GitHub Actions

Automate translation with localekit sync in your CI pipeline. This creates a pull request with translated files on every push.

GitHub Token

In GitHub Actions, GITHUB_TOKEN is provided automatically. If you need a custom token with specific permissions (e.g., to trigger other workflows from the PR), create a fine-grained token with Contents (read/write) and Pull requests (read/write) permissions. See the sync command for detailed setup.

Workflow

Create .github/workflows/translate.yml:

name: Translate

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]
    paths:
      - "**/*.xcstrings"
      - "**/*.strings"
      - "**/strings.xml"
      - "**/*.arb"
      - "**/en.json"

jobs:
  translate:
    runs-on: macos-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install LocaleKit
        run: |
          brew tap hexagone-studio/localekit https://github.com/hexagone-studio/LocaleKit.git
          brew install localekit-cli

      - name: Login
        run: localekit login --email ${{ secrets.LOCALEKIT_EMAIL }} --password ${{ secrets.LOCALEKIT_PASSWORD }}

      - name: Translate and create PR
        run: |
          localekit sync \
            --engine deepl \
            --api-key ${{ secrets.DEEPL_API_KEY }} \
            --github-token ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} \
            --base main

Required Secrets

Add these in Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions:

Secret	Description
LOCALEKIT_EMAIL	Your LocaleKit account email
LOCALEKIT_PASSWORD	Your LocaleKit account password
DEEPL_API_KEY	DeepL API key (or OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI)
GITHUB_TOKEN	Provided automatically by GitHub Actions

Using a Config File

For simpler workflow files, commit a .localekitrc.yml and use it:

# .localekitrc.yml
sourceLanguage: en-US
targetLanguages: [de-DE, fr-FR, ja-JP, zh-CN]
engine: deepl
deeplApiKey: ${DEEPL_API_KEY}
github:
  baseBranch: main

Then the workflow simplifies to:

- name: Translate and create PR
  env:
    DEEPL_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.DEEPL_API_KEY }}
    GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  run: localekit sync

Testing Locally

Preview what the CI will do without pushing:

localekit sync --dry-run