I1n

i1n.ai

AI localization platform for product and engineering teams. Alternative to Lokalise, Phrase and Crowdin. Dashboard, CLI and MCP server.

This repo is the open source (MIT) CLI, SDK and MCP server for i1n.ai. Translation files stay in your repo. Your AI agent extracts strings, pushes them, translates them with your terminology rules and pulls typed keys back. Product, ops and content people edit the copy in the dashboard instead of sending you tickets; the next i1n pull brings their changes into the repo.

Free plan · No credit card · i1n.ai · Docs

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Who it's for

• Engineers: keep locale files in git, sync with i1n push / i1n pull, get typed keys (i1n.d.ts) and a CI check that fails on missing keys or broken placeholders.
• AI agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex): the MCP server exposes the loop as tools, so "internationalize this component" ends with t('key') calls and every locale filled in.
• Product, ops and content teams: edit copy in every language from the dashboard, with terminology rules, a review queue and roles. A push never silently overwrites their edits (three-way diff).

The loop

1. Extract: the agent finds hardcoded strings and calls i1n_extract_and_translate.
2. Push: keys go to i1n with a three-way diff, so dashboard edits are preserved.
3. Translate: AI translation into 182 languages, with placeholder protection, brand voice and terminology rules.
4. Pull: locale files plus generated TypeScript types land back in the repo.
5. Check: npx i1n check --min-coverage 95 in CI catches drift before it ships.

Works with your current library through Bridge Mode (i18next, next-intl, vue-i18n, react-intl). Formats: JSON, ARB, Android XML, iOS .strings, YAML.

In production at belo, a LatAm fintech with 3.5M users, where around 30 product and ops people use the dashboard.

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📦 Install

# To use the CLI (global)

npm install -g i1n

To use the SDK + types (in your app)

npm install i1n

Local CLI usage (optional)

npm install -D i1n

_Supports npm, pnpm, yarn, and bun._

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🏁 Quick Start

# 1. Initialize (auth + auto-detect setup)

i1n init

2. Push your translation keys

i1n push

3. Pull translations + auto-generated TypeScript types

i1n pull

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✨ Key Features & Commands

🛠️ i1n init

Interactive setup that prepares your workspace.

• Authenticates via API key.
• New? If you don't have a key yet, the CLI provides clear guidance on how to get started.
• Auto-detects frameworks (Next.js, Vite, Expo, Flutter, Rails, etc.).
• Saves configuration to i1n.config.json (automatically ignored via .gitignore).
• AI Orchestration: Optionally sets up rules for your AI coding tools.

⬆️ i1n push

Syncs your local translations to i1n.

• Detects new keys and source changes.
• Smart Translate: Offers to translate missing keys with a cost estimate before proceeding.
• Efficient caching layer — repeated translations cost a fraction of fresh ones.
• Three-way diff — push only sends the (key, lang) pairs you actually changed, never overwriting edits made via the dashboard or by other teammates. See Team workflow for the full conflict model.

Flags:

• --translate [langs] — trigger AI translation after push (e.g. --translate es,fr,ja)
• --strategy — how to handle real conflicts: interactive (default in TTY), ours, theirs, abort
• --force — shorthand for --strategy ours (overwrite the server with your local values; destructive)

⬇️ i1n pull

Downloads translations and generates type-safe IDs.

• Updates local locale files in your configured format.
• Generates i1n.d.ts for full IDE autocomplete.

📊 i1n limits

Real-time usage tracking.

• View your current plan and credit usage.
• Monitor active language slots and available capacity.

✅ i1n check

Catch broken translations before they ship. Built for CI.

• Detects missing keys per language, broken interpolation placeholders ({{count}} lost in translation), empty values, and malformed files.
• --min-coverage 95 fails the build when translation coverage drops below your threshold.
• --json for tooling. Exit codes: 0 clean, 1 errors found, 2 config problem.
• 100% offline — no API calls, no secrets needed in CI.

