Lokalise MCP Server

⚠️ Disclaimer: This is an unofficial, personal project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Lokalise Inc. It uses the open-source Lokalise Node.js SDK to provide MCP integration. All code and implementation are my own work.

Bring the power of Lokalise to your AI assistant

🎯 What Is This?

The Lokalise MCP Server connects AI assistants like Claude to Lokalise, the leading translation management platform. Through natural conversation, you can manage translation projects, update content, and automate localization workflows—no coding required.

Perfect for: Product Managers • Developers • Localization Teams • Content Teams

🚀 Key Features & Capabilities

Transform your localization workflow with 59 tools across 11 domains and 17 pre-built automation templates:

Feature Category	Capabilities	What You Get
🎯 Strategic Management	Portfolio analysis, project health monitoring, team coordination	Executive insights, bottleneck identification, resource optimization
🔤 Smart Content Operations	Bulk key operations (1000+ at once), filename filtering, platform tagging	Release-ready content management, iOS/Android/Web coordination
🌍 Global Expansion	Language addition, progress tracking, completion analytics	Market entry automation, translation velocity insights
👥 Team Orchestration	User groups, permissions, workload distribution, reviewer assignment	Optimal team structure, timezone-aware assignments
🔄 Workflow Automation	File processing, TM+MT integration, multi-stage review pipelines	End-to-end automation, quality gates, escalation rules
📊 Real-time Monitoring	Process dashboards, audit trails, bulk operation tracking	Operational visibility, failure detection, performance metrics
🔒 Enterprise Security	Multi-layer auth, secure token handling, rate limiting	Production-ready security, compliance support

🎯 Why to use Lokalise MCP?

Traditional Approach	With Lokalise MCP
Manual project analysis across multiple screens	"Analyze my portfolio" → Instant strategic insights
Hours setting up review workflows	"Create review tasks for uploaded file" → Done in seconds
Complex team permission management	"Set up teams for 3 new markets" → Automated structure
Reactive problem-solving	Proactive bottleneck identification and recommendations
Tool-by-tool operations	Orchestrated multi-tool workflows with one prompt

✨ See It In Action

Copy these prompts to experience sophisticated multi-tool orchestration. From simple requests to advanced patterns—Claude handles the complexity automatically:

💻 React i18n Development Workflow (Cursor IDE)

MCP Tools: lokalise_list_projects → lokalise_list_keys → lokalise_create_keys → lokalise_list_usergroups → lokalise_create_task

Prompt: "I'm working on a new checkout flow in React. Please scan my current
components, extract all hardcoded strings that need internationalization,
convert them to i18n keys using our naming convention (checkout.step1.title),
refactor the JSX to use our i18next hooks, then sync the new keys to our
'Mobile App' project in Lokalise and create translation tasks for our EU markets using relevant tools in configured Lokalise MCP.

Use these exact Lokalise MCP tools:
- lokalise_list_projects (to find Mobile App project)
- lokalise_list_keys (to check for existing keys)
- lokalise_create_keys (to upload new i18n keys)
- lokalise_list_usergroups (to find EU translation teams)
- lokalise_create_task (to create translation tasks)"

// Before: components/checkout/PaymentStep.tsx
const PaymentStep = () => (
  <div>
    <h2>Payment Information</h2>
    <p>Enter your card details below</p>
    <button>Continue to Review</button>
  </div>
);

What Claude orchestrates with MCP tools:
✓ `lokalise_list_projects` - Locates 'Mobile App' project
✓ `lokalise_list_keys` - Validates against existing keys to prevent duplicates
✓ `lokalise_create_keys` - Bulk uploads new i18n keys with platform tags:
  [{
    key_name: "checkout.payment.title",
    platforms: ["web", "ios", "android"],
    translations: [{ language_iso: "en", translation: "Payment Information" }]
  }]
✓ `lokalise_list_usergroups` - Resolves "EU markets" to specific translation teams
✓ `lokalise_create_task` - Creates translation tasks for DE, FR, ES, IT with team assignments
✓ Auto-refactors JSX to use useTranslation hooks
✓ Updates local i18n JSON files with new key structure

// After: Automatically refactored
const PaymentStep = () => {
  const { t } = useTranslation();
  return (
    <div>
      <h2>{t('checkout.payment.title')}</h2>
      <p>{t('checkout.payment.subtitle')}</p>
      <button>{t('checkout.payment.continue')}</button>
    </div>
  );
};

Result: Code internationalized, 12 new keys synced via Lokalise MCP tools,
translation tasks created for 4 languages—all without leaving your IDE.
Development workflow stays uninterrupted while localization setup happens
automatically through direct lokalise MCP integration.

