Quick Start

Get up and running with the CLI in under 5 minutes.

Installation#

Install the CLI globally using your preferred package manager:

npm install -g lingo.dev

Verify Installation#

Confirm the CLI is installed correctly:

lingo --version

You should see output like:

lingo.dev v0.133.9
Node.js v20.10.0

Initialize Your Project#

Navigate to your project directory and run:

cd my-project
lingo init

This interactive command will:

1. Connect to your account - Authenticate with your API key
2. Select a project - Choose an existing project or create a new one
3. Configure locales - Select which languages to support
4. Set up file structure - Choose where to store translation files

Your First Translation#

Create a simple translation file:

{
  "welcome": {
    "title": "Welcome to Lingo.dev",
    "subtitle": "The Localization Engineering Platform"
  },
  "auth": {
    "login": "Log in",
    "logout": "Log out"
  }
}

Run Translations#

Translate your content to all configured target languages:

lingo run

The CLI will:

• ✅ Discover your source files
• ✅ Compute a delta against the lockfile
• ✅ Send changed content to your translation backend
• ✅ Write translations to disk

Watch Mode (Development)#

For active development, enable watch mode to retranslate automatically when source files change:

lingo run --watch

Getting Help#

Need assistance?

# Show help for all commands
lingo --help

# Show help for a specific command
lingo run --help

Join our Discord community for real-time support!

Next Steps#