Formats

git8n reads and writes JSON locale files, one folder for each language. Inside a file, the text of a key can use the placeholders of i18next, of ICU MessageFormat, or of both.

Page	For
i18next JSON	The files: folders, keys, plurals, and the placeholders of i18next
ICU MessageFormat	{name}, and the choices plural, select, selectordinal
Libraries	react-i18next, next-i18next, vue-i18n, next-intl and FormatJS

Who reads the placeholders

Two parts of git8n read a file, and they do not read it the same way:

• The editor and the API read each key as plain text. They do not parse a placeholder or a plural. A proposal that loses {{name}} goes in as it is, from a person or from an agent.
• git8n check parses the placeholders and the plurals of each text. It fails on a translation that loses or adds a placeholder of its source, and warns about a plural form that a language needs and does not have.

Run git8n check in the CI of the repository: it is what catches a lost placeholder before a publication reaches users. In CI gives a workflow, and the CLI reference every rule.

Not supported

git8n reads only files that end with .json. These formats are not read, and git8n check passes over them with no message:

• YAML (.yml, .yaml), as Rails i18n and some vue-i18n projects write it;
• gettext (.po, .pot);
• XLIFF (.xlf, .xliff), as Angular writes it;
• ARB (.arb), as Flutter writes it;
• Android XML, iOS .strings and .xcstrings;
• JavaScript or TypeScript modules that export messages;
• JSON5 and JSON with comments.