📊 CSV Translation Upload Automation

Triggers: lokalise_list_projects → CSV parsing → lokalise_create_keys (bulk) → lokalise_list_project_languages → lokalise_create_task (per language)

Prompt: "I'm attaching our latest feature strings export from Product. It's a CSV with
columns: key_id, context, en_source, es_draft, fr_draft. Using relevant tools in configured Lokalise MCP; Please upload these 50 new keys to our 'E-commerce Platform' project, create translation tasks for the missing
languages (German, Italian, Portuguese), and assign them to our relevant regional teams.
The Product team wants this shipped by end of sprint (March 15th)."

[Attach: feature_v3_strings.csv]

What Claude orchestrates:
✓ Parses CSV and validates column structure
✓ Locates E-commerce Platform project
✓ Creates 50 keys with English source + Spanish/French drafts
✓ Identifies missing target languages (DE, IT, PT)
✓ Resolves regional team assignments automatically
✓ Creates separate translation tasks per language/team
✓ Sets March 15th deadline with buffer for review
✓ Provides upload summary + task tracking URLs

Result: 50 keys uploaded, 3 translation tasks created, teams notified—
what used to take 2 hours of manual CSV imports, key creation, and task setup
now happens in 30 seconds with full audit trail and team coordination.

🎯 Strategic Portfolio Dashboard

Triggers: lokalise_list_projects → lokalise_get_project (parallel) → lokalise_list_project_languages → lokalise_list_tasks

Prompt: "I need a strategic overview of my localization portfolio. Using relevant tools in configured Lokalise MCP;
Show me which projects need immediate attention, identify bottlenecks across teams, and give me data-driven
recommendations for resource allocation. Include completion rates, task backlogs, and
any projects that haven't seen activity in the last 30 days."

What Claude does automatically:
✓ Fetches all projects with statistics
✓ Analyzes each project's health in parallel
✓ Cross-references team workloads
✓ Identifies stalled projects and overdue tasks
✓ Generates strategic recommendations

Result: Executive-level insights you can act on immediately

🔄 Intelligent File Processing Workflow

Triggers: lokalise_list_projects → lokalise_list_keys (filter by filename) → lokalise_list_usergroups + lokalise_list_contributors → lokalise_list_project_languages → lokalise_create_task (multiple)

Prompt: "I just uploaded 'user-onboarding-v2.json' to my Mobile App project via the Lokalise UI.
The TM+MT processing is done. Now create review tasks for quality assurance - assign
Spanish content to our EMEA translation team, French to Marie (marie@ourcompany.com),
and German to whoever is available on the DACH team. Set the deadline for next Friday."

What Claude orchestrates:
✓ Locates your Mobile App project
✓ Finds all keys from the uploaded file
✓ Resolves "EMEA translation team" → user group ID
✓ Resolves "marie@ourcompany.com" → contributor ID
✓ Finds DACH team members and assigns optimally
✓ Creates separate review tasks per language
✓ Sets appropriate deadlines and task descriptions

Result: Complete review workflow ready in seconds, not minutes of manual setup

🚀 Bulk Operations with Smart Validation

Triggers: lokalise_list_projects → lokalise_list_keys (filtered) → lokalise_bulk_update_keys → lokalise_list_tasks → lokalise_create_task

Prompt: "I need to clean up our iOS release. Find all keys tagged 'onboarding' across all
projects, ensure they have iOS platform designation, verify they're all translated to
Spanish and French, and create catch-up tasks for any missing translations. Also check
if any of these keys have been changed in the last 7 days and might need re-review."

What Claude coordinates:
✓ Searches across all projects for 'onboarding' tagged keys
✓ Audits platform tags and adds iOS where missing
✓ Cross-checks translation completeness for Spanish/French
✓ Identifies recently modified keys needing re-review
✓ Creates targeted tasks for missing translations
✓ Provides summary of changes and remaining work

Result: Release-ready content with full audit trail and completion plan

💡 Master Tip: The more context and constraints you provide, the smarter Claude's orchestration becomes. Include timelines, priorities, team constraints, and business objectives for maximum AI leverage.

🎯 Built-in Workflow Prompts

Beyond these examples, the MCP server includes 17 sophisticated prompt templates that orchestrate complex multi-tool workflows automatically. These aren't just examples—they're production-ready templates you can use immediately.

