Xcode Localization

A fast, native-feeling visual editor for Xcode String Catalogs - localize your iOS, iPadOS, and macOS apps directly in VS Code, without opening Xcode.

Xcode Localization turns .xcstrings (and legacy .strings) files into a familiar spreadsheet-style grid: keys down the rows, languages across the columns, and your source language pinned for reference. Every edit is written back surgically, so your git diff stays as clean as if Xcode itself had saved the file.

Quick start

1. Open any .xcstrings file in your workspace. It opens in the grid editor automatically.
2. Click a target-language cell, type a translation, and press Enter.
3. Save with Ctrl/Cmd+S - the file is rewritten byte-for-byte except for the value you changed.

Note: Prefer to hand-edit the raw JSON? Use Open as Text from the editor toolbar to switch any catalog back to the plain-text editor at any time.

Features

• Spreadsheet-style grid - Keys (including plural and device variants) as rows, languages as columns. The header and source/key columns stay frozen as you scroll.
• Inline editing - Click a cell to edit, Enter to commit, Esc to cancel. Move through translations with Tab, Shift+Tab, and the arrow keys, just like a spreadsheet.
• Clean, Xcode-compatible diffs - Edits are applied surgically: only the changed value or state span is rewritten, preserving key order, indentation, and line endings. No more noisy reformatting in code review.
• Translation progress - A per-language progress bar (percent translated, excluding keys marked Don't translate) in the toolbar, the language picker, and the sidebar.
• State tracking - Cells carry their state - translated, new, needs review, or stale - as a colored badge, and you can flag a translation as Reviewed or Needs review from a per-cell menu.
• Format specifier validation - When a translation's %@, %lld, or %1$@ placeholders drift from the source, the cell is flagged with a non-blocking warning. Reordering positional specifiers never raises a false positive.
• Changed-since-commit markers - The editor reads your git HEAD and highlights every value or state that has changed since your last commit, with a "Changed since last commit · was: …" tooltip. A Changed filter scopes the grid to just those edits.
• Search and filter - A search box matches across keys, developer notes, and translations in any visible language, with hits highlighted. Filter rows by All, Untranslated, Needs review, Warnings, Orphaned (legacy .strings only: keys present in the target file but missing from the source language), Unused (after running a code scan - see Find unused keys), or Changed - search and filter compose.
• Hybrid columns - By default the grid shows your source plus one target language. A language picker lets you toggle additional columns on and off, complete with each language's progress; your selection is remembered per file.
• Translator notes - Add, edit, or remove a developer note for any key from the key's context menu (hover a row and click the ⋯ button at the end of the key, or click an existing note to edit it inline), and mark a key as Don't translate to exclude it from progress and filters.
  • Legacy .strings: a key's note lives in the source-language file, so notes are editable only when you open that file - e.g. en.lproj/Localizable.strings. While viewing a target language the source note is shown read-only (open the source file to change it).
• Find in code - From any key's context menu, Find in code opens VS Code's search scoped to your Swift / Objective-C files and pre-filled with the key as a quoted string literal - jumping straight to the Text("…"), Button("…"), or NSLocalizedString("…", …) call sites so you can refactor the wording where it's used.
• Find unused keys - The Scan code button in the toolbar runs a one-shot pass over your Swift / Objective-C source and flags every key with no quoted-literal reference as unused, with an Unused filter to list them. It's a hint, not a verdict - keys built by string interpolation or referenced from storyboards/XIBs aren't detected, so verify before deleting. Nothing is indexed in the background and nothing is deleted automatically; re-run the scan whenever you want fresh results.
• Resizable columns - Drag a column divider to resize, double-click it to reset. Widths are persisted per file.
• Built for large catalogs - Rows are virtualized with measured heights, so catalogs with thousands of entries scroll smoothly while the frozen header and columns stay put.
• Theme-aware - The grid follows your active VS Code color theme and contrast settings.

Keyboard shortcuts

The grid is designed to be driven entirely from the keyboard.

The Localizations view

An Xcode Localization panel in the Activity Bar gives you a workspace-wide overview of your localization files:

• .xcstrings catalogs, each showing its language count and overall translation percentage (with a checkmark when fully translated).
• .strings tables grouped by <lang>.lproj, expandable to list every language with its name, code, and progress.

Select any entry to open it in the grid editor. Vendor directories such as Pods/, Carthage/, DerivedData/, build/, and node_modules/ are skipped. Use the Refresh button in the view's title bar if you reorganize files outside VS Code.

Commands

Settings and customization

All settings live under the xcodeI18n.* namespace and can be changed from Settings or directly from the grid toolbar.

• xcodeI18n.displayMode - Row density for the grid.

  • Default: comfortable
  • Available values: comfortable (roomier rows with more padding), compact (tighter rows so more fit on screen)

• xcodeI18n.mergeKeySource - Merge the Key and source columns into one. The key appears as a secondary line only when it differs from the source value; uncheck to show Key and source as separate columns.

  • Default: true

• xcodeI18n.doubleClickToEdit - Require a double-click to open a cell for editing, so a single click only selects it. Uncheck to open the editor with a single click.

  • Default: true
  • Note: Keyboard activation (Enter, F2, or type-to-edit) always opens the editor regardless of this setting.

Supported file formats

Source-language cells and plural/device variant cells are read-only in this release.

Troubleshooting

• A catalog won't open in the grid. Use Open as Text to inspect the raw JSON - a malformed file (for example, an invalid trailing comma) will surface as a normal JSON error you can fix by hand.
• Changed-since-commit markers are missing. They require the file to be tracked in a git repository. Untracked files or folders outside a repo show no baseline.
• A language is missing from the grid. Open the language picker and enable its column, or use Refresh in the Localizations view if the file was added outside VS Code.

Development

npm install          # install dependencies (requires Node.js)
npm run build        # bundle the extension + webview

Press F5 in VS Code to launch the Extension Development Host, then open a .xcstrings file to try it out. Use npm run watch for incremental builds and npm run typecheck to type-check without emitting.

Feedback

Issues and feature requests are welcome on the project's GitHub repository.

License

MIT © Bao Phan