Internationalization

CodeBuddy is fully translatable and ships with 7 language packs. Translations cover the chat UI, command names, setting descriptions, notifications, and button labels.

Supported languages

Code	Language	Status
`en`	English	Default
`es`	Spanish	Full
`fr`	French	Full
`de`	German	Full
`zh-cn`	Chinese (Simplified)	Full
`ja`	Japanese	Full
`yo`	Yoruba	Full

How to switch languages

From the CodeBuddy UI

Open the CoWorker Settings panel and select your language. CodeBuddy will prompt you to also change the editor’s display language for complete translation of right-click menus and command palette entries.

From editor settings

{
  "codebuddy.language": "ja"
}

The change takes effect immediately — the translation bundle is loaded at runtime without restarting the editor.

What gets translated

CodeBuddy uses a two-tier translation system:

Runtime strings (`l10n`)

~75 strings per language, covering:

Error messages (“API key not configured”)
Notifications and progress messages
Button labels (Yes / No / Cancel / Refresh)
Codebase analysis and vector DB messages
News notifications (“Morning tech news arrived! ☕”)

These use the @vscode/l10n API with l10n.t("string key") calls throughout the codebase. Translation bundles are stored at l10n/bundle.l10n.{lang}.json.

Manifest strings (NLS)

~46 keys per language, covering:

Extension title and description
All command display names (~30+ commands)
All setting descriptions
View and panel names

These use %key% placeholders in package.json, resolved from package.nls.{lang}.json files.

Adding a new language

To contribute a new language translation:

Copy l10n/bundle.l10n.en.json to l10n/bundle.l10n.{code}.json
Copy package.nls.en.json to package.nls.{code}.json
Translate all string values (keep the keys unchanged)
Add the language code to the codebuddy.language enum in package.json

See the Contributing Guide for how to submit a pull request.