ʻŌlelo Honua

An i18n library designed to simplify the process of translating and managing locale files for applications.

Productivity

l10n

internationalization

i18n

hawaiian-language

permalink: /overview

ʻŌlelo Honua

🌺🌸🌼 Bloom Your Internationalization Workflow! 🌷🌻🌹

Tired of wrestling with translation files for your multilingual app? Even with powerful tools like i18next, you're often stuck in a cycle of manual updates—copy-pasting into Google Translate or ChatGPT, redoing work every time your content changes. It’s a grind: repetitive, error-prone, and draining your time. What if there was a smarter way to handle it all?

That’s where ʻŌlelo Honua comes in. This tool takes the hassle out of internationalization (i18n) by automating translation file creation and updates. Beyond just saving time, it ensures your translations are accurate, culturally appropriate, and free from common errors.

Why waste time on repetitive tasks when you can streamline your i18n process with a tool built to simplify localization? Let ʻŌlelo Honua handle the hard parts so you can focus on delivering great experiences for your global users.

🌟 Meet Our Smarter, Faster AI Language Engine! 🌟

Ready to supercharge your i18n workflow? Our newly revamped AI language engine is here to make translations smarter, faster, and more intuitive. It delivers spot-on, culturally aware translations in record time, with built-in support for async and parallel processing. Whether you're scaling up or just starting out, this engine grows with you—making multilingual app development effortless and efficient. Say hello to the future of i18n!

Challenges in Multilingual App Development and How ʻŌlelo Honua Solves Them

Problem

Building an app that connects with a global audience is an ambitious challenge. You start with one language, but as your app grows, so does the need for multilingual support. The process of manually creating and updating translation files for every new language quickly becomes overwhelming—tedious, error-prone, and a significant drain on your time and resources.

Projects like i18next have been game-changers in the internationalization (i18n) space, providing robust tools to manage translations effectively. Similarly, tools like i18next-scanner help streamline the extraction of translatable content. However, these tools still leave a big gap: the actual translation process. Every time your content changes, you’re back to manually re-translating or copy-pasting into external tools like Google Translate or ChatGPT. This repetitive cycle not only slows down your workflow but also increases the risk of inconsistencies and errors.

The result? Many developers either struggle to keep up with the demands of i18n or abandon it altogether, leaving their apps inaccessible to a broader audience. There’s a clear need for a smarter, more automated solution to bridge this gap and make multilingual app development truly seamless.

Solution

ʻŌlelo Honua takes the grunt work out of i18n by automating the creation and synchronization of translation files. With support for trusted providers like Google Translate, it ensures translations are not only accurate but also always up-to-date. Save time, eliminate errors, and focus on what truly matters—building a world-class multilingual app.

Here's a simple illustration:

Without ʻŌlelo Honua: You manually create and update translation files for each language. Commence repetitive copy/paste from Google, ChatGPT, etc... 😩
With ʻŌlelo Honua: The library automatically generates and syncs translation files using your preferred translation provider. 🎩✨

This automation makes it easier to manage internationalization in your application, allowing you to focus on other stuff!

Use Cases

Web Apps Served with Node.js

Building web applications with Node.js? ʻŌlelo Honua seamlessly integrates into your server-side workflows. Directly incorporate translation management into your Node.js app, enabling real-time localization for dynamic content. Whether you're serving a React, Vue, or plain HTML frontend, ʻŌlelo Honua ensures your app speaks the language of your users effortlessly. Simplify your localization pipeline and deliver a truly global experience!

Shopify Integration

Looking to enhance your Shopify store with multilingual support? ʻŌlelo Honua's easy-to-use CLI simplifies the process of localizing your storefront, helping you reach a global audience. Automate translation file generation and synchronization for your Shopify themes and apps, ensuring a seamless shopping experience for customers worldwide. Start scaling your e-commerce business today with ʻŌlelo Honua!

Learn more about Shopify integrations

Technical Deep Dive

For more details about my approach, vision, and methodology, refer to About ʻŌlelo Honua.

