---
createdAt: 2025-04-18
updatedAt: 2025-06-29
title: How to translate your Vite and Svelte app – i18n guide 2025
description: Discover how to make your Vite and Svelte website multilingual. Follow the documentation to internationalise (i18n) and translate it.
keywords:
  - Internationalisation
  - Documentation
  - Intlayer
  - Vite
  - Svelte
  - JavaScript
slugs:
  - doc
  - environment
  - vite-and-svelte
# applicationTemplate: https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer-vite-svelte-template
history:
  - version: 5.5.10
    date: 2025-06-29
    changes: Init history
---

# Getting Started Internationalising (i18n) with Intlayer and Vite and Svelte

> This package is in development. See the [issue](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/issues/114) for more information. Show your interest in Intlayer for Svelte by liking the issue

<!-- See [Application Template](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer-solid-template) on GitHub. -->

## What is Intlayer?

**Intlayer** is an innovative, open-source internationalisation (i18n) library designed to simplify multilingual support in modern web applications.

With Intlayer, you can:

- **Easily manage translations** using declarative dictionaries at the component level.
- **Dynamically localise metadata**, routes, and content.
- **Ensure TypeScript support** with autogenerated types, improving autocompletion and error detection.
- **Benefit from advanced features**, like dynamic locale detection and switching.

---

## Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Intlayer in a Vite and Svelte Application

### Step 1: Install Dependencies

Install the necessary packages using npm:

```bash packageManager="npm"
npm install intlayer svelte-intlayer
npm install vite-intlayer --save-dev
```

```bash packageManager="pnpm"
pnpm add intlayer svelte-intlayer
pnpm add vite-intlayer --save-dev
```

```bash packageManager="yarn"
yarn add intlayer svelte-intlayer
yarn add vite-intlayer --save-dev
```

- **intlayer**

  The core package that provides internationalisation tools for configuration management, translation, [content declaration](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/blob/main/docs/docs/en-GB/dictionary/get_started.md), transpilation, and [CLI commands](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/blob/main/docs/docs/en-GB/intlayer_cli.md).

- **svelte-intlayer**
  The package that integrates Intlayer with Svelte applications. It provides context providers and hooks for Svelte internationalisation.

- **vite-intlayer**
  Includes the Vite plugin for integrating Intlayer with the [Vite bundler](https://vite.dev/guide/why.html#why-bundle-for-production), as well as middleware for detecting the user's preferred locale, managing cookies, and handling URL redirection.

### Step 2: Configuration of your project

Create a config file to configure the languages of your application:

```typescript fileName="intlayer.config.ts" codeFormat="typescript"
import { Locales, type IntlayerConfig } from "intlayer";

const config: IntlayerConfig = {
  internationalization: {
    locales: [
      Locales.ENGLISH,
      Locales.FRENCH,
      Locales.SPANISH,
      // Your other locales
    ],
    defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,
  },
};

export default config;
```

```javascript fileName="intlayer.config.mjs" codeFormat="esm"
import { Locales } from "intlayer";

/** @type {import('intlayer').IntlayerConfig} */
const config = {
  internationalization: {
    locales: [
      Locales.ENGLISH,
      Locales.FRENCH,
      Locales.SPANISH,
      // Your other locales
    ],
    defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,
  },
};

export default config;
```

```javascript fileName="intlayer.config.cjs" codeFormat="commonjs"
const { Locales } = require("intlayer");

/** @type {import('intlayer').IntlayerConfig} */
const config = {
  internationalization: {
    locales: [
      Locales.ENGLISH,
      Locales.FRENCH,
      Locales.SPANISH,
      // Your other locales
    ],
    defaultLocale: Locales.ENGLISH,
  },
};

module.exports = config;
```

> Through this configuration file, you can set up localised URLs, middleware redirection, cookie names, the location and extension of your content declarations, disable Intlayer logs in the console, and more. For a complete list of available parameters, refer to the [configuration documentation](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/blob/main/docs/docs/en-GB/configuration.md).