📋 Project Management Suite

Ready-to-use prompts for strategic project oversight:

Prompt Template	What It Does	Tools Orchestrated
`project_portfolio_overview`	Strategic analysis across all projects with bottleneck identification	4-6 tools in parallel
`project_deep_dive`	Comprehensive health analysis of a specific project	6-8 tools coordinated
`new_project_setup`	Complete project creation with languages and initial structure	5-7 tools sequenced
`project_cleanup`	Safe removal of deprecated content with impact analysis	3-5 tools with validation

🌍 Localization Workflow Suite

Automated language expansion and progress monitoring:

Prompt Template	What It Does	Tools Orchestrated
`language_expansion`	Add new markets with proper configuration and team setup	4-6 tools coordinated
`translation_progress_check`	Comprehensive progress analysis with actionable insights	3-5 tools in parallel
`bulk_key_creation`	Smart content organization for new features	3-4 tools sequenced

🔄 Advanced Workflow Automation

Sophisticated multi-stage orchestration:

Prompt Template	What It Does	Tools Orchestrated
`post_upload_review_workflow`	Complete review pipeline for uploaded files with team assignment	6-8 tools orchestrated
`document_extraction_review_workflow`	Extract uploaded CSV/JSON content as keys + create translation tasks	5-7 tools coordinated
`automated_review_pipeline`	Multi-stage review with quality gates and escalation	8-10 tools orchestrated
`team_translation_setup`	Organize teams with optimal workload distribution	6-8 tools coordinated

🚀 Enterprise Automation Suite

Production-ready workflows for complex operations:

Prompt Template	What It Does	Tools Orchestrated
`process_monitoring_dashboard`	Real-time monitoring across projects with failure detection	4-6 tools in parallel
`user_group_audit`	Comprehensive team analysis with security recommendations	5-7 tools coordinated
`translation_memory_import`	Smart TM integration with conflict resolution	6-8 tools orchestrated
`bulk_operations_monitor`	Track and audit large-scale changes with rollback info	4-6 tools coordinated
`team_onboarding_workflow`	Complete new member setup with permissions and training	5-7 tools sequenced

🎭 How to Use Prompt Templates

# In Claude, simply reference the prompt name:
"Use the project_portfolio_overview prompt from configured Lokalise MCP to analyze my localization portfolio"

# Or trigger directly with parameters:
"Run the post_upload_review_workflow from configured Lokalise MCP  for 'user-guide.pdf' in Mobile App project,
assign Spanish to EMEA Team and French to marie@company.com"

# Customize for your needs:
"Use the team_translation_setup prompt from configured Lokalise MCP but focus on timezone optimization
for our distributed team across 4 continents"

Template Benefits:

🎯 Zero Learning Curve: Pre-built workflows ready to use
🚀 Multi-Tool Orchestration: Each template coordinates 3-10 tools automatically
🧠 Context Awareness: Smart parameter resolution and error handling
📊 Rich Outputs: Formatted reports with actionable insights
⚡ Production Ready: Battle-tested in real localization projects

📦 Quick Start

Get up and running in under 60 seconds:

🚀 Recommended: One-Click Install

# Install for Claude Desktop (most popular)
npx -y @smithery/cli install @AbdallahAHO/lokalise-mcp --client claude

# Other clients: cursor, vscode, raycast, gemini

What happens: Auto-installs, configures permissions, prompts for your Lokalise API key, ready to use.

🎯 Alternative Installation Methods

Claude Desktop Extension (.dxt)

Fast local install, no Node.js required:

Download the latest .dxt from Releases
Double-click or drag into Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions
Enter your LOKALISE_API_KEY when prompted
Verify: "Can you list my Lokalise projects?"

NPX (No Installation)

Run directly without installing:

# Direct execution
npx lokalise-mcp

Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lokalise": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "lokalise-mcp"],
      "env": {"LOKALISE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"}
    }
  }
}

Global Install

npm install -g lokalise-mcp
lokalise-mcp  # Run the server

🔑 Get Your API Key

Log in to Lokalise
Go to Profile → API Tokens (https://app.lokalise.com/profile#apitokens)
Click Generate new token
Copy and save securely

⚙️ Configuration

API Key Setup

The Lokalise API key can be configured in multiple ways (in order of priority):

Environment Variable (Recommended for security):
```
export LOKALISE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
```

.env File (For local development):

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your API key

Global MCP Config (~/.mcp/configs.json):

{
  "lokalise-mcp": {
    "LOKALISE_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
  }
}

Getting Your API Token

Log in to Lokalise
Navigate to Profile → API Tokens (https://app.lokalise.com/profile#apitokens)
Click Generate new token
Copy the token and save it securely

🚀 Running the Server

# HTTP mode (recommended for development)
npm run mcp:http

# STDIO mode (for Claude Desktop integration)
npm run mcp:stdio

# CLI mode (direct commands)
npm run cli -- list-projects

🤖 Using with Claude Desktop

Quick Verification

Once installed, you can verify the connection by asking Claude:

"Can you list my Lokalise projects?"

