CrossFire i18n

A CLI tool for automatically translating JSON-based i18n files using AI, featuring CrossFire Translation - a revolutionary approach that uses multiple source languages simultaneously for higher translation accuracy.

✨ Key Features

🎯 CrossFire Translation

Use multiple source languages simultaneously to achieve unprecedented translation accuracy. By cross-referencing translations from different languages, AI can better understand context, cultural nuances, and technical terminology.

Traditional Translation:

English → AI → Japanese

CrossFire Translation:

English + Chinese → AI → Japanese (Higher accuracy!)

🚀 Other Features

• ✅ Batch translation with progress bars
• ✅ Smart incremental updates (only translate changed content)
• ✅ Support for OpenAI API and compatible services (Qwen/DashScope)
• ✅ Proxy support
• ✅ Nested JSON structure support
• ✅ Translation status tracking

📦 Installation

npm install -g crossfire-i18n

Or use locally in your project:

npm install --save-dev crossfire-i18n

🔧 Configuration

1. User Configuration (~/.i18n-update.json)

Create a global configuration file with your API credentials:

For OpenAI:

{
    "openaiApiKey": "sk-xxx",
    "openaiUrl": "https://api.openai.com/v1",
    "openaiModel": "gpt-3.5-turbo-1106"
}

For Alibaba Cloud DashScope (Qwen):

{
    "openaiApiKey": "sk-xxx",
    "openaiUrl": "https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1",
    "openaiModel": "qwen-turbo"
}

Available Qwen Models:

• qwen-turbo - Fast and cost-effective
• qwen-plus - Better performance
• qwen-max - Best quality

2. Project Configuration (i18n-update.config.js)

Create a configuration file in your project root:

Standard Mode (Single Source Language)

export default {
    sourcePath: 'src/i18n',      // Path to i18n files
    sourceLocale: 'en',           // Source language
    locales: ['zh', 'ja', 'es']   // Target languages
}

🔥 CrossFire Mode (Multiple Source Languages)

export default {
    sourcePath: 'src/i18n',
    sourceLocale: ['en', 'zh'],   // Multiple source languages!
    locales: ['ja', 'es', 'fr']
}

🎮 Usage

Navigate to your project directory and run:

crossfire-i18n

Standard Mode Output:

Translating... zh
████████████████████████████████████████ 100% | 20/20
Translating... ja
████████████████████████████████████████ 100% | 20/20

CrossFire Mode Output:

Translating... ja (CrossFire mode)
████████████████████████████████████████ 100% | 20/20
Translating... es (CrossFire mode)
████████████████████████████████████████ 100% | 20/20

📂 Project Structure

your-project/
├── i18n-update.config.js       # Project configuration
├── i18n-update.status.json     # Translation status (auto-generated)
└── src/i18n/
    ├── en.json                 # Source language
    ├── zh.json                 # Generated translation
    ├── ja.json                 # Generated translation
    └── ...

💡 CrossFire Translation Examples

Example 1: Technical Terms

When translating to Japanese:

• English: "Session timeout"
• Chinese: "会话超时"
• Result: AI understands it's about user sessions, not general timeout

Example 2: Cultural Nuances

When translating to Spanish:

• English: "Welcome back!"
• Chinese: "欢迎回来！"
• Result: Captures both formal greeting and friendly exclamation

Example 3: Ambiguous Words

When translating "Profile":

• English: "Profile" (could mean user profile, company profile, etc.)
• Chinese: "用户资料" (clearly indicates user profile)
• Result: Eliminates ambiguity for accurate translation

🎯 When to Use CrossFire Translation

Use CrossFire Translation when:

• ✅ You need maximum translation accuracy
• ✅ Your content has technical terminology
• ✅ Context and cultural nuances are important
• ✅ You already have high-quality translations in multiple languages
• ✅ You're translating between languages with different linguistic structures

📝 Supported i18n Formats

CrossFire i18n works with any JSON-based i18n format. Your JSON files should follow this structure:

{
    "app": {
        "title": "Welcome to Our Application",
        "subtitle": "The best way to manage your tasks"
    },
    "user": {
        "login": "Login",
        "logout": "Logout",
        "profile": "User Profile"
    },
    "action": {
        "save": "Save",
        "cancel": "Cancel",
        "delete": "Delete"
    }
}

The tool will:

1. Flatten the nested structure (e.g., app.title, user.login)
2. Translate each value
3. Reconstruct the nested structure in target language files

Compatible with:

• Vue i18n
• React i18next
• Angular i18n
• Any framework using JSON-based i18n files

🔄 Incremental Translation

CrossFire i18n intelligently tracks translation status:

• First run: Translates all content
• Subsequent runs: Only translates new or changed content
• Status tracking: Stores in i18n-update.status.json

Example status tracking:

{
    "app.title": {
        "value": "Welcome to Our Application",
        "locales": {
            "zh": true,
            "ja": true,
            "es": true
        }
    }
}

🌐 Proxy Support

Set the https_proxy environment variable for proxy support:

export https_proxy=http://your-proxy:port
crossfire-i18n

🧪 Examples

Check out the example projects:

• test-case/ - Standard single-source translation
• test-case-crossfire/ - CrossFire multi-source translation

📋 Configuration Options

Project Config (i18n-update.config.js)

| Option | Type | Default | Description | |--------|------|---------|-------------| | sourcePath | string | 'src/i18n' | Path to i18n files | | sourceLocale | string | string[] | 'en' | Source language(s) | | locales | string[] | [] | Target languages |

User Config (~/.i18n-update.json)

| Option | Type | Required | Description | |--------|------|----------|-------------| | openaiApiKey | string | Yes | API key for OpenAI or compatible service | | openaiUrl | string | No | Custom API endpoint | | openaiModel | string | No | Model name (default: gpt-3.5-turbo-1106) |

🚀 Advanced Usage

Custom API Endpoint

If you're using a self-hosted or alternative OpenAI-compatible API:

{
    "openaiApiKey": "your-key",
    "openaiUrl": "https://your-api.example.com/v1",
    "openaiModel": "your-model-name"
}

Environment Variables

# Use proxy
export https_proxy=http://proxy:8080

# Run translation
crossfire-i18n

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

📄 License

MIT

🎉 Why CrossFire i18n?

Traditional translation tools use a single source language, which can lead to:

• ❌ Ambiguous translations
• ❌ Lost cultural context
• ❌ Incorrect technical terminology

CrossFire i18n solves these problems by:

• ✅ Cross-referencing multiple source languages
• ✅ Leveraging AI's multilingual understanding
• ✅ Providing context-aware, accurate translations
• ✅ Maintaining consistency across all languages

Made with ❤️ for the global development community