### Step 3: Integrate Intlayer in Your Vite Configuration

Add the intlayer plugin into your configuration.

```typescript fileName="vite.config.ts" codeFormat="typescript"
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react-swc";
import { intlayer } from "vite-intlayer";

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), intlayer()],
});
```

```javascript fileName="vite.config.mjs" codeFormat="esm"
import { defineConfig } from "vite";
import react from "@vitejs/plugin-react-swc";
import { intlayer } from "vite-intlayer";

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), intlayer()],
});
```

```javascript fileName="vite.config.cjs" codeFormat="commonjs"
const { defineConfig } = require("vite");
const react = require("@vitejs/plugin-react-swc");
const { intlayer } = require("vite-intlayer");

// https://vitejs.dev/config/
module.exports = defineConfig({
  plugins: [react(), intlayer()],
});
```

> The `intlayer()` Vite plugin is used to integrate Intlayer with Vite. It ensures the building of content declaration files and monitors them in development mode. It defines Intlayer environment variables within the Vite application. Additionally, it provides aliases to optimise performance.

### Step 4: Declare Your Content

Create and manage your content declarations to store translations:

```tsx fileName="src/app.content.tsx" contentDeclarationFormat="typescript"
import { t, type Dictionary } from "intlayer";

const appContent = {
  key: "app",
  content: {},
} satisfies Dictionary;

export default appContent;
```

```javascript fileName="src/app.content.mjs" contentDeclarationFormat="esm"
import { t } from "intlayer";

/** @type {import('intlayer').Dictionary} */
const appContent = {
  key: "app",
  content: {},
};

export default appContent;
```

```javascript fileName="src/app.content.cjs" contentDeclarationFormat="commonjs"
const { t } = require("intlayer");

/** @type {import('intlayer').Dictionary} */
const appContent = {
  key: "app",
  content: {},
};

module.exports = appContent;
```

```json fileName="src/app.content.json" contentDeclarationFormat="json"
{
  "$schema": "https://intlayer.org/schema.json",
  "key": "app",
  "content": {}
}
```

> Your content declarations can be defined anywhere in your application as soon as they are included in the `contentDir` directory (by default, `./src`). And match the content declaration file extension (by default, `.content.{json,ts,tsx,js,jsx,mjs,mjx,cjs,cjx}`).

> For more details, refer to the [content declaration documentation](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/blob/main/docs/docs/en-GB/dictionary/get_started.md).

### Step 5: Utilise Intlayer in Your Code

[to complete]

### (Optional) Step 6: Change the Language of Your Content

[to complete]

### (Optional) Step 7: Add Localised Routing to Your Application

[to complete]

### (Optional) Step 8: Change the URL When the Locale Changes

[to complete]

### (Optional) Step 9: Switch the HTML Language and Direction Attributes

[to complete]

### (Optional) Step 10: Creating a Localised Link Component

[to complete]

### Git Configuration

It is recommended to ignore the files generated by Intlayer. This allows you to avoid committing them to your Git repository.

To do this, you can add the following instructions to your `.gitignore` file:

```plaintext
# Ignore the files generated by Intlayer
.intlayer
```

### VS Code Extension

To enhance your development experience with Intlayer, you can install the official **Intlayer VS Code Extension**.

[Install from the VS Code Marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=intlayer.intlayer-vs-code-extension)

This extension provides:

- **Autocompletion** for translation keys.
- **Real-time error detection** for missing translations.
- **Inline previews** of translated content.
- **Quick actions** to easily create and update translations.

For more details on how to use the extension, refer to the [Intlayer VS Code Extension documentation](https://intlayer.org/doc/vs-code-extension).

---

### Go Further

To go further, you can implement the [visual editor](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/blob/main/docs/docs/en-GB/intlayer_visual_editor.md) or externalise your content using the [CMS](https://github.com/aymericzip/intlayer/blob/main/docs/docs/en-GB/intlayer_CMS.md).

---