Installation

To install the library, use npm or yarn:

npm install olelo-honua

npx --yes olelo-honua

yarn add olelo-honua

Getting Started with ʻŌlelo Honua in Your Application

To use this library in your project, import it into app.js or any other file where you need it. Here's an example:

const { OleloHonua } = require("olelo-honua");
// Create a new instance of OleloHonua
const dakine = new OleloHonua(
  {
    provider: {
      platform: OleloHonua.Providers.OpenRouter,
      credentials: {
        apiKey: process.env.OPEN_ROUTER_API_KEY, // Open Router API Key from .env
      },
      modelId: OleloHonua.OpenRouterModels.DEEPSEEK.DEEPSEEK_V3_FREE, // Model ID
    },
    primeLanguage: "en", // Language to translate from, must be defined in locales/en.json
    includeLanguages: ["haw", "en", "es", "fr", "de", "zh", "ja", "ko", "ar", "ru"], // Languages to translate to
    debug: true, // Enable debug
  },
);
// Runs or re-runs i18n translations
dakine.hanaHou(); // or use alias createLocaleFiles()

Important Note on `primeLanguage` config option

The primeLanguage setting is crucial for the translation process. It must have a corresponding locale JSON file to serve as the base for translations. For example, if you set primeLanguage to 'en', you need to ensure there is a locales/en.json file in your project. Likewise, if you were to base translations in Spanish ('es'), you would need a locales/es.json.

Without this file, the translation process cannot proceed as it relies on the base language file to generate translations for other languages.

Using the CLI

Here's how you use the CLI:

# Initialize locale files using the CLI
npx olelo-honua init --config ./local.config.json --debug

# After making changes to locales/en.json, sync locale files using the CLI
npx olelo-honua sync

Example Breakdown:

npx olelo-honua init: Runs the init command to create locale files.
--config ./local.config.json: Specifies the path to the configuration file. If omitted, it defaults to local.config.json in the current working directory.
--debug: Enables debug mode for detailed logging during the process.
npx olelo-honua sync: Runs the sync command to sync all locale files based on latest changes and update translation cache.

This command will read the configuration file, generate the necessary translation files, and log the process to the console.

Configuration Tips

I highly recommend setting up an OpenRouter API Key for use with various models.

How to set up OpenRouter API Key

There are also several other providers including Google Translate (aka Cloud Translation) and OpenAI (aka ChatGPT).

OpenAI API Quickstart

Google Cloud Translation Quickstart

For enhanced security and ease of configuration, you should store your API key in a .gitignore'd .env file.

How to set up .gitignore for your project

Simply create a .env file in your project root and add the following line:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<your_openrouter_api_key>

Then, use a library like dotenv to load the key into your application:

require("dotenv").config();
const apiKey = process.env.OPENROUTER_API_KEY;

How to set up dotenv for your project

While using .gitignore, dotenv & .env is not mandatory for local development, it’s best engineering practice for safeguarding sensitive information. This approach keeps your credentials out of your codebase, simplifies environment management, and enhances security across different deployment setups.

You need to provide a configuration object and a translation provider. For instance, you can use the DeepSeekProvider as demonstrated in the usage example. I highly recommend DeepSeek & OpenRouter as these are free and extremely stable. Happy coding!

Full Configuration Example

Here is an example of full configuration options:

{
  "primeLanguage": "en",
  "provider": {
    "platform": "OpenRouter",
    "credentials": {
      "apiKey": "<your_openrouter_api_key>"
    },
    "modelId": "deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324:free"
  },
  "retries": {
    "mainLoop": 3,
    "critiqueLoop": 2,
    "repairLoop": 1
  },
  "debug": false,
  "includeLanguage": ["haw", "ar", "es", "fr"],
  "maxChunkRequests": 4,
  "additionalConfig": {
    "critique": true,
    "saveCritique": false,
    "repair": false,
    "multiLanguageAgreementThreshold": 0.8
  }
}

Supported Providers

Olelo Honua integrates with OpenRouter, OpenAI/ChatGPT, Google Translate, and even local LLM providers.

