation, place Discord command manifest JSON files in the directory you want to process.

Usage

Locale translation

cd /path/to/your/locales/
translate

If en-US.json exists in the current directory, the tool will:

• read en-US.json
• load prompt.json
• generate translations for all supported locales
• write files such as fr.json, de.json, and zh-CN.json into the same directory

Existing locale files are overwritten.

Command manifest translation

cd /path/to/your/commands/
translate

If en-US.json is not present, the tool will scan the current directory for .json files that look like Discord command manifests. Files must contain at least:

• name as a string
• type as a number

Each matching file is then passed through prompt-commands.json, and the result is written back to the same file.

Supported Locales

Discord locales supported by the locale workflow include:

bg, cs, da, de, el, en-GB, es-419, es-ES, fi, fr, hi, hr, hu, id, it, ja, ko, lt, nl, no, pl, pt-BR, ro, ru, sv-SE, th, tr, uk, vi, zh-CN, zh-TW

Prompt Templates

• prompt.json is used for locale translation.
• prompt-commands.json is used for command manifest translation.
• The locale workflow replaces {json} with the raw contents of en-US.json when that placeholder is present.
• Both workflows support {target_locale} in prompt text.

Project Structure

• src/ - Main source code
• tests/ - Test suite
• prompt.json - Locale translation prompt template
• prompt-commands.json - Command translation prompt template
• translate.mjs - CLI entry point

Support

For help or questions, join the community and chat with the author:

eliware.org on Discord

License

MIT © 2025 Eli Sterling, eliware.org

Links

• Home Page
• GitHub Repo
• GitHub Org
• GitHub Personal
• Discord