nativtongue-cli

Dev tooling for nativtongue — extracts translation keys from your source code, generates translation files, and auto-translates via Claude.

Install

npm install -D nativtongue-cli

Requires Claude Code installed and authenticated for auto-translation.

Quick start

npx nativtongue init fr es de

This:

• Creates .nativtonguerc.json with your locales
• Patches vite.config.ts to add the tongueSync() plugin
• Creates the public/i18n/ directory
• Adds .nativtongue/ to .gitignore

Then start your dev server. Translations sync automatically as you write code.

Commands

nativtongue init <locales...>

Set up nativtongue in your project.

nativtongue init fr           # French only
nativtongue init fr es de ja  # Multiple locales

nativtongue sync

Extract keys from source files and update translation files.

nativtongue sync                    # Extract keys, add empty values for new ones
nativtongue sync --translate        # Extract + auto-translate missing keys via Claude
nativtongue sync --prune            # Remove stale keys no longer in source
nativtongue sync --translate --prune  # Both

Vite plugin

The tongueSync() plugin watches your source files during development and automatically extracts keys + translates on save.

// vite.config.ts
import { tongueSync } from 'nativtongue-cli/sync'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [tongueSync()],
})

How it works

1. On dev server start, scans all source files and extracts translation keys
2. On file save, re-extracts keys from the changed file (5s debounce)
3. Diffs against the last known key set — if nothing changed, does nothing
4. Translates new keys via claude -p (parallel across locales)
5. Writes updated locale files (e.g. public/i18n/fr.json)

Options

tongueSync({
  srcDir: './src',           // default: from .nativtonguerc.json or './src'
  i18nDir: './public/i18n',  // default: from .nativtonguerc.json or './public/i18n'
  locales: ['fr', 'es'],     // default: from .nativtonguerc.json
})

What gets extracted

The static extractor finds:

• Plain text inside JSX elements (<p>Hello</p>, <h1>Welcome</h1>)
• t("...") calls from the useT() hook
• Translatable attributes (aria-label, placeholder, title, alt)
• Scoped keys inside <TranslationScope> (e.g. navigation::Back)

Configuration

.nativtonguerc.json in your project root:

{
  "srcDir": "./src",
  "i18nDir": "./public/i18n",
  "locales": ["fr", "es", "de"]
}