Supported Models

ʻŌlelo Honua integrates with a variety of models to streamline your translation workflow. Below is a list of supported models categorized by provider:

OpenRouter Models

DeepSeek
- deepseek/deepseek-chat-v3-0324:free
- deepseek/deepseek-r1:free
- deepseek/deepseek-chat:free
Google
- google/gemini-2.5-pro-exp-03-25:free
- google/gemma-3-1b-it:free
- google/gemma-3-4b-it:free
- google/gemma-3-12b-it:free
- google/gemma-3-27b-it:free
- google/gemini-2.0-flash-lite-preview-02-05:free
- google/gemini-2.0-pro-exp-02-05:free
- google/gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp:free
- google/gemini-2.0-flash-thinking-exp-1219:free
- google/gemini-2.0-flash-exp:free
- google/learnlm-1.5-pro-experimental:free
- google/gemma-2-9b-it:free
Llama2
- sophosympatheia/rogue-rose-103b-v0.2:free
- gryphe/mythomax-l2-13b:free
Llama3
- deepseek/deepseek-r1-distill-llama-70b:free
- meta-llama/llama-3.3-70b-instruct:free
- nvidia/llama-3.1-nemotron-70b-instruct:free
- meta-llama/llama-3.2-3b-instruct:free
- meta-llama/llama-3.2-1b-instruct:free
- meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free
- meta-llama/llama-3-8b-instruct:free
Qwen
- qwen/qwq-32b:free
- deepseek/deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-32b:free
- deepseek/deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-14b:free
- qwen/qwq-32b-preview:free
- qwen/qwen-2.5-coder-32b-instruct:free
- qwen/qwen-2.5-72b-instruct:free
- qwen/qwen-2-7b-instruct:free
Mistral
- mistralai/mistral-7b-instruct:free

OpenAI Models

OpenAI
- openai/davinci
- openai/curie
- openai/babbage
- openai/ada
- openai/gpt-3.5-turbo
- openai/gpt-4o

Note: Free models, such as OpenRouterProvider, come with a token limit. Ensure your usage stays within the allowed quota to avoid interruptions.

Select the provider/model that aligns with your application's specific needs (and performance requirements) 🌟.

Caching

Translations are cached to keep things running smoothly and to cut down on API calls to translation providers. This is super handy if you're using free or limited-tier services with strict quotas. By saving translations locally, you avoid hitting those limits and keep performance steady. If you ever need to clear the cache, just run this command:

rm -rf .translations_cache.json

Supported Languages

In addition to Hawaiian 🌺, ʻŌlelo Honua supports a wide range of languages:

Supported Languages 🌍

Contributing

We welcome contributions from developers of all skill levels! Whether it's fixing a bug, adding a feature, or improving documentation, your help is greatly appreciated. To get started, check out our Contributing Guide for detailed instructions on how to contribute to the project. Let's build something amazing together!

Code of Conduct

We’re committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive community. You can read our Code of Conduct here.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

ʻŌlelo Honua

An i18n library designed to simplify the process of translating and managing locale files for applications.

permalink: /overview

ʻŌlelo Honua

🌺🌸🌼 Bloom Your Internationalization Workflow! 🌷🌻🌹

🌟 Meet Our Smarter, Faster AI Language Engine! 🌟

Challenges in Multilingual App Development and How ʻŌlelo Honua Solves Them

Problem

Solution

Use Cases

Web Apps Served with Node.js

Shopify Integration

Technical Deep Dive

Installation

Getting Started with ʻŌlelo Honua in Your Application

Important Note on primeLanguage config option

Using the CLI

Example Breakdown:

Configuration Tips

Full Configuration Example

Supported Providers

Supported Models

OpenRouter Models

OpenAI Models

Caching

Supported Languages

Contributing

Code of Conduct

License

Important Note on `primeLanguage` config option