wti-mcp

An MCP server for WebTranslateIt. It lets an AI assistant look up keys and their translations, find what's left to translate, create and edit strings, save translations, check progress, use the glossary, and push or pull language files — the things you'd otherwise do with the wti CLI or the web UI.

It talks to the WebTranslateIt REST API the same way wti 3.x does: a Bearer token and /api/projects/current (or /api/projects/<id> for organization tokens).

This is an independent project, not made or endorsed by WebTranslateIt.

What you can ask

• "Which keys are still untranslated in de-DE? Draft translations for them, matching the glossary."

• "Show me booking_confirm_title in every language."

• "Add the key rebook_card_title with the text 'Book again', label it release-5.31, and translate it into French and Spanish."

• "How far along is each locale? Which ones are below 90% translated?"

• "Find every key starting with checkout_ that has no developer comment."

Related MCP server: Verblaze MCP Server

Tools

Write tools aren't registered in read-only mode. Delete tools are only registered with WTI_ALLOW_DELETE=true.

Setup

Requires Node.js 22 or newer.

git clone https://github.com/FireZenk/wti-mcp.git
cd wti-mcp
npm install   # also builds dist/

The server is then node /path/to/wti-mcp/dist/index.js.

Configuration

Environment variables win over the .wti file.

Claude Code

Reusing the .wti of a project:

claude mcp add wti -e WTI_CONFIG_FILE=/path/to/your/app/.wti -- node /path/to/wti-mcp/dist/index.js

Or with a token:

claude mcp add wti -e WTI_API_TOKEN=wti_pw_… -- node /path/to/wti-mcp/dist/index.js

Add -e WTI_READ_ONLY=true for a read-only setup. Each server instance works on one project: add one per project (e.g. wti-android, wti-ios) if you have several.

Claude Desktop and other MCP clients

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wti": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/wti-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "env": { "WTI_CONFIG_FILE": "/path/to/your/app/.wti" }
    }
  }
}

Things worth knowing

• Locale codes are the project's own: de-DE, not de, if that's how the project is set up. Tools check the code against the project and suggest the right one.

• Keys are unique per file. wti_get_string and friends accept a key and find its id; pass file_id when the same key exists in several files. The API's key filter matches prefixes, so the server picks the exact match.

• Writes are asynchronous. WebTranslateIt answers 202 Accepted and applies changes in the background; re-read after a few seconds before relying on them.

• wti_upload_file keeps missing strings by default (ignore_missing: true), unlike the API, so uploading a partial file can't mark the rest of the project obsolete. Pass ignore_missing: false to sync deletions.

• Statuses. Translations: status_unproofread, status_proofread, status_unverified. Strings: current, hidden, obsolete. In stats, done only counts proofread strings; percent_translated also counts the ones waiting for proofreading.

• Glossary translation statuses can only be set on creation. WebTranslateIt's API answers 500 to a status name on update and silently ignores a numeric one, so wti_set_term_translation only updates the text and description of an existing translation and says so. Statuses read back as numbers (1, 0, -1); the server shows them as approved, proposed, refused.

• WebTranslateIt doesn't reject a translation that drops a placeholder (e.g. %1$s) when saved through the API, so check placeholders yourself.

• Rate limits. The API allows 25 requests per second per IP. The client retries 429 responses (honouring Retry-After) and, for GET requests only, timeouts and 502/504.

• The token only goes to the WebTranslateIt host. Pagination links pointing elsewhere are refused.

Development

npm test          # unit and MCP-level tests against a fake WebTranslateIt
npm run typecheck
npm run inspect   # open the server in the MCP Inspector (needs a token in the environment)

The code: src/client.ts (HTTP client), src/config.ts (environment and .wti), src/format.ts (compact responses for the model), src/tools/* (tool definitions), src/server.ts and src/index.ts (stdio entry point). See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Security

The server runs locally and only talks to WebTranslateIt with the token you give it. Texts coming back from WebTranslateIt (translations, comments, glossary entries) are written by people and reach the model as data; keep write access for setups where you review what the assistant does, and use WTI_READ_ONLY=true otherwise. To report a vulnerability, use GitHub's "Report a vulnerability" in the Security tab rather than a public issue.

License

MIT