terminaltranslator

English | Japanese

A simple terminal translation tool.

Features

• TUI: Interactive Terminal User Interface for seamless operation.
• History Navigation: Easily access previous translations using arrow keys.
• Auto Language Detection: Automatically detects input language and applies the appropriate translation context.

Installation

This tool requires Bun to be installed on your system.

bun install -g @termlabs/terminaltranslator

Prerequisites

This tool requires Bun to be installed on your system. It also assumes you are using an LLM server like LM Studio or Ollama that supports the following endpoints:

• /v1/chat/completions (for language detection)
• /v1/responses (for translation)

Recommended Models (GGUF)

These are the specific models recommended for use with this tool:

• Translation: tencent/HY-MT1.5-1.8B-GGUF:Q4_K_M
• Language Detection: unsloth/Qwen3-0.6B-GGUF:Q4_K_M

[!NOTE] You should download and load these models into your LLM server (LM Studio, Ollama, etc.) before running the tool.

Setup

Upon the first run or if settings.json is missing, a setup wizard will guide you through the configuration.

Configuration files are stored at:

• macOS/Linux: ~/.config/terminaltranslator/settings.json
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\terminaltranslator\Config\settings.json

Configuration Items

• API Base URL: The base URL of your LLM server (e.g., http://localhost:1234).
• API Key: Optional API key if required by your server.
• Translation Model Name: The identifier of the loaded translation model in your local server (e.g., hy-mt1.5-1.8b).
• Languages: Comma-separated list of languages you want to translate between (e.g., English, Japanese).
• System Prompts: Specific instructions for the LLM when translating from each language (e.g., Translate to Japanese.).
• Language Detection Model Name: The identifier of the loaded detection model in your local server (e.g., qwen3-0.6b).
• Language Detection System Prompt: Instructions for the model to classify the input language (e.g., Classify the language of the input text.).

Usage

Run the following command in your terminal:

terminaltranslator

Tip: Use as tt

If you want to use a shorter command like tt, add an alias to your shell configuration:

• macOS / Linux (zsh or bash): Add this to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc:

  alias tt='terminaltranslator'

• Windows (PowerShell): Add this to your $PROFILE:

  Set-Alias tt terminaltranslator

Pipe Mode

You can translate text directly from standard input (stdin).

Example: Translate content from a file

cat README.md | terminaltranslator

Example: Translate content from clipboard (macOS)

pbpaste | terminaltranslator

Key Bindings

| Key | Action | | :--- | :--- | | Enter | Translate input text | | Ctrl + J | Insert newline | | Up / Down | Navigate through translation history | | Ctrl + C | Copy selection or full text to clipboard | | Ctrl + D | Clear input text | | Esc | Exit application |

Development

Build from source

bun run build

The optimized bundle and necessary assets will be generated in the dist directory.

License

MIT