lokit

command module

v0.5.1 Latest Latest Go to latest Published: Feb 19, 2026 License: MIT Imports: 28 Imported by: 0

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Repository

github.com/minios-linux/lokit

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README ¶

lokit — Localization Kit

lokit is a universal localization manager with AI-powered translation. It supports gettext PO, po4a documentation, i18next JSON, Android strings.xml, YAML, Markdown, Java .properties, Flutter ARB, and generic JSON formats — either auto-detected or configured via lokit.yaml.

Features

Multi-target config — lokit.yaml for complex projects with multiple translation types
Auto-detection — works without config for simple projects (flat PO, nested PO, po4a, i18next)
AI translation — 7 providers including free GitHub Copilot and Gemini
Translation statistics — per-target progress tracking
Smart PO management — extract, merge, update with xgettext and msgmerge
Native OAuth — GitHub Copilot (device code) and Gemini (browser)
Parallel translation — concurrent API requests with configurable chunking

Supported Formats

Format	Extension	Use case
gettext	`.po` / `.pot`	Source code strings (shell, Python, C, Go)
po4a	`.po` + `po4a.cfg`	Documentation / manpages
i18next	`.json`	Web apps with i18next
json	`.json`	Simple JSON key-value translations
android	`strings.xml`	Android resource files
yaml	`.yaml` / `.yml`	YAML key-value translations
markdown	`.md`	Markdown document translation
properties	`.properties`	Java application translations
flutter	`.arb`	Flutter Application Resource Bundle

Supported AI Providers

Provider	Auth	Free tier
GitHub Copilot	OAuth (device code)	✅ with GitHub account
Gemini Code Assist	OAuth (browser)	✅ 60 req/min
Google AI (Gemini)	API key	✅ limited
Groq	API key	✅ limited
OpenCode	API key (optional)	✅ free models available
Ollama	none (local)	✅
Custom OpenAI	API key	depends

Installation

From source

git clone https://github.com/minios-linux/lokit.git
cd lokit
make build

Using go install

go install github.com/minios-linux/lokit@latest

Check version

lokit version

Quick Start

Simple project (auto-detection)

# Check project structure
lokit status

# Extract strings and create PO files
lokit init

# Authenticate
lokit auth login --provider copilot

# Translate all languages
lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4.1

Complex project (`lokit.yaml`)

Create a lokit.yaml in the project root:

languages: [de, es, fr, ru]
source_lang: en

targets:
  - name: app
    type: gettext
    dir: po

  - name: docs
    type: po4a
    root: manpages
    po4a_config: po4a.cfg

  - name: website
    type: i18next
    root: submodules/site
    dir: public/translations
    languages: [de, es, fr, pt_BR, ru]

  - name: mobile
    type: flutter
    dir: lib/l10n

Then:

lokit status        # Shows all targets with stats
lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4o  # Translates everything

Configuration File (`lokit.yaml`)

When lokit.yaml exists, lokit uses it as the sole source of truth — no auto-detection.

Schema

# Default languages for all targets
languages: [de, es, fr, id, it, pt, pt_BR, ru]

# Source language (default: en)
source_lang: en

# Translation targets
targets:
  - name: my-app              # Display name (required)
    type: gettext              # Type (required, see below)
    root: .                    # Working directory relative to config (default: .)

    # --- gettext options ---
    dir: po                    # Base directory for this target (required)
    pot_file: po/messages.pot  # POT template path (default: dir/messages.pot)
    sources: [src/**/*.sh]     # Source globs for xgettext
    keywords: [_, N_, gettext] # xgettext keywords

    # --- po4a options ---
    po4a_config: po4a.cfg      # po4a config path relative to root

    # --- i18next / json options ---
    dir: public/translations           # JSON directory
    recipes_dir: data/recipes              # Per-recipe translations (i18next)
    blog_dir: data/blog                    # Blog post translations (i18next)

    # --- android options ---
    dir: app/src/main/res      # Android res/ directory

    # --- yaml / properties / flutter / markdown options ---
    dir: translations               # Files directory

    # --- overrides ---
    languages: [de, es, fr]    # Override global language list
    source_lang: en            # Override source language
    prompt: "Custom prompt"    # Override system prompt for AI

Target types

gettext — For code translation (shell, Python, C, Go). Reads .pot templates, translates to .po files.

po4a — For documentation (manpages, AsciiDoc). Works with po4a.cfg and its PO directory.

i18next — For web applications using i18next. JSON files with _meta block.

json — For simple JSON translations. JSON files with translations block.

android — For Android applications. Translates strings.xml resource files.

yaml — For YAML key-value translation files (translations/LANG.yaml).

markdown — For Markdown document translation. Files organized as dir/LANG/file.md.

properties — For Java .properties files (dir/LANG.properties).

flutter — For Flutter ARB files (dir/app_LANG.arb).

