Motivation

The Core Problem: Translation Drift

LocaleOps solves the “translation drift” problem - the gap between when developers change source strings and when translations get updated.

Common scenario:

A developer changes “Hello” to “Welcome back!” in the English locale. The Spanish translation still says “Hola” but should now say “¡Bienvenido de nuevo!”.

Without change tracking, this goes unnoticed. The translation is outdated, but there’s no automated way to detect it. Teams either ship stale translations or manually track every string change - both are error-prone and time-consuming.

The Landscape

The Problem with Framework Utilities

Tools like i18next CLI can extract untranslated strings and check for missing keys, but they have critical limitations:

• No change tracking: Modified strings aren’t detected
• No diff support: Can’t identify what actually changed
• No stale detection: Outdated translations go unnoticed
• Manual coordination: Teams track changes in spreadsheets or issue trackers

This creates a painful workflow where any code change can silently invalidate in-progress translations.

The Problem with Translation Management Systems

Comprehensive platforms (Phrase, Lokalise, Crowdin) handle everything, but at a cost:

• Vendor lock-in: Switching providers means data migration and workflow changes
• External storage: Strings live outside your repository
• High cost: Often expensive, especially for smaller teams
• Complexity overhead: Requires onboarding non-technical stakeholders
• Integration friction: Another system to integrate with your CI/CD

The LocaleOps Approach

LocaleOps provides the middle layer - automation without platform lock-in:

What LocaleOps does:

• Tracks string changes with Git-based snapshots
• Detects new, modified, and stale translations
• Generates structured diffs for translation providers
• Automates pull request creation for translation updates
• Runs entirely in your existing CI/CD pipeline

What you keep control of:

• Translation provider (AI, agency, or human translators)
• Workflow and automation logic
• File formats and repository structure
• Data ownership and access control

LocaleOps works with your existing Git workflow, not against it.

How LocaleOps Solves This

LocaleOps tracks changes through snapshots:

1. After translation: LocaleOps saves a snapshot of the source language
2. On next extract: Compares current source against the snapshot
3. Detects drift: Identifies strings that changed after translation
4. Output: Structured diff showing exactly what needs re-translation

Instead of manually tracking or guessing what changed, you get an automated, accurate list of stale translations.