Language Commands

Language commands manage the multilingual configuration of your FORGE project — adding and removing locales, setting the default language, and synchronizing translation strings across the backend and frontend.

forge lang:add

Add a new language to the project.

Usage

forge lang:add <CODE> [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
CODE	string	—	ISO 639-1 language code (e.g. ar, fr, de).
--name	string	Auto-detected	English name of the language.
--native	string	Auto-detected	Native name of the language (e.g. العربية for Arabic).
--direction	string	ltr	Text direction: ltr (left-to-right) or rtl (right-to-left).
--default	flag	false	Set this language as the project default.

Examples

# Add Arabic with RTL support
forge lang:add ar --direction=rtl

# Add French as the new default language
forge lang:add fr --default

When a language is added, FORGE updates forge.yaml, generates translation stubs for existing keys, and updates the database seeder for the languages table.

TIP

FORGE auto-detects the language name, native name, and direction for common ISO 639-1 codes. You only need to specify these options for custom or uncommon locales.

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forge lang:remove

Remove a language from the project.

Usage

forge lang:remove <CODE>

Example

forge lang:remove fr

WARNING

Removing a language does not delete existing translation data from the database. Run forge translations:sync --no-prune after removal if you want to preserve orphaned translation rows, or omit the flag to let the sync clean them up.

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forge lang:list

Display all configured languages and their settings.

Usage

forge lang:list

Example Output

┌──────┬──────────┬───────────┬───────────┬─────────┐
│ Code │ Name     │ Native    │ Direction │ Default │
├──────┼──────────┼───────────┼───────────┼─────────┤
│ en   │ English  │ English   │ ltr       │ Yes     │
│ ar   │ Arabic   │ العربية   │ rtl       │ No      │
│ fr   │ French   │ Français  │ ltr       │ No      │
└──────┴──────────┴───────────┴───────────┴─────────┘

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forge lang:default

Change the default language for the project.

Usage

forge lang:default <CODE>

Example

forge lang:default ar

This updates forge.yaml, regenerates the language seeder, and adjusts the default locale configuration in both the API and frontend apps.

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forge lang:supported

Display all languages that FORGE can recognize automatically (code, name, native name, and direction). Useful for discovering valid language codes before adding them to your project.

Usage

forge lang:supported

Example Output

┌──────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬───────────┐
│ Code │ Name         │ Native       │ Direction │
├──────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼───────────┤
│ ar   │ Arabic       │ العربية      │ rtl       │
│ de   │ German       │ Deutsch      │ ltr       │
│ en   │ English      │ English      │ ltr       │
│ es   │ Spanish      │ Español      │ ltr       │
│ fr   │ French       │ Français     │ ltr       │
│ ...  │ ...          │ ...          │ ...       │
└──────┴──────────────┴──────────────┴───────────┘

Total: 25 languages supported

TIP

When you add a language using a supported code, FORGE auto-fills the name, native name, and direction. You only need to specify these manually for custom or unsupported locales.

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Translation Commands

Translation commands manage the key-value translation strings used by the API response layer and the Next.js frontend.

forge translations:sync

Synchronize translation files across all configured languages. New keys are added with empty values; optionally, keys that no longer exist in the source are pruned.

forge translations:sync [OPTIONS]

Option	Type	Default	Description
--no-prune	flag	false	Keep translation keys that are no longer present in the source language.

Example

forge translations:sync

Syncing translations...
  en: 142 keys (source)
  ar: 138 keys → 142 keys (+4 added)
  fr: 135 keys → 142 keys (+7 added)

Sync complete.

forge translations:export

Export translations to a file for external translators or translation management systems.

forge translations:export [OPTIONS]

Option	Type	Default	Description
--output	string	translations/	Output directory or file path.

Example

forge translations:export --output=./exports/

Generates JSON files per language:

exports/
  en.json
  ar.json
  fr.json

forge translations:import

Import translations from external files back into the project.

forge translations:import [OPTIONS]

Option	Type	Default	Description
--input	string	—	Path to the directory or file containing translations.
--force	flag	false	Overwrite existing translation values. Without this flag, only empty values are populated.

Example

forge translations:import --input=./exports/ --force

WARNING

Using --force overwrites all existing translations for the imported languages. Make sure you have a backup or version control before running this.

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Workflow Example

A complete workflow for adding a new language to an existing project:

# 1. Add the language
forge lang:add de --name=German --native=Deutsch

# 2. Sync translation keys (stubs with empty values are created)
forge translations:sync

# 3. Export for your translation team
forge translations:export --output=./to-translate/

# 4. After translators return the files, import them
forge translations:import --input=./translated/ --force

# 5. Update the database
forge seed --class translations

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See Also

• Project Commands — configure languages during forge new
• Generator Commands — --translatable flag for models
• Database Commands — seed translation data