Commands

`lokit status`

Shows project info and translation statistics. With lokit.yaml, displays per-target stats.

lokit status                    # Current directory
lokit status --root ./my-project  # Specific project

`lokit init`

Extracts translatable strings and creates/updates translation files:

lokit init                     # All languages
lokit init --lang ru,de        # Specific languages

Runs xgettext for gettext projects
Runs po4a --no-translations for po4a projects
Creates missing language files for i18next, json, yaml, properties, flutter
Idempotent — safe to run repeatedly

`lokit translate`

Translates using AI:

lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4o

# All flags:
  --provider string         AI provider (required)
  --model string            Model name (required)
  --lang string             Languages (comma-separated, default: all untranslated)
  --parallel                Enable parallel translation
  --max-concurrent int      Max concurrent tasks (default: 3)
  --chunk-size int          Entries per API request (0 = all at once)
  --retranslate             Re-translate already translated entries
  --fuzzy                   Translate fuzzy entries (default: true)
  --dry-run                 Show what would be translated
  --prompt string           Custom system prompt ({{targetLang}} placeholder)
  --proxy string            HTTP/HTTPS proxy URL
  --api-key string          API key (or provider env var)
  --base-url string         Custom API endpoint
  --timeout duration        Request timeout (0 = provider default)
  --max-retries int         Retries on rate limit (default: 3)
  --request-delay duration  Delay between parallel tasks
  --verbose                 Detailed logging

`lokit auth`

Manage provider credentials:

# Interactive login
lokit auth login

# Specific provider
lokit auth login --provider copilot
lokit auth login --provider google

# List stored credentials
lokit auth list

# Remove credentials
lokit auth logout --provider copilot
lokit auth logout                      # Remove all

`lokit version`

Show version, commit hash, and build date.

Examples

Translate a monorepo with submodules

# lokit.yaml
languages: [de, es, fr, id, it, pt, pt_BR, ru]
targets:
  - name: scripts
    type: gettext
    dir: po

  - name: manpages
    type: po4a
    root: manpages
    po4a_config: po4a.cfg

  - name: cli-tool
    type: gettext
    root: submodules/my-tool
    dir: po

lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4o --parallel --max-concurrent 10

Flutter application

# lokit.yaml
languages: [de, es, fr, ru, ja, zh]
source_lang: en
targets:
  - name: app
    type: flutter
    dir: lib/l10n

lokit init
lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4o

Java application with .properties

# lokit.yaml
languages: [de, es, fr, ru]
source_lang: en
targets:
  - name: app
    type: properties
    dir: src/main/resources

Parallel translation with proxy

lokit translate \
  --provider copilot --model gpt-4.1 \
  --parallel --max-concurrent 10 --chunk-size 50 \
  --proxy "http://proxy:8080"

Translate specific languages

lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4o --lang ru,de

Use local Ollama

lokit translate --provider ollama --model llama3

Custom OpenAI endpoint

lokit auth login --provider custom-openai --api-key YOUR_KEY --base-url https://api.example.com/v1
lokit translate --provider custom-openai --model my-model

Dry run

lokit translate --provider copilot --model gpt-4o --dry-run

User Data Storage

All user data is stored in ~/.local/share/lokit/ (respects $XDG_DATA_HOME):

auth.json — OAuth tokens and API keys (permissions: 0600)
prompts.json — AI system prompts (created automatically on first use)

Credentials

Lookup order (highest → lowest):

--api-key flag
Provider-specific environment variable (GOOGLE_API_KEY, GROQ_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENCODE_API_KEY)
Stored credentials in auth.json

Custom Prompts

On first use, lokit creates prompts.json with all built-in system prompts. Edit it to customize translation behavior per content type:

Key	Used for
`default`	gettext UI strings
`docs`	po4a / man-pages (groff markup)
`i18next`	i18next JSON
`recipe`	App catalog metadata
`blogpost`	Blog post content
`android`	Android strings.xml
`yaml`	YAML translation files
`markdown`	Markdown documents
`properties`	Java .properties files
`flutter`	Flutter ARB files

Use {{targetLang}} as a placeholder for the target language name in prompt text.

