xcstrings-ai-translate

Swift CLI utility to translate Xcode String Catalogs (.xcstrings) into a target locale using FoundationModels (Apple Intelligence / on-device model).

• Input: .xcstrings
• Output: .xcstrings (overwrite by default, or write to --output)
• Uses sourceLanguage from the file as the source locale
• Translates every key under strings
• Overwrites existing translations for the target locale
• Preserves the original strings key order
• Skips entries that contain variations (not supported yet)
• Preserves placeholders (%@, %d, %1$@, \(value), {name}…), retries on mismatch
• Logs each key as it translates
• On errors/refusals/placeholder mismatch: keeps source text for target locale and marks it as needs_review

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Requirements

• macOS 26+
• Apple Silicon
• Apple Intelligence / system model available on the machine
• Xcode 26+ (recommended)

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Build

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd xcstrings-ai-translate
swift build -c release

Binary

.build/release/xcstrings-ai-translate

Usage

xcstrings-ai-translate <input.xcstrings> <target-locale> [--output <path>]

Examples

.build/release/xcstrings-ai-translate \
  /path/to/Localizable.xcstrings \
  it