Core Concepts
Understanding how Translato organizes data will help you set up your workflow effectively.
1. Hierarchy
Translato uses a three-tier hierarchy to manage access and resources:
- Organization: The top-level container (usually your company). Manages billing, global members, and shared teams.
- Team: A group of users (e.g., "Frontend Team" or "German Translators"). Teams can be granted access to multiple projects.
- Project: The actual repository of translation keys and values.
2. Terms & Keys
A Term (or "Key") is the unique identifier for a piece of text.
- Key:
marketing.hero.title - Description: "Main title on the landing page"
- Tags:
vcs-synced,high-priority
Translato supports nested keys via dot-notation, which maps perfectly to nested JSON objects in your codebase.
3. Translations & Plurals
Each Term can have multiple Translations (one for each target language).
Translato natively supports ICU Plural Rules. If a key is marked as a plural, you can provide different strings for one, other, zero, few, many, etc., depending on the language's requirements.
4. Source Language
Every project has exactly one Source Language. This is the language your developers write in their code. Translato uses the source language values to find matches in Translation Memory and to provide context for AI translations.
5. VCS Sync vs. CLI Sync
There are two primary ways to keep your code and Translato in sync:
- CLI Sync: Manual or script-driven (
translato push/pull). Best for local development and custom CI pipelines. - VCS Integration: Automated sync via webhooks. Translato watches your
mainbranch; when you push code, it automatically pulls new keys. When you finish translating, Translato can open a Pull Request back to your repo.
6. Translation Memory (TM)
TM is a shared database of every translation your team has ever saved. It intelligently suggests previous translations for identical or similar strings, ensuring consistency across your entire Organization.
Summary Table
| Concept | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Organization | Company-level container |
| Project | A single app or service's translations |
| Term | The unique ID (key) for a string |
| Translation | The localized value of a Term |
| VCS | Version Control (GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket) |
| TM | Translation Memory (Reusable history) |