Project Structure Support

Without lokit.yaml, lokit auto-detects:

Flat PO — po/*.po (shell/Python gettext)

Nested PO — po/<lang>/*.po (C/large projects)

po4a — po4a.cfg + po/<lang>/*.po (documentation)

i18next — translations/<lang>.json or public/translations/<lang>.json

GitHub Actions & Releases

CI/CD Workflows

CI — Tests, builds, and lints on every push/PR
Release — Builds multi-platform binaries on version tags

Creating a Release

git tag v0.2.0
git push origin v0.2.0

Automated build for Linux and macOS (amd64, arm64) with binary uploads.

View releases: https://github.com/minios-linux/lokit/releases

Development

Built with Go 1.23+:

cobra — CLI framework
yaml.v3 — YAML config parsing
Native OAuth for GitHub Copilot and Gemini

License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Author

MiniOS Linux Team

Documentation ¶

Overview ¶

lokit — Localization Kit: gettext PO file manager with AI translation support.

Source Files ¶

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Directories ¶

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Path	Synopsis
android Package android implements reading and writing of Android strings.xml translation files.	Package android implements reading and writing of Android strings.xml translation files.
arbfile Package arbfile implements reading and writing of Flutter ARB (Application Resource Bundle) files.	Package arbfile implements reading and writing of Flutter ARB (Application Resource Bundle) files.
config Package config provides project configuration types and helpers for working with lokit.yaml and PO/POT files.	Package config provides project configuration types and helpers for working with lokit.yaml and PO/POT files.
copilot Package copilot implements native GitHub Copilot OAuth authentication using the device code flow, without requiring any external CLI tools.	Package copilot implements native GitHub Copilot OAuth authentication using the device code flow, without requiring any external CLI tools.
extract Package extract wraps GNU xgettext (and xgotext for Go) for extracting translatable strings from source files.	Package extract wraps GNU xgettext (and xgotext for Go) for extracting translatable strings from source files.
gemini Package gemini implements native Google OAuth2 authentication for the Gemini Code Assist API, without requiring any external CLI tools.	Package gemini implements native Google OAuth2 authentication for the Gemini Code Assist API, without requiring any external CLI tools.
i18n Package i18n provides internationalization support for lokit itself.	Package i18n provides internationalization support for lokit itself.
i18next Package i18next implements reading and writing of i18next JSON translation files.	Package i18next implements reading and writing of i18next JSON translation files.
mdfile Package mdfile implements reading and writing of Markdown translation files.	Package mdfile implements reading and writing of Markdown translation files.
merge Package merge implements PO file merging logic, equivalent to the msgmerge utility.	Package merge implements PO file merging logic, equivalent to the msgmerge utility.
pofile Package pofile implements reading and writing of PO/POT files following the GNU gettext format specification.	Package pofile implements reading and writing of PO/POT files following the GNU gettext format specification.
propfile Package propfile implements reading and writing of Java .properties files.	Package propfile implements reading and writing of Java .properties files.
settings Package settings provides unified storage for lokit user settings, including authentication credentials and AI translation prompts.	Package settings provides unified storage for lokit user settings, including authentication credentials and AI translation prompts.
translate Package translate implements AI-powered translation of PO file entries using multiple HTTP API-based AI providers: Google AI (Gemini), Groq, OpenCode (multi-format), GitHub Copilot (native OAuth), Custom OpenAI, and Ollama.	Package translate implements AI-powered translation of PO file entries using multiple HTTP API-based AI providers: Google AI (Gemini), Groq, OpenCode (multi-format), GitHub Copilot (native OAuth), Custom OpenAI, and Ollama.
yamlfile Package yamlfile implements reading and writing of YAML translation files.	Package yamlfile implements reading and writing of YAML translation files.