# .github/workflows/ci.yml

• name: Validate translations run: npx i1n check --min-coverage 95

🧠 i1n setup-ai

Turns your IDE into a localization expert.

• Generates project-specific rules for Cursor (`.mdc`), Claude Code (`CLAUDE.md`), Windsurf, and more.
• Ensures AI agents follow your naming conventions, file structure, and brand voice.

🔌 i1n mcp

MCP server for AI coding assistants.

Starts a Model Context Protocol server that lets Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, and other AI assistants execute i1n commands directly from your IDE.

# Add to Claude Code

claude mcp add i1n -- npx i1n mcp

Or add to .mcp.json / cursor config

{

"mcpServers": { "i1n": { "command": "npx", "args": ["i1n", "mcp"] } } }

9 tools available:

Example: tell your AI agent "internationalize this component":

1. The agent reads your file and identifies hardcoded strings
2. It calls i1n_extract_and_translate with the extracted strings
3. i1n pushes the keys, translates to all active languages, generates types
4. The agent rewrites your component with t('key') calls

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👥 Team workflow

i1n is designed for teams where multiple people edit translations in parallel — devs in different branches, copywriters in the dashboard, AI agents via MCP. i1n push is safe to run without worrying that your local working tree might pulverize someone else's edits.

How push decides what to send

Before every push, the CLI:

1. Reads your local locale files (L).
2. Asks the server which keys exist and when each was last modified (cheap metadata-only call, ~50× smaller than a full pull).
3. If anything moved on the server since your last sync, fetches the full server state (S).
4. Computes a three-way diff per (namespace, key, lang) against the last baseline you synced (P, stored in locales/.i1n-push-state.json).

For each (key, lang) the diff places it in one of these buckets:

Only the languages that genuinely changed locally are sent. Languages you didn't touch are not in the payload, so the server's per-language merge preserves them. No more "my push silently overwrote yield_rate that I never even opened".

When there's a real conflict

A real conflict means you and someone else both edited the same `(key, lang)` to different values since the last sync. The CLI shows each one and asks you to pick:

Conflict 1/3: common.greeting [en_us]

› Keep local: "Hello there" Accept server: "Hi" Abort push

• Local → push your value, overwrite the server.
• Server → discard your local, auto-pull the server's value into your file.
• Abort → exit; nothing is pushed.

For batch / CI / non-interactive environments, pass a strategy:

i1n push --strategy theirs   # accept all server values, push nothing for conflicts

i1n push --strategy ours # local wins (alias: --force) i1n push --strategy abort # exit on any conflict

In non-TTY contexts (e.g. CI without a strategy flag), push aborts with a diff of the conflicts so you can resolve in code.

Auto-pulling server-only changes

If a teammate or someone in the dashboard updated a key you never touched, the server's value is automatically written into your local file at push time and your i1n.d.ts is regenerated if needed. Your working tree ends up reflecting reality — your git diff will show the bring-in so you can commit it alongside your own changes.

MCP push (AI agents)

The MCP i1n_push tool runs the same diff but defaults to abort on conflict because an AI agent should not silently pick a winner. Conflicts are reported in the response so the agent can decide to pull, ask you, or resolve manually before retrying.

Fresh checkouts

locales/.i1n-push-state.json is gitignored by design — it's working-tree state, like .git/index. On a fresh clone or new branch where the file doesn't exist, the baseline is synthesized from the server. Any local divergence from the server is then treated as a conflict (the CLI can't tell whether you edited locally or have stale data). Run i1n pull first if you just cloned and want to bring everything in cleanly.

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📁 Supported Formats

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🧩 SDK Usage

The i1n package includes a runtime SDK for web and mobile JS/TS projects. You can use it in two ways:

Standalone Mode — Replace your i18n library

Use the i1n native engine directly. No external dependencies needed.

import { init, t, setLocale } from "i1n";

// Load your translation resources init({ locale: "en_us", resources: { en_us: { auth: { login: "Login", title: "Welcome back, {user}" }, items_one: "One item", items_other: "{count} items", }, es_es: { auth: { login: "Ent