VSTranslate

A VS Code extension that translates non-English code comments into English inline, directly in your editor, using a locally-running Ollama LLM. No data leaves your machine.

Features

• Translates single-line and inline comments from any language into English
• Displays translations as inline decorations next to the original comment — similar to GitLens blame annotations
• Skips code lines and English comments automatically — only foreign language comments are shown
• Supports all common comment styles (//, #, --, %, ;)

Requirements

• Ollama installed and running with at least one model pulled (e.g. ollama pull gpt-oss:20b)
• VS Code 1.85.0 or later

Installation

Until VSTranslate is available on the VS Code Marketplace, you can install it manually from a .vsix file:

1. Download the latest .vsix from the Releases page
2. Open VS Code and go to the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Click the ... menu at the top right and select Install from VSIX...
4. Select the downloaded file

Configuration

VSTranslate can be configured via Settings → Extensions → VSTranslate or directly in settings.json.

Usage

1. Select any block of code containing comments you want to translate

   

2. Press Ctrl+Shift+T (macOS: Cmd+Shift+T), or right-click and choose Translate Selection to English

   

3. Translations appear inline at the end of each non-English comment line

   

4. Moving the cursor or changing the selection clears the overlays

5. To clear manually, open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and run VSTranslate: Clear Translation Overlay

How It Works

When you trigger a translation:

1. VSTranslate scans the selected lines and extracts comment text — both full-line comments and inline comments after code
2. Only comment lines are sent to Ollama; code lines are ignored entirely
3. Ollama is instructed to return each line unchanged if it is already in English
4. Lines returned unchanged are silently dropped — only translated lines get a decoration
5. Each translation is displayed as an italic overlay anchored to the end of its source line

License

MIT