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Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions for i18n-rosetta.

API & Authentication​

"OPENROUTER_API_KEY not found"​

Rosetta requires an API key for LLM translation. Set it as an environment variable:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."

Or in a .env file (if your project loads .env files):

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-v1-...
astuce

If you only have a Google Translate API key, rosetta auto-detects and uses Google Translate as the default method. No config change needed.

"401 Unauthorized" from OpenRouter​

Your API key is invalid or expired. Verify it at openrouter.ai/keys.

"429 Too Many Requests" / Rate Limiting​

Rosetta handles rate limits internally with exponential backoff. If you consistently hit rate limits:

  1. Reduce batch size in your config: 
    { "batchSize": 15 }
  2. Use a model with higher rate limits (e.g., openai/gpt-4o-mini has generous limits)
  3. Use a cheaper/faster method for high-volume pairs — Google Translate has no rate limits: 
    { "pairs": { "en:it": { "method": "google-translate" } } }

Translation Quality​

Translations echo the source language​

The quality gate catches this. If a translation is identical to the English source, it's rejected and retried. If it persists:

  1. Check the model — Some models perform poorly for specific language pairs
  2. Add register instructions — Tell the model what language to produce: 
    {
      "languages": {
        "ja": { "name": "Japanese", "register": "Polite/formal Japanese" }
      }
    }
  3. Try a different model — Switch from gpt-4o-mini to gpt-4o or google/gemini-2.5-pro

Wrong script output (e.g., Latin text for Japanese)​

The quality gate's script compliance check catches most cases. If it persists:

  • Verify the locale code is correct (ja, not jp)
  • Add explicit script instructions in the register field: 
    { "register": "Japanese using hiragana, katakana, and kanji" }

Hallucination patterns in output​

Repeated trigram patterns (e.g., "hello hello hello") are caught by the hallucination loop detector. If output is garbled but passes the detector:

  1. Reduce batch size — Smaller batches produce more focused output
  2. Use a stronger model — Larger models hallucinate less on non-Latin scripts
  3. Add coaching data — Dictionary terms anchor the translation

File & Format Issues​

"No locale files found"​

Rosetta auto-detects locale files. If it can't find them:

  1. Check localesDir — Must point to the directory containing locale files: 
    { "localesDir": "./locales" }
  2. Check file naming — Files must be named by locale code: en.json, fr.json, etc.
  3. Check format — Supported formats: JSON, nested JSON, YAML, TOML

Lock file conflicts​

If .i18n-rosetta.lock gets into a bad state:

# Reset the lock file (next sync will retranslate everything)
rm .i18n-rosetta.lock
npx i18n-rosetta sync
attention

Deleting the lock file means the next sync will retranslate all keys, not just changed ones. This has API cost implications for large projects.

Retranslating specific keys​

If individual translations are wrong and you want to force them to be re-translated without deleting the lock file:

# Re-translate a single key
npx i18n-rosetta sync --force-keys "hero.title"

# Re-translate multiple keys
npx i18n-rosetta sync --force-keys "nav.home,nav.about,footer.copyright"

The --force-keys flag overrides the lock file hash check for those specific keys, forcing re-translation without affecting any other keys.

Content translation corrupts code blocks​

This shouldn't happen — code blocks are shielded before translation. If it does:

  1. Verify the code block uses standard fencing (triple backticks)
  2. Check for unclosed code blocks in the source Markdown
  3. File an issue — this is a bug in the sentinel shielding system

CLI Issues​

--watch doesn't detect changes​

File watching uses Node.js native fs.watch. Known issues:

  • Network drives — fs.watch doesn't work reliably on NFS/SMB mounts
  • Docker volumes — Use polling mode or run rosetta inside the container
  • Large directories — The watcher monitors localesDir recursively; very deep trees may exceed OS limits

npx runs an old version​

# Clear the npx cache
npx --yes i18n-rosetta@latest sync

Or install globally:

npm install -g i18n-rosetta
i18n-rosetta sync

Performance​

Sync is slow for many languages​

Rosetta translates pairs sequentially by default. To speed up multi-language syncs:

  1. Use Google Translate for high-volume pairs — It's 10–50× faster than LLM translation
  2. Increase batch size (up to 50, default is 30): 
    { "batchSize": 50 }
  3. Use a fast model — gpt-4o-mini is significantly faster than gpt-4o

High API costs​

  • Check batch sizes — Larger batches = fewer API calls = lower cost
  • Use prompt caching — Rosetta splits system/user messages for cache hits on Anthropic and Google models
  • Use Google Translate for Tier 2 languages — See the Translate 30 Languages cookbook

Still Stuck?​