Author:
    Aymeric PINEAU
    Creation:2025-05-20Last update:2025-08-13

    Auto-Generate Translations in a CI/CD Pipeline

    Intlayer allows the automatic generation of translations for your content declaration files. There are multiple ways to achieve this depending on your workflow.

    Table of Contents

    Using the CMS

    With Intlayer, you can adopt a workflow where only a single locale is declared locally, while all translations are managed remotely through the CMS. This allows content and translations to be completely detached from the codebase, offering more flexibility for content editors and enabling Live Sync (no need to rebuild the application to apply changes).

    Example Configuration

    intlayer.config.ts
    import { Locales, type IntlayerConfig } from "intlayer";

const config: IntlayerConfig = {
  internationalization: {
    locales: [Locales.ENGLISH, Locales.SPANISH, Locales.FRENCH],
    requiredLocales: [Locales.ENGLISH], // Optional locales will be managed remotely
    defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,
  },
  editor: {
    // CMS credentials if you use the CMS
    clientId: process.env.INTLAYER_CLIENT_ID,
    clientSecret: process.env.INTLAYER_CLIENT_SECRET,
    liveSync: true,
  },
  ai: {
    applicationContext: "This is a test application", // Helps ensure consistent translation generation
  },
};

export default config;

    To learn more about the CMS, refer to the official documentation.

    Using Husky

    You can integrate translation generation into your local Git workflow using Husky.

    Example Configuration

    intlayer.config.ts
    import { Locales, type IntlayerConfig } from "intlayer";

const config: IntlayerConfig = {
  internationalization: {
    locales: [Locales.ENGLISH, Locales.SPANISH, Locales.FRENCH],
    requiredLocales: [Locales.ENGLISH], // Optional locales are handled remotely
    defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,
  },
  editor: {
    clientId: process.env.INTLAYER_CLIENT_ID,
    clientSecret: process.env.INTLAYER_CLIENT_SECRET,
  },
  ai: {
    provider: "openai",
    apiKey: process.env.OPENAI_API_KEY, // Use your own API key

    applicationContext: "This is a test application", // Helps ensure consistent translation generation
  },
};

export default config;
    .husky/pre-push
    npx intlayer build                          # To ensure dictionaries are up to date
npx intlayer fill --unpushed --mode complete    # Only fill missing content, does not update existing ones
    For more information about Intlayer CLI commands and their usage, refer to the CLI documentation.
    If you have multiple apps in your repo using separate intlayer instances, you can use the --base-dir argument like this:
    .husky/pre-push
    # App 1
npx intlayer build --base-dir ./app1
npx intlayer fill --base-dir ./app1 --unpushed --mode complete

# App 2
npx intlayer build --base-dir ./app2
npx intlayer fill --base-dir ./app2 --unpushed --mode complete

    Using GitHub Actions

    Intlayer provides a CLI command to autofill and review dictionary content. This can be integrated into your CI/CD workflow using GitHub Actions.

    .github/workflows/intlayer-translate.yml
    name: Intlayer Auto-Fill
# Trigger conditions for this workflow
on:
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - "main"

permissions:
  contents: write
  pull-requests: write

concurrency:
  group: "autofill-${{ github.ref }}"
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  autofill:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    env:
      # OpenAI
      AI_PROVIDER: openai
      AI_MODEL: gpt-5-mini
      AI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.AI_API_KEY }}

    steps:
      # Step 1: Get the latest code from the repository
      - name: ⬇️ Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          persist-credentials: true # Keep credentials for creating PRs
          fetch-depth: 0 # Get full git history for diff analysis

      # Step 2: Set up Node.js environment
      - name: 🟢 Set up Node.js
        uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20 # Use Node.js 20 LTS for stability

      # Step 3: Install project dependencies
      - name: 📦 Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      # Step 4: Install Intlayer CLI globally for translation management
      - name: 📦 Install Intlayer
        run: npm install -g intlayer-cli

      # Step 5: Build the Intlayer project to generate translation files
      - name: ⚙️ Build Intlayer project
        run: npx intlayer build

      # Step 6: Use AI to automatically fill missing translations
      - name: 🤖 Auto-fill missing translations
        run: npx intlayer fill --git-diff --mode complete --provider $AI_PROVIDER --model $AI_MODEL --api-key $AI_API_KEY

      # Step 7: Check if there are changes and commit them
      - name: 🔍 Check for changes
        id: check-changes
        run: |
          if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then
            echo "has-changes=true" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          else
            echo "has-changes=false" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
          fi

      # Step 8: Commit and push changes if any exist
      - name: 📤 Commit and push changes
        if: steps.check-changes.outputs.has-changes == 'true'
        run: |
          git config --local user.email "action@github.com"
          git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
          git add .
          git commit -m "chore: auto-fill missing translations [skip ci]"
          git push origin HEAD:${{ github.head_ref }}

    To set up the environment variables, go to GitHub → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions and add the secret .

    Same as for Husky, in the case of a monorepo, you can use the --base-dir argument to sequentially treat each app.
    By default, the --git-diff argument filters dictionaries that include changes from base (default origin/main) to current branch (default: HEAD).
    For more information about Intlayer CLI commands and their usage, refer to the CLI documentation.
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