dragoman
AI-powered translation for structured documents. Feed it any file format — get back perfectly translated files with every key, tag, and placeholder intact.
Your documents, any language
D ragoman is a Go library and CLI tool that translates structured documents in any file format using AI while preserving their exact structure. Keys stay keys, tags stay tags, placeholders remain untouched. Only the human-readable text gets translated, with full context awareness for accurate, natural results.
Whether you maintain a Nuxt app with 27 language files or ship a SaaS product with YAML configs, dragoman handles incremental updates, term preservation, and large-document chunking out of the box. Use it from the terminal or embed it directly in your Go applications.
Three steps to any language
No complex setup, no configuration files. Point dragoman at your document and tell it the target language.
Feed your document
Pass any structured file. Dragoman auto-detects the format and source language, then parses the document structure.
AI translates the values
Using OpenAI, dragoman translates only the text content. Keys, attributes, tags, and placeholders are left completely untouched.
Get your translation
Receive a perfectly structured translation — identical shape to the original, ready to drop into your project.
{ "greeting": "Hello", "farewell": "Goodbye", "menu": { "home": "Home", "about": "About us", "contact": "Get in touch" } }
{ "greeting": "Hallo", "farewell": "Auf Wiedersehen", "menu": { "home": "Startseite", "about": "Über uns", "contact": "Kontakt aufnehmen" } }
Built for real translation workflows
Structure Preservation
Keys, tags, anchors, attributes, and template placeholders remain exactly as they are regardless of format. Only human-readable values get translated.
Multi-Format Support
Works with any structured file format out of the box. Auto-detects the format and handles nested structures of any depth.
Incremental Updates
Use update mode to translate only new or missing keys. Already-translated content is skipped, saving time and API costs.
Term Preservation
Keep brand names, technical terms, and specific phrases unchanged during translation with the --preserve flag.
Language Auto-Detection
The source language is automatically detected from the content. No need to manually specify it unless you want to.
CLI + Go Library
Use dragoman from the terminal for quick translations, or import it as a Go package and embed translation logic in your applications.
Smart Chunking
Large documents are automatically split into chunks that fit within the AI model's context window, then reassembled seamlessly.
Context-Aware AI
Powered by OpenAI, translations understand context, tone, and domain — delivering natural results, not word-for-word substitutions.
Every format you work with
Dragoman handles any structured document format used in modern software development.
i18n locale files, API responses, config files — dragoman preserves every key and nested structure during translation.
XLIFF, Android strings, SVG text, SOAP payloads — tags and attributes stay intact while text nodes get translated.
Kubernetes configs, Rails locales, Hugo content files — indentation and anchors are preserved perfectly.
Translate from your terminal
A single command is all it takes. Pipe, redirect, or write directly to files.
# Translate a JSON file from English to German $ dragoman locales/en.json --to de --out locales/de.json Translating en → de ... ✓ 42 keys translated ✓ Structure preserved ✓ Written to locales/de.json # Only translate new or missing keys $ dragoman locales/en.json --to de --update locales/de.json Comparing source with existing translation... ✓ 8 new keys found ✓ 34 keys skipped (already translated) ✓ Updated locales/de.json # Preserve specific terms during translation $ dragoman config.yaml --to ja --preserve "Dragoman,API,OAuth" Translating en → ja ... ✓ Terms preserved: Dragoman, API, OAuth ✓ Written to stdout
Install via Go
go install github.com/modernice/dragoman/cmd/dragoman@latest Free and open source
dragoman is MIT-licensed and actively maintained. Contributions, issues, and feedback are always welcome.
License
MIT
Language
Commits
171+
Formats
JSON, XML, YAML
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about dragoman.
Dragoman uses the OpenAI API (GPT models) for translations. You'll need an OpenAI API key set as the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.
Yes. Use the --update flag to translate only new or missing keys in an existing translation file. Already-translated content is preserved.
Absolutely. Use the --preserve flag followed by a comma-separated list of terms. Brand names, technical terms, or any phrase you specify will remain unchanged.
Dragoman automatically splits large documents into chunks that fit within the model's context window, translates each chunk, and reassembles the result into a single output.
Yes. Import github.com/modernice/dragoman and use it programmatically in your Go applications. The library exposes the same functionality as the CLI.
Dragoman itself is free and MIT-licensed. However, it uses the OpenAI API for translations, which has its own pricing based on usage.
Get in Touch
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