tolgee/tolgee-platform

Developer & translator friendly web-based localization platform

Summary

Tolgee Platform is an open-source, web-based localization platform written in TypeScript that helps developers and translators manage application strings. It is described in the README as an alternative to Crowdin, Phrase, or Lokalise, with SDKs that embed translation editing into running applications. The project also exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server so AI coding assistants can manage translations from the editor.

What it is useful for

Tolgee targets localization workflows for web applications built with React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, or plain JavaScript. Its in-context translation feature lets a user hold ALT (or Option on macOS) and click a string inside the running app to edit it through a dialog, rather than editing JSON or PO files by hand. The same shortcut combined with a camera button captures a screenshot of the highlighted phrase to give translators visual context, and the README states this works in production as well, via the Tolgee Tools Chrome plugin and an API key.

For translation quality, the platform supports machine translation through DeepL, Google Translate, AWS Translate, and Azure Translator, plus an AI translator that considers surrounding context such as screenshots, key and project descriptions, language notes, translation memory matches, and layout information gathered by the SDK. Other documented capabilities include translation memory with similarity percentages, auto-translation of newly created keys, an activity log, per-translation comments, and a translation history.

A practical caveat: production in-context editing depends on the separate Tolgee Tools Chrome plugin and a valid API key, so teams who only want the web app will not get that workflow.

How engineers can use it

The README's onboarding path is to sign up at app.tolgee.io or use a self-hosted instance, create a project, and follow the integration guide for the target framework. A Docker image (tolgee/tolgee) is published for self-hosting, and the README points to the JavaScript SDK docs and the platform's integration section for framework-specific wiring. Detailed setup for the MCP server is referenced in DEVELOPMENT.md; the README does not provide those commands inline.

Teams should verify license terms before adoption: the GitHub repository metadata lists the license as NOASSERTION, while the README badge references an "Apache 2 / Tolgee EL" combination. The README does not document a specific self-host install command, so engineers should consult the docs site for that step.