Claude will use the lokalise_list_projects tool to fetch and display your projects.

Claude Desktop Setup

If installed via Smithery, no manual config is needed. Verify by looking for the 🔌 icon and asking Claude: “Can you list my Lokalise projects?”

✅ Verification

Once installed, test the connection:

"Can you list my Lokalise projects?"

Claude will use the lokalise_list_projects tool and display your projects with statistics.

📚 Available Tools

The server provides 59 MCP tools covering all major Lokalise operations across 11 domains:

Click to see all available tools

Projects (6 tools)

lokalise_list_projects - List all projects with statistics
lokalise_get_project - Get detailed project information
lokalise_create_project - Create a new project
lokalise_update_project - Update project settings
lokalise_delete_project - Delete a project
lokalise_empty_project - Remove all keys from a project

Keys (7 tools) - Enhanced with file filtering

lokalise_list_keys - List keys with NEW: filterFilenames support
lokalise_get_key - Get detailed key information
lokalise_create_keys - Create multiple keys at once (up to 1000)
lokalise_update_key - Update a single key
lokalise_bulk_update_keys - Update multiple keys
lokalise_delete_key - Delete a single key
lokalise_bulk_delete_keys - Delete multiple keys

Languages (6 tools)

lokalise_list_system_languages - List all available languages
lokalise_list_project_languages - List project languages
lokalise_add_project_languages - Add languages to project
lokalise_get_language - Get language details
lokalise_update_language - Update language settings
lokalise_remove_language - Remove a language

User Groups (8 tools) - NEW

lokalise_list_usergroups - List all user groups
lokalise_get_usergroup - Get group details
lokalise_create_usergroup - Create new group
lokalise_update_usergroup - Update group settings
lokalise_delete_usergroup - Delete group
lokalise_add_members_to_group - Add members to group
lokalise_remove_members_from_group - Remove members from group
lokalise_add_projects_to_group - Assign projects to group

Translations (4 tools)

lokalise_list_translations - List with cursor pagination
lokalise_get_translation - Get translation details
lokalise_update_translation - Update a translation
lokalise_bulk_update_translations - Bulk updates with rate limiting

Additional Collections

Contributors (6 tools) - Manage project team members
Tasks (5 tools) - Create and manage translation tasks
Comments (5 tools) - Handle key comments and discussions
Glossary (5 tools) - Maintain terminology consistency
Team Users (4 tools) - NEW - Workspace user management
Queued Processes (2 tools) - NEW - Monitor background operations

🛠️ Advanced Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
`LOKALISE_API_KEY`	Your Lokalise API token (required)	-
`TRANSPORT_MODE`	Server mode: `http` or `stdio`	`http`
`PORT`	HTTP server port	`3000`
`DEBUG`	Enable debug logging	`false`

🐛 Troubleshooting

"Authentication failed"

Verify your API token is correct
Check token permissions in Lokalise settings
Ensure the token has appropriate project access

"Rate limit exceeded"

The server includes automatic rate limiting
For high-volume operations, consider batching
Wait 60 seconds before retrying

"Connection refused"

For HTTP mode: Ensure the server is running (npm run mcp:http)
For STDIO mode: Check Claude Desktop configuration
Verify firewall settings for port 3000

Configuration File Locations

Claude Desktop Config:

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

MCP Global Config:

All platforms: ~/.mcp/configs.json

Debug Mode

Enable detailed logging:

# For development
DEBUG=true npm run mcp:http

# In Claude Desktop config
"env": {
  "LOKALISE_API_KEY": "your-key",
  "DEBUG": "true"
}

Getting Help

Check this troubleshooting section
Review GitHub Issues
Enable debug mode for detailed error messages
Contact support with debug logs

📄 License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See our Contributing Guide for details on:

Setting up the development environment
Architecture and code organization
Automated CI/CD checks on all PRs
Release process and workflow
Creating new tools and domains
Submitting pull requests

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built on the Model Context Protocol by Anthropic
Uses the open-source Lokalise Node.js SDK

⭐ Star us on GitHub • Report an Issue • Learn about Lokalise