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Getting Started ​

This guide walks you through your first translation workflow in Babelon -- from signing up to downloading localized files.

1. Sign up ​

Go to the Babelon web dashboard and click Sign up. You can authenticate with a magic link (email) or GitHub OAuth. No password required.

After clicking the magic link in your email, you will be redirected back to the app.

2. Create your organization ​

On your first login, Babelon redirects you to the Onboarding screen. Enter a name for your organization (for example, "Acme Corp"). A URL-friendly slug is generated automatically.

This creates your tenant -- the workspace where all your messages, translations, team members, and settings live. Everything in Babelon is scoped to a tenant, so your data is fully isolated from other organizations.

Once onboarding completes, you land on the Dashboard.

3. Add your first messages ​

Navigate to Messages in the sidebar and click New Message. Each message needs:

  • Key -- A stable identifier like welcome.title or checkout.button.confirm. Keys use dot-separated segments and must start with a letter.
  • Source text -- The original string to translate, for example Hello, {name}!
  • Source locale -- The language of your source text (defaults to en).
  • Format type -- Choose plain for simple strings or icu for strings with placeholders, plurals, or selects.

TIP

You can also upload messages in bulk using the CLI. See the CLI Reference for the upload command.

Optionally, add a description to give translators context (e.g., "Greeting shown on the homepage hero section"). This context is sent to the AI provider and improves translation quality.

4. Trigger AI translation ​

From the web dashboard ​

  1. Open a message and go to its Translate page.
  2. You will see a card for each target locale configured in your settings.
  3. Click AI Translate on any locale card to create a translation job.
  4. The job runs in the background. You can monitor progress on the Jobs page.

From the CLI ​

bash
# Translate all messages to all configured target locales
babelon translate --all

# Translate to specific locales
babelon translate --locale es,fr,de

The CLI polls until all jobs finish and reports results.

INFO

Before using the CLI, you need to generate an API token. See API Tokens for setup instructions.

5. Review and approve translations ​

AI translations arrive with a pending status by default. Navigate to the Review page to see all pending translations.

For each translation you can:

  • Approve -- Mark it as ready for export.
  • Reject -- Flag it for retranslation or manual editing.
  • Edit -- Modify the text before approving.

You can also approve or reject translations in bulk using the checkboxes and action buttons.

TIP

If you trust your AI provider and want to skip manual review, enable Auto-approve AI translations in Settings. Translations will be saved as approved automatically.

6. Export translated files ​

Go to the Export page and select:

  • Locales -- Which languages to export.
  • Format -- JSON (flat), nested JSON, or YAML.
  • Status filter -- Export only approved translations, or include pending ones too.
  • Bundle (optional) -- Restrict the export to a specific bundle of messages.

Click Export to download the files.

From the CLI ​

bash
# Download all approved translations as JSON
babelon download --locales all --approved-only

# Download Spanish translations as nested JSON
babelon download --locales es --format nested-json

What's next? ​

Now that you have the basics down, explore these areas:

  • Web Dashboard -- A detailed walkthrough of every section of the interface.
  • CLI Reference -- All seven commands with flags, examples, and configuration.
  • Translation -- How AI providers work, ICU MessageFormat support, and protected terms.
  • Team Management -- Invite team members and assign roles.
  • API Tokens -- Set up CLI authentication for your project.

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