Lokalise Core Workflow A

Lokalise Core Workflow A

Overview

Primary workflow covering the "source to Lokalise" direction: upload translation files, create and update keys programmatically, tag keys for organization, and perform bulk operations. Both SDK and CLI approaches shown for every operation.

Prerequisites

• Lokalise API token exported as LOKALISE_API_TOKEN
• Lokalise project ID exported as LOKALISE_PROJECT_ID
• @lokalise/node-api installed for SDK examples
• lokalise2 CLI installed for CLI examples
• Source translation file(s) in a supported format (JSON, XLIFF, PO, YAML, etc.)

Instructions

1. Upload source translation files. File upload is async: the API returns a process object that must be polled until completion.

SDK — Base64 encode and upload:

import { LokaliseApi } from "@lokalise/node-api";
import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";

const client = new LokaliseApi({ apiKey: process.env.LOKALISE_API_TOKEN! });
const PROJECT_ID = process.env.LOKALISE_PROJECT_ID!;

// Read and base64-encode the source file
const fileContent = readFileSync("./locales/en.json");
const base64Data = fileContent.toString("base64");

const uploadProcess = await client.files().upload(PROJECT_ID, {
  data: base64Data,
  filename: "en.json",
  lang_iso: "en",
  replace_modified: true,   // Overwrite changed translations
  distinguish_by_file: true, // Same key names in different files stay separate
  tags: ["source", "v2.1"],  // Auto-tag uploaded keys
});