cmux-localization

cmux Localization

Use this skill for any user-facing string change.

Hard rules

• All user-facing strings must be localized.
• Use String(localized: "key.name", defaultValue: "English text") for Swift/AppKit/SwiftUI strings.
• Keys go in Resources/Localizable.xcstrings with translations for all supported languages, currently English and Japanese.
• Never use bare string literals in SwiftUI Text(), Button(), alert titles, tooltips, menus, or dialogs.
• Localization audit is required for every user-facing change.
• defaultValue, English fallback text, schema descriptions, or copied English strings do not count as localization.
• For localized web/docs content, update every supported message catalog, currently web/messages/en.json and web/messages/ja.json, plus any localized data structures carrying inline translations.

Audit checklist

Before finishing a task that changes UI, Settings rows, menus, shortcut metadata, schema/config text, docs, command/help text, alerts, or tooltips:

1. Enumerate the changed user-facing surfaces.
2. Verify each surface has entries for every supported locale.
3. Parse touched localization files.
4. Compare changed message keys across locales.
5. Use rg over changed Swift/TS/TSX/docs files for newly introduced bare English.
6. State the localization audit in the final handoff, or explicitly say what could not be verified.

Related shortcut rule

Every new cmux-owned keyboard shortcut must be added to KeyboardShortcutSettings, visible/editable in Settings, supported in ~/.config/cmux/cmux.json, and documented in the keyboard shortcut and configuration docs.

Detailed reference

• Read references/audit-workflow.md for a deeper audit process, common false positives, and examples of surfaces that count as user-facing.