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verse-translator

Pipeline for translating Star Citizen global.ini localization files using AI CLI agents and local models. Automates what you'd otherwise do manually: split the file into batches, send each batch with a prompt to an AI tool, collect responses, and assemble the translated file.

Translated files are meant to be published to sc-translations and served to users via jsDelivr CDN.

How it works

global.ini (EN)
  → parser       — split into key=value entries, skip comments and empty lines
  → filter       — skip untranslatable values (pure variables, empty strings)
  → cache lookup — skip already translated entries that haven't changed
  → batcher      — split remaining entries into chunks of N lines
  → backend      — send each batch as a JSON array to an AI tool, get JSON back
  → assembler    — merge translations back into global.ini preserving original structure
  → {output_dir}/{VERSION}/{lang}/global.ini

On subsequent runs only new or changed lines are sent to the model — everything else is taken from cache.

Supported backends

Backend	How it works	Auth
lmstudio	HTTP localhost:1234	None — runs locally
ollama	ollama run <model> "..."	None — runs locally

Setup

# Install uv if needed
curl -Ls https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Copy and edit config
cp verse-translator.example.toml verse-translator.toml

Make sure your local model server is running before starting:

• lmstudio: lmstudio.ai — load a model and start the local server in the UI (default port 1234)
• ollama: ollama.com — ollama pull qwen2.5:14b

Configuration

Settings are read from verse-translator.toml (gitignored — each contributor has their own). Copy the example and adjust paths:

cp verse-translator.example.toml verse-translator.toml

[output]
dir = "../sc-translations/translations"  # path to your local clone of sc-translations

[defaults]
backend = "lmstudio"
model = "qwen2.5-coder-14b-instruct"
version = "LIVE"
target_lang = "Russian"
target_lang_code = "ru"
batch_size = 50

CLI flags always override the config file.

Supported languages

--target-lang-code	--target-lang	Language
ru	Russian	Русский
zh	Chinese	Chinese (Simplified)
fr	French	French
de	German	German
it	Italian	Italian
ja	Japanese	Japanese
ko	Korean	한국어 (Korean)
pl	Polish	Polish
pt	Portuguese	Portuguese
es	Spanish	Spanish

Translations are published to sc-translations and served via jsDelivr CDN:

https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/sc-localization/sc-translations@main/translations/{VERSION}/{LANG}/global.ini

Usage

# Uses settings from verse-translator.toml
uv run python -m translator input/global.ini

# Override backend
uv run python -m translator input/global.ini --backend ollama --model qwen2.5:14b

# Override output dir (e.g. for local testing)
uv run python -m translator input/global.ini --output-dir output/

# LM Studio with a specific model (server must be running on port 1234)
uv run python -m translator input/global.ini --backend lmstudio --model qwen2.5-coder-14b-instruct

# Translate to German
uv run python -m translator input/global.ini --target-lang German --target-lang-code de

# PTU version
uv run python -m translator input/global.ini --version PTU

Publishing translations

After translation, push the result to sc-translations:

cd ../sc-translations
git add translations/LIVE/ru/global.ini versions/versions.json
git commit -m "chore: update LIVE ru translation"
git push

Or use the helper script:

./translate-and-publish.sh

All options

positional:
  input                  Path to source global.ini (default: global.ini)

options:
  --backend              ollama | lmstudio  (default from toml or lmstudio)
  --model                Model name; each backend has a sensible default
  --batch-size           Lines per AI call  (default from toml or 50)
  --version              Game version tag for output path  (default from toml or LIVE)
  --output-dir           Base output directory  (default from toml or output/translations)
  --target-lang          Target language name, e.g. German, French  (default from toml or Russian)
  --target-lang-code     Language code for output path, e.g. de, fr  (default from toml or ru)
  --source-lang          Source language name  (default: English)
  --max-retries          Retries per batch on failure  (default from toml or 3)
  --lmstudio-port        LM Studio server port  (default: 1234)
  -v, --verbose          Debug logging (shows prompts and responses)

Variable preservation

The pipeline instructs the model to leave game variables untouched:

Pattern	Example	Meaning
~func()	~mission(foo)	Game function call
@tag	@ui_label	UI reference
%ls	%ls	String placeholder
{0}	{1}	Positional argument
\n	\n	Newline escape
<tag>	<bold>	Markup tag

Entries whose values consist entirely of variables are skipped and copied as-is.

Incremental translation

After each run a .translation_cache.json file is saved next to the output global.ini. On the next run:

• unchanged lines → taken from cache, no AI call
• new or changed lines → translated and cache updated

Cache is per version and language, so LIVE/ru and PTU/ru have independent caches.

Development

uv run pytest tests/       # run tests
uv run mypy translator/    # type check

Linked projects

• sc-translations — stores translated files, served via jsDelivr CDN
• lingvo-injector — desktop app that downloads and installs translations into the game