AI Translate

This is a small, simple, utility that parses an Xcode .xcstrings file, asks ChatGPT to translate each entry, and then saves the results back in the xcstrings JSON format.

This tool is hardcoded to use GPT-5 mini. Selecting a model via a command-line flag has been deliberately omitted to ensure this tool does not contribute to a proliferation of poor translations in apps on Apple platforms.

Please note that is very strongly recommended to have translations tested by a qualified human as even frontier models will almost certainly not produce perfect results.

Missing Features

This tool supports all the features that I currently use personally, which are not all of the features supported by xcstrings (for example, I have not tested plural strings, or strings that vary by device). Pull requests are welcome to add those missing features.

Usage

Simply pull this repo, then run the following command from the repo root folder:

swift run ai-translate /path/to/your/Localizable.xcstrings -o <your-openai-API-key> -v -l de,es,fr,he,it,ru,hi,en-GB

Help output:

  USAGE: ai-translate <input-file> --languages <languages> --open-ai-key <open-ai-key> [--verbose] [--skip-backup] [--force] [--match-xcode-ordering] [--no-tui]

  ARGUMENTS:
    <input-file>

  OPTIONS:
    -l, --languages <languages> A comma separated list of language codes (must match the language codes used by xcstrings)
    -o, --open-ai-key <open-ai-key>
                            Your OpenAI API key, see: https://platform.openai.com/api-keys
    -v, --verbose
    -s, --skip-backup       By default a backup of the input will be created. When this flag is provided, the backup is skipped.
    -f, --force             Forces all strings to be translated, even if an existing translation is present.
    --match-xcode-ordering  Sort JSON keys to match Xcode's xcstrings ordering.
    --no-tui                Disable the rich terminal UI and use simple text output instead.
    -h, --help              Show help information.