Translating Ghost

Ghost can be translated into many languages. Translations cover Ghost's public apps, parts of Ghost Core, and emails sent to members.

Ghost uses i18next and keeps translations in packages/i18n/locales/. Each language has its own folder containing separate JSON files for Ghost, Portal, Comments, Signup form, and Search.

Within each file, the key on the left is the original English string and the value on the right is its translation. An empty value falls back to the English string.

Translating existing strings

Find your language in packages/i18n/locales/.
Open the JSON file for the part of Ghost you want to translate:

File Where the translation appears
ghost.json Ghost Core and emails
portal.json Portal
comments.json Comments
signup-form.json Signup form
search.json Search
Add or improve the translated values. Leave the English keys unchanged.
Run the translation checks from the repository root:
bash
```
pnpm --filter @tryghost/i18n lint:translations
```
Commit the changes and open a pull request following the contribution workflow.

File	Where the translation appears
`ghost.json`	Ghost Core and emails
`portal.json`	Portal
`comments.json`	Comments
`signup-form.json`	Signup form
`search.json`	Search

Keep every {variable} and <tag> from the English string in the translation. The words around them can move to suit the language, but their names and spelling must not change.

json

{
    "Welcome back, {name}!": "Bon retour, {name} !"
}

Translate the meaning of the complete message rather than translating each word literally. The description for a string in packages/i18n/locales/context.json explains where it appears and what it is intended to communicate.

Adding a language

Before starting a new language, open an issue or discussion so the locale code and scope can be agreed. Ghost supports base languages as well as some regional and script variants.

To add an agreed language:

Add its code and English label to packages/i18n/lib/locale-data.json.
From the repository root, run:
bash
```
pnpm --filter @tryghost/i18n translate
```
Translate the generated files in packages/i18n/locales/<locale>/.

Run the translation checks and package tests:

bash

pnpm --filter @tryghost/i18n lint:translations
pnpm --filter @tryghost/i18n test

Commit the locale metadata and translation files together, then open a pull request.

Adding product copy

If you are adding or changing translatable strings in the code, see the internationalization guide. It covers translation helpers, extraction, interpolation, context, and CI checks.