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Language & translations

ZeroClaw’s interface strings (CLI messages, command help, and the zerocode TUI) can be shown in languages other than English. English is always built in; other languages are downloaded on demand.

Set your language

ZeroClaw reads a top-level locale key from your config. Set it to a locale code such as ja, fr, or zh-CN. If locale is unset, ZeroClaw uses your operating system’s language and falls back to English when no translation is available.

Fetch your language files

English ships inside the binary. For any other language you fetch the translated files once:

sh

zeroclaw locales fetch ja

This downloads the Japanese translation files from the ZeroClaw project and installs them under ~/.zeroclaw/data/ftl/ja/, where ZeroClaw looks for them at startup. Restart ZeroClaw (and zerocode) afterward to pick them up.

Fetch any locale the same way:

sh

zeroclaw locales fetch fr        # French
zeroclaw locales fetch zh-CN     # Simplified Chinese

Fetching only part of a language

By default fetch downloads every catalogue for the locale. To download only some, pass --catalog with a comma-separated list:

CatalogCovers
cliCLI messages and command help
toolsBuilt-in tool descriptions
zerocodeThe zerocode terminal UI

sh

zeroclaw locales fetch ja --catalog cli            # just CLI strings
zeroclaw locales fetch ja --catalog cli,zerocode   # CLI + the TUI

If a catalogue has not been translated for your language yet, fetch skips it and tells you: the catalogues that do exist are still installed.

Where the files live

PathWhat
~/.zeroclaw/data/ftl/<locale>/cli.ftlCLI message translations
~/.zeroclaw/data/ftl/<locale>/tools.ftlTool description translations
~/.zeroclaw/data/ftl/<locale>/zerocode.ftlzerocode TUI translations

If you run ZeroClaw with a custom config directory (--config-dir or ZEROCLAW_CONFIG_DIR), the files install under that directory’s data/ftl/ instead.

Troubleshooting

  • Still seeing English after fetching. Confirm locale in your config matches the locale you fetched, and restart the process. ZeroClaw loads language files at startup.
  • fetch reports a catalogue was skipped. That catalogue has not been translated for your locale yet. The available catalogues are still installed; untranslated strings fall back to English.
  • A specific string is in English even though the rest is translated. That individual string has no translation yet and falls back to English by design.