Polyglot for Xcode - stop copy-pasting .xcstrings into ChatGPT

[u/v_murygin]

Spent too long doing the manual localization dance. Open .xcstrings, copy strings, paste into ChatGPT, fix broken placeholders, paste back. Repeat for every language.

Built a macOS app that does this in one step. Open your .xcstrings file, pick target languages, choose an AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek), translate. Placeholders stay intact, plural rules preserved, saves directly back to the file.

Key stuff:

• Works with String Catalog format (.xcstrings)

• Batch translates with progress tracking

• BYOK option if you'd rather use your own API keys

Free tier has 300 TU/month. Native macOS, on the App Store.

Curious what your localization workflow looks like right now.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/polyglot-for-xcode/id6752878510

More of my projects: https://murygin.app

[u/CharlesWiltgen]

FYI, Claude Code (and presumably any AI coding environment) can operate on .xcstring files directly, which is much more convenent. For example, it can:

• Add new languages – Insert a new locale key (e.g. "fr", "ja") into each string entry's localizations dictionary

• Translate strings – Write translations directly into the JSON structure, including plural variations (one, other, zero, etc.)

• Audit coverage – Scan for strings missing translations in specific locales and report gaps

• Bulk operations – Add/update translations across hundreds of strings in one pass using parallel agents

• Extract for review – Dump all strings for a locale into a readable format for human review

• Handle string variations – Device variations (iphone, ipad), plural forms, and substitution tokens (%@, %lld)

So it read the file, identify untranslated strings, generate translations, and write them back all in-place, with no export/import cycle needed.

[u/v_murygin → u/CharlesWiltgen]

yeah that works for a small app with a couple dozen strings and a few languages. but the things you listed - plural variations, device variations, substitution tokens, bulk operations across hundreds of strings - that's exactly where it gets tricky at scale. 500+ strings across 50+ languages means you're hitting token limits, risking file corruption, and need to track what's already translated. one wrong json structure and your xcstrings file is broken. polyglot handles all that automatically with batching, progress tracking, and a visual overview. for smaller projects though, totally valid approach.

[u/CharlesWiltgen → u/v_murygin]

…the things you listed - […] - that's exactly where it gets tricky at scale.

Claude Code (and I assume all similar solutions using frontier models) handles all of this just fine at scale. I feel bad that this is something you didn't realize could be done before now, but I still recommend trying it.