Preface

The biggest pain point with existing i18n plugins on the market is that they cannot cover the internationalization needs of every project.

Take our company’s project as an example: the requirement is to automatically generate a key based on the semantic meaning of a text entry and write it into the corresponding i18n file and code, making internationalization development as simple as regular development. Although the requirement sounds simple, a suitable plugin was hard to find.

i18n Ally focuses more on translation and management, and does not support automatic key generation—you have to input keys manually; Du I18N generates keys as hash values, which do not meet my needs, and cannot directly write to i18n files (manual synchronization is required). Additionally, both plugins impose strict restrictions on the project tech stack and have limited support for PHP.

I18n Fast is an i18n generation plugin that emphasizes customizability. The plugin itself does not implement specific functionality; instead, it leverages a hook mechanism that allows users to implement their own logic. The plugin simply connects the hooks to make the process work. In short, by increasing configuration overhead and enabling the dynamic execution of external code, it sacrifices some out-of-the-box ease for generality and flexibility, thereby meeting the internationalization needs of a wider range of projects.

If other i18n plugins cannot meet your requirements and you're willing to invest some time understanding and writing hook files, then I18n Fast is your ideal choice.

Features

• Supports i18n feedback display
• Supports jumping to i18n definitions
• Supports i18n conflict resolution (when a duplicate i18n entry is encountered)
• Supports reading text from the clipboard
• In theory, supports any functionality you need (to be implemented by yourself)
• ~~Supports matching Chinese text in code~~ https://github.com/lvboda/vscode-i18n-fast/issues/19
• ~~Supports searching i18n~~ https://github.com/lvboda/vscode-i18n-fast/issues/1

Quick Start

Search for I18n Fast in the VS Code Marketplace and click Install, or download the corresponding version from releases. In VS Code, open the Command Palette with ctrl + shift + p, type Install from VSIX, and select the downloaded file to install.

After installing the plugin, you need to complete the plugin configuration and hook files. With a well-configured setup, you should see i18n feedback when previewing your code. Try using the i18n-fast.convert or i18n-fast.paste command to verify your implementation!

Flowchart

Configuration

Plugin Configuration

• i18nFilePattern: Pattern for matching i18n files
• hookFilePattern: Pattern for matching hook files, default is .vscode/i18n-fast.hook.js
• conflictPolicy: How to handle duplicate i18n entries, default is smart
  • reuse: Reuse an existing i18n entry
  • ignore: Ignore duplicates
  • picker: Pop up a selector for manual choice
  • smart: If one matching i18n entry is found, reuse it; if multiple are found, pop up a selector for manual choice
• ~~autoMatchChinese: Whether to automatically match Chinese text, default is true~~

The i18nFilePattern is generally configured on a per-project basis in each project’s .vscode/settings.json.

Hook

A hook file is a JavaScript file that exports hook methods for the plugin to call (see the flowchart for execution timing). The hook runs in Node.js, adheres to the CommonJS standard, supports asynchronous functions (async/await), and can require other modules (from your project or third-party libraries), so theoretically any functionality you need can be implemented.

The hook file is located based on the config.hookFilePattern, defaulting to .vscode/i18n-fast.hook.js. You can simply download the template file to the corresponding location and modify it; the template already defines the hook method types.

Feel free to submit an issue to share your hook files (example: https://github.com/lvboda/vscode-i18n-fast/issues/21) so others can refer to and reuse your code.

Hook code changes take effect immediately without needing to restart the plugin or VS Code.

Context

The context object shared with hooks is passed as the first argument and includes:

• context.vscode
• context.extensionContext
• context.qs
• context.crypto
• context.uuid
• context._
• context.babel
• context.hook: The hook object exported by the current file, which can call other hooks within the same file
• context.i18n: The instance handling i18n storage for reading and writing i18n entries
• context.convert2pinyin: A method based on tiny-pinyin to convert Chinese characters to pinyin
• context.isInJsxElement: A method based on babel to determine if the code is inside a JSX element
• context.isInJsxAttribute: A method based on babel to determine if the code is inside a JSX attribute
• context.writeFileByEditor: A method to write files via the editor
• context.getICUMessageFormatAST: A method to get the ICU MessageFormat AST using @formatjs/icu-messageformat-parser
• context.safeCall: A helper function to catch and ignore errors thrown during function execution
• context.asyncSafeCall: The async version of safeCall
• context.getConfig: Retrieves the plugin configuration
• context.setLoading: Sets a global loading state
• context.showMessage: A simplified version of a VS Code popup message

The above lists the public properties available to every hook. There are additional properties (such as context.document, context.convertGroups, context.i18nFileUri, etc.) that are specific to the hook execution context; refer to the template file for detailed definitions.

hook.match

Executed at the very start of the i18n-fast.convert command, this hook customizes how text in the current document is matched and returns the matching results. Note the priority: if the i18n-fast.paste command is invoked or text is selected, hook.match will not run.

In this example, hook.match is used to match all text wrapped in #(...) in the current document.

hook.convert

Executed immediately after hook.match, this hook processes or pre-treats the data.

In this example, hook.convert defines the code replacement text as formatMessage({ id: 'xxx' }); if inside JSX or a JSX attribute, it wraps the result in {...} and generates a uuid as a loading i18n key for later lookup and replacement.

hook.write

Executed after hook.convert, this hook writes the data to a file.

In this example, hook.write first writes the code file synchronously (using the loading key), then calls an AI interface to generate a concise key based on semantics, determines in which i18n file the key should appear, and finally writes the AI-generated key to replace the loading key in the code and writes the i18n definition into the corresponding file.

hook.collectI18n

Triggered during initialization, configuration, or when i18n files change, this hook collects i18n data.

In this example, hook.collectI18n loads the i18n file content based on the i18nFileUri parameter and converts it into an I18nGroup[] format.

hook.matchI18n

Triggered while browsing code, this hook filters matched i18n keys or customizes i18n feedback/jump/hoverMessage functionality, with matching based on the i18nKey by default.

In this example, hook.matchI18n filters keys to ensure they contain a dot (.), and keys not wrapped in quotes only support jump and hoverMessage, to avoid inaccuracies (see https://github.com/lvboda/vscode-i18n-fast/issues/3 for details).

Commands

i18n-fast.convert

The convert command transforms matched text into the i18n format.

Shortcut: cmd + option + c (macOS) / ctrl + alt + c (Windows/Linux)

Execution Flow:

1. Match text (priority: parameter text > selected text > hook.match + ~~Chinese matching~~)
2. Convert data (via hook.convert)
3. Write to file (via hook.write)

i18n-fast.paste

The paste command converts text from the clipboard into the i18n format and pastes it.

Shortcut: cmd + option + v (macOS) / ctrl + alt + v (Windows/Linux)

Execution Flow:

1. Retrieve text from the clipboard
2. Call i18n-fast.convert with the clipboard text as input

i18n-fast.undo

The undo command undoes all file write operations performed in this session.

Shortcut: cmd + option + z (macOS) / ctrl + alt + z (Windows/Linux)

This command currently has some issues and is not very stable. See https://github.com/lvboda/vscode-i18n-fast/issues/4 for details.

FAQ

I still don't know how to configure it after reading the documentation. What should I do?

Each project in the test folder is a complete usage example that you can refer to directly. If you're still confused, please submit an issue.

I don't want to write code. Is there another way to use it directly?

Check the issues under the hook example label for some hook examples you can refer to or use directly.

Is executing dynamic code a security risk?

I18n Fast is a fully standalone application. In theory, as long as you ensure that the hook code you write is secure, there is no security risk.

License

MIT

Copyright (c) 2025 - Boda Lü