po-translate-ai 1.5.0

Batch translate .po and .ts files using AI

po-translate

🌐 Batch translate .po and .ts localization files using AI or free services.

Features

• 8 translation services – Free and paid options
• Batch translation – Efficient API usage
• Format support – gettext .po, Qt .ts, and OASIS .xliff/.xlf files
• Glossary – Custom term lists via --glossary
• Progress bar – Optional tqdm progress for large files
• Preserves placeholders – Keeps {0}, %s, %d intact
• Dry run mode – Preview changes before saving
• LANG auto-detection – Defaults target language from system locale

Installation

Debian/Ubuntu

wget https://github.com/yeager/po-translate/releases/download/v1.5.0/po-translate_1.5.0_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i po-translate_1.5.0_all.deb

Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE

wget https://github.com/yeager/po-translate/releases/download/v1.5.0/po-translate-1.5.0-1.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -i po-translate-1.5.0-1.noarch.rpm

Arch Linux

wget https://github.com/yeager/po-translate/releases/download/v1.5.0/po-translate-1.5.0.pkg.tar.zst
sudo pacman -U po-translate-1.5.0.pkg.tar.zst

Universal (tar.gz)

wget https://github.com/yeager/po-translate/releases/download/v1.5.0/po-translate-1.5.0.tar.gz
tar xzf po-translate-1.5.0.tar.gz -C /usr/local

Windows/macOS (zip)

Download po-translate-1.5.0.zip, extract, and add to PATH.

From source

git clone https://github.com/yeager/po-translate.git
cd po-translate
chmod +x po_translate.py
ln -s $(pwd)/po_translate.py /usr/local/bin/po-translate

Usage

Basic usage (free services)

# Translate with MyMemory (free, recommended)
po-translate --source en --target sv ./translations/

# Translate single file
po-translate --source en --target de messages.po

# Use LibreTranslate (self-hosted)
po-translate --service libretranslate --url http://localhost:5000 --source en --target fr ./po/

With paid services (better quality)

# DeepL (best for European languages)
po-translate --service deepl --api-key xxx --source en --target de ./po/

# DeepL Free API
po-translate --service deepl-free --api-key xxx --source en --target sv ./po/

# Google Cloud Translation
po-translate --service google --api-key xxx --source en --target ja ./po/

# OpenAI (context-aware, best quality)
po-translate --service openai --api-key sk-xxx --source en --target ja ./po/

# Anthropic Claude
po-translate --service anthropic --api-key sk-ant-xxx --source en --target ko ./po/

Options

Option	Description
--source, -s	Source language code (required)
--target, -t	Target language code (required)
--service	Translation service (default: lingva)
--api-key	API key for paid services
--url	Custom URL for LibreTranslate
--model	Model for AI services
--batch-size	Entries per API call (default: 10)
--glossary	CSV glossary file for custom terms
--dry-run	Preview without saving
--no-recursive	Don't search subdirectories

Services

Free (no API key required)

Service	Description	Limits
lingva	Google Translate frontend	Rate limited
mymemory	Translation memory	1000 words/day
libretranslate	Self-hosted or public	Depends on instance

Paid (API key required)

Service	Description	Pricing
deepl	DeepL Pro API	€5.49/month + usage
deepl-free	DeepL Free API	500k chars/month
google	Google Cloud Translation	$20/million chars
openai	GPT models (context-aware)	~$0.15/million tokens
anthropic	Claude models	~$0.25/million tokens

Examples

Translate all untranslated strings

po-translate --source en --target sv ./resources/language/

Preview changes first

po-translate --dry-run --source en --target de ./translations/

Use DeepL for high-quality European translations

po-translate --service deepl --api-key $DEEPL_API_KEY \
  --source en --target de ./po/

Use GPT-4 for best quality (context-aware)

po-translate --service openai --api-key $OPENAI_API_KEY \
  --model gpt-4o --source en --target ja ./po/

Language codes

Use ISO 639-1 codes:

Code	Language	Code	Language
en	English	ja	Japanese
sv	Swedish	zh	Chinese
de	German	ko	Korean
fr	French	ar	Arabic
es	Spanish	ru	Russian
it	Italian	pt	Portuguese
nl	Dutch	pl	Polish

Tips

1. Start with dry-run to preview translations
2. Use DeepL for European languages (best quality)
3. Use AI services for context-aware translations
4. Increase batch-size for AI services (more efficient)
5. Review translations – machine translation isn't perfect

Related tools

• l10n-lint – Lint your translation files

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• No external dependencies (stdlib only)

License

GPL-3.0

Author

Daniel Nylander (@yeager)