[FEATURE] Add interface localization (i18n) — translate the CLI UI to other languages (e.g. Spanish)
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
- [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)
Problem Statement
Claude Code can reply in my configured language (Spanish), but the entire CLI
interface remains English-only: menus, /config, /help, permission prompts,
status line, system messages, and error text. As a non-native English speaker,
this slows me down and adds friction when onboarding teammates who don't read
English comfortably. There is currently no setting or locale file to change the
interface language.
Proposed Solution
Add an interface language setting, e.g. a language / locale option in the
settings file (or a /config entry), that localizes the CLI UI strings. Ideally:
- Respect the OS locale by default, with a manual override.
- Ship community-translatable string catalogs (e.g. JSON/po files) so the
community can contribute translations.
- Start with a few high-demand languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc.).
Model responses would still follow the existing response-language config; this
request is only about the UI chrome.
Alternative Solutions
- Setting "respond in Spanish" via CLAUDE.md — only affects the model's replies,
not the interface.
- Reading the English UI directly — works but is a barrier for non-English users
and for onboarding Spanish-speaking teammates.
No real workaround exists for the interface itself.
Priority
High - Significant impact on productivity
Feature Category
CLI commands and flags
Use Case Example
- I install Claude Code and set my language to Spanish.
- I run /config and the menu labels appear in Spanish.
- A tool wants to run a command; the permission prompt ("Allow / Deny",
explanations) shows in Spanish so I understand exactly what I'm approving.
- I onboard a Spanish-speaking teammate who can navigate /help and the status
line without needing English.
Additional Context
Many dev CLIs and IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains, gcloud) offer UI localization.
Even partial coverage of the most frequent strings (permission prompts, /help,
/config, error messages) would meaningfully lower the barrier for non-English
speakers.
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5 Comments
Use case: I work with Claude Code daily on Windows 11 (pt-BR locale). My CLAUDE.md and model responses are fully configured in Portuguese, but permission approval prompts — e.g. "Compound command contains cd with path operation — manual approval required" — appear in English, breaking language consistency.
These security dialogs are the most critical messages to understand quickly. Having them in English while everything else is in Portuguese creates friction and can lead to misreading a permission prompt under time pressure.
Specifically requesting localization for:
A CLAUDE_LANG=pt-BR env var or /config language setting would solve this entirely. Happy to contribute pt-BR translations if a catalog format is defined.
+1 for this request. As a Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) user, both the CLI's fixed UI strings (help text, permission prompts, menu labels) and the desktop/web app's language switcher lack any Chinese option — and there's currently no way for users to supply their own translations even unofficially. Proper i18n support (or at minimum an official/community-contributed locale file mechanism) would help a large non-English-speaking user base.
身為繁體中文（台灣）使用者 +1 這個需求。目前 Claude Code 的固定介面文字（/help、權限提示、選單）跟 Claude App 的語言選單裡都沒有中文選項，也完全沒有讓使用者自行提供翻譯的管道（即使是非官方的）。希望能實作正式的 i18n 支援，或至少開放社群可貢獻的語言檔機制，會對很多非英語使用者有幫助。
I'd like to add another vote for this feature request. As a non-English-speaking developer (Chinese), the current language setting is genuinely useful for getting Claude's responses in my preferred language, but the CLI chrome itself (permission prompts like "Allow once / Allow always / Deny", status messages, spinners, /config menu labels, etc.) staying hardcoded in English is a real barrier — especially when onboarding teammates who aren't fluent in English, or during fast-paced permission approval flows where misreading a prompt has real consequences.
Even a minimal first step — externalizing the UI strings into a locale file and shipping community-contributed translations for a few high-demand languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish) — would meaningfully improve accessibility without requiring a full i18n framework upfront.
Happy to help test translations if that would be useful.
A este pedido quiero sumar un ángulo que no está reflejado en el issue original:
Esto no es solo una cuestión de UX o conveniencia, es una cuestión de acceso equitativo.
Si Claude Code se presenta como una herramienta para que la use cualquier persona, sin
distinciones, entonces el idioma de la interfaz no puede depender de que cada usuario
"hackee" el problema por su cuenta (o directamente se quede sin poder usarla cómodamente
si no domina inglés). Definir un
language/localenativo es otorgar ese acceso, noun añadido opcional.
Un punto adicional a tener en cuenta en el diseño: la localización debe estar bien
delimitada. Traducir términos que son convención técnica en inglés (nombres de comandos,
flags, identificadores de código, mensajes de herramientas externas) distorsionaría el
uso real de la herramienta. Una traducción de la UI que rompe funcionalidad no es
accesibilidad real, es peor que no tenerla, porque da la apariencia de estar resuelto
sin estarlo. El alcance debería limitarse a texto de interfaz (menús, prompts, mensajes
de estado, ayuda), preservando intacto todo lo demás.
+1 for this request. My priority is usage and limit info, things like rate-limit warnings, usage stats, and system status messages, since those are what I run into most and would like to see in Basque (euskara). Full UI coverage (menus, /help, /config, permission prompts) would be ideal too, but that's the part I'd want first. There is currently no built-in interface language for Basque on Claude Code or claude.ai, and no community locale mechanism to fill the gap. Following what others have suggested here, externalizing UI strings into a locale catalog (JSON or po files) that the community can contribute to would let people translate the UI without waiting on official translation resources.