Frozen Translations: Enforce Complete Localization

Prevent incomplete translations from reaching production with Lingo.dev's powerful --frozen flag - your quality gate for localization integrity.

What Does Freezing Do?

When you run:

npx lingo.dev@latest i18n --frozen

Lingo.dev performs a verification-only check that:

• Scans all source content
• Identifies missing or outdated translations
• Returns a failure code if any translations need updating
• Makes zero changes to your files

This creates a hard requirement that all content must be properly translated before proceeding.

Why It's Essential for Teams

The --frozen flag transforms translation from an optional task to a required step by:

• Catching Issues Early: Identifies missing translations during CI/CD
• Enforcing Standards: Prevents partially-translated content from reaching users
• Maintaining Quality: Ensures consistent experience across all languages
• Reducing Technical Debt: Prevents translation work from accumulating

How the Verification Works

The process follows these steps:

1. Scans your source files for translatable content
2. Compares current state with the last known state (from i18n.lock)
3. Identifies any new or modified content needing translation
4. Exits with a non-zero status code if updates are needed

Implementation in CI/CD

Add this to your CI workflow:

- name: Verify translations
  run: npx lingo.dev@latest i18n --frozen

When this step fails, it signals that someone forgot to update translations before pushing. This creates a safety net that prevents incomplete localizations from reaching your users.

Best Practices

• Update Locally First: Run npx lingo.dev@latest i18n before pushing changes
• CI-Only Usage: Use --frozen in CI pipelines, not during development
• Recovery Process: When CI fails, run translations locally, commit, and push again
• Team Awareness: Ensure all developers understand this requirement

The Long-Term Benefit

While this approach might seem strict initially, it creates significant advantages:

• Consistent Quality: Users in all languages get the same experience
• Early Detection: Translation issues are caught when they're easiest to fix
• Reduced Costs: Prevents expensive emergency translation requests
• Better Planning: Makes localization a natural part of the development cycle

By treating missing translations as errors rather than warnings, you ensure your application remains fully accessible to all users as it evolves.