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Installation and Setup

Lingui is more than just a package; it's a comprehensive suite of tools designed to simplify internationalization. You have the flexibility to choose the specific tools that best fit your project's needs.

Learn how to install Lingui in your project, whether you use JavaScript, React (including RSC) or React Native. Lingui also supports various transpilers and build tools, such as Babel, SWC, and Vite.

Prerequisites​

  • Make sure you have Node.js installed (v20 or higher).
  • Install Lingui CLI to manage your translations and catalogs.
tip

Don't miss the Lingui ESLint Plugin which can help you find and prevent common l10n mistakes in your code.

Choosing a Transpiler​

A transpiler converts code within a language, transforming newer features into older equivalents for compatibility, or expanding concise syntax into more verbose implementations.

Lingui needs a transpiler to work. It's responsible for transforming Lingui's JS/JSX components into ICU MessageFormat and extracting message IDs. Both Babel and SWC transpilers are supported. Follow the Babel or SWC setup depending on what transpiler your project already uses.

Babel is a JavaScript transpiler that converts modern code into backward-compatible versions and allows custom syntax transformations.

Lingui requires @lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro (recommended) or babel-plugin-macros to perform the transformation.

If you are using a framework that doesn't allow you to change the Babel configuration (e.g. Create React App > 2.0), these frameworks may support babel-plugin-macros out of the box.

Follow these steps to set up Lingui with Babel:

  1. Install the @lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro package as a development dependency:

    npm install --save-dev @lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro

  2. Add @lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro to the top of the plugins section of your Babel config (e.g. .babelrc):

    {
      "plugins": ["@lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro"]
    }
tip

When using a preset, first check if it includes the macros plugin. If so, then you don't need to install and set up @lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro. For example, react-scripts already includes the macros plugin.

Basic Configuration​

Lingui needs a configuration file to work. The configuration file specifies the source files, message catalogs, and other settings.

Let's create a basic configuration file in the root of your project (next to package.json):

lingui.config.js
/** @type {import('@lingui/conf').LinguiConfig} */
module.exports = {
  sourceLocale: "en",
  locales: ["cs", "en"],
  catalogs: [
    {
      path: "<rootDir>/src/locales/{locale}/messages",
      include: ["src"],
    },
  ],
};

The configuration above specifies the source locale as English and the target locales as Czech and English.

According to this configuration, Lingui will extract messages from source files in the src directory and write them to message catalogs in src/locales (the English catalog would be in src/locales/en/messages.po, for example). See Configuration for a complete reference.

note

Replace src with the name of the directory where you have the source files.

The PO format is the default and recommended format for message catalogs. See the Catalog Formats for other available formats.

Build Tools​

Vite​

Vite is a blazing fast frontend build tool powering the next generation of web applications.

Lingui supports Vite with a dedicated plugin @lingui/vite-plugin. This plugin is responsible for extracting messages from your source code and compiling message catalogs.

There are two ways to set up Lingui with Vite by using the @vitejs/plugin-react or @vitejs/plugin-react-swc. You need to choose the one that fits your project setup.

The @vitejs/plugin-react plugin uses Babel to transform your code. To use Lingui with Vite and Babel, follow these steps:

  1. Follow the Choosing a Transpiler instructions.

  2. Install @lingui/vite-plugin as a development dependency and @lingui/react as a runtime dependency:

    npm install --save-dev @lingui/vite-plugin
    npm install --save @lingui/react

  3. Setup Lingui in vite.config.ts:

    vite.config.ts
    import { defineConfig } from "vite";
    import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react";
    import { lingui } from "@lingui/vite-plugin";

    export default defineConfig({
      plugins: [
        react({
          babel: {
            plugins: ["@lingui/babel-plugin-lingui-macro"],
          },
        }),
        lingui(),
      ],
    });
info

The @vitejs/plugin-react does not use the Babel config (e.g. babel.rc) from your project by default. You have to enable it manually or specify Babel options directly in vite.config.ts.