Localization

Add new languages to the discord.place client and server.

discord.place supports multiple languages across both the Next.js client and the Discord bot server. Translations are stored as JSON files and wired up through a small amount of configuration.

Currently supported locales

Client

The client (client/locales/) currently ships with these language files:

Language	Code	File
English	en	en.json
Turkish	tr	tr.json
Azerbaijani	az	az.json

English is the default locale.

Server

The server (server/src/locales/) currently ships with these language files:

Language	Code	File
English	en	en.json
Turkish	tr	tr.json

English is the default locale.

Adding a new language

Client

1. Create the locale JSON file

   Add a new JSON file to client/locales/ named after the language code, e.g. fr.json for French. Use an existing file like en.json as a reference for all the keys that need to be translated.

   The JSON structure is a nested object where keys are translation identifiers and values are the translated strings:

   client/locales/fr.json

   {
     "home": {
       "title": "Tout ce qui concerne Discord",
       "subtitle": "..."
     }
   }
   
2. Register the locale in config.js

   Add the new locale to the availableLocales array in client/config.js:

   client/config.js

   availableLocales: [
     // ...existing locales
     {
       name: 'French',
       code: 'fr',
       dateFnsKey: 'fr',
       flag: '🇫🇷',
       countryCode: 'fr'
     }
   ],
   

   The dateFnsKey must match the locale key used by the date-fns library.

3. Import the locale file in the language store

   Open client/stores/language/index.js and add an import for your new locale file alongside the existing ones:

   client/stores/language/index.js

   import en from '@/locales/en.json';
   import tr from '@/locales/tr.json';
   import az from '@/locales/az.json';
   import fr from '@/locales/fr.json'; // add this
   
4. Add the locale to localeContents

   In the same file (client/stores/language/index.js), add your new locale to the localeContents object inside the t() function:

   const localeContents = {
     en,
     tr,
     az,
     fr, // add this
   };
   

   The client will now serve your new language to users who select it in the language picker.

If you want to change the default locale, set default: true on the desired locale object in client/config.js (and remove it from the current default). You must also update the DEFAULT_LOCALE_CODE environment variable in .github/workflows/validate-locale-files.yml — otherwise the locale validation GitHub Actions workflow will report errors on every push.

Server

1. Create the locale JSON file

   Add a new JSON file to server/src/locales/ named after the language code, e.g. fr.json for French. Use en.json as a reference for all the keys that need to be translated.

   The JSON structure is a flat or nested object of translation strings:

   server/src/locales/fr.json

   {
     "time": {
       "seconds": "secondes",
       "minutes": "minutes",
       "hours": "heures",
       "days": "jours"
     }
   }
   
2. Register the locale in config.yml

   Add an entry for the new language to the availableLocales array in server/config.yml:

   server/config.yml

   availableLocales:
     - name: 'English'
       code: 'en'
       flag: '🇺🇸'
       default: true
       countryCode: 'us'
     - name: 'French'   # add this entry
       code: 'fr'
       flag: '🇫🇷'
       countryCode: 'fr'
   
3. Add all translation keys

   Fill in every key from the reference en.json file in your new locale file. Keys that are missing will not fall back gracefully — the raw key string is returned instead.

   Some languages may not be officially supported by the Discord client, which affects how locale-specific features behave within Discord itself.

Locale file structure

Both the client and server use JSON files with a nested key structure. Top-level keys group related strings by feature area.

Client locale example (client/locales/en.json):

{
  "home": {
    "title": "All things related to Discord",
    "subtitle": "A place for all things that related to Discord..."
  },
  "common": {
    "save": "Save",
    "cancel": "Cancel"
  }
}

Server locale example (server/src/locales/en.json):

{
  "time": {
    "seconds": "seconds",
    "minutes": "minutes",
    "hours": "hours",
    "days": "days"
  },
  "commands": {
    "shared": {
      "errors": {
        "missing_permissions": "You don't have permission to use this command."
      }
    }
  }
}

Some strings support interpolation placeholders using curly braces, e.g. "An error occurred: {errorMessage}".

Contributing translations

If you’d like to contribute a new translation or improve an existing one, see the Contributing Translations guide.