Lingo.dev (Translation) MCP server

Lingo.dev MCP (Model Context Protocol) server is an AI-powered i18n toolkit that enables instant localization with large language models. It serves as part of the Lingo.dev ecosystem, offering a powerful solution for adding multilingual capabilities to your applications without extensive manual translation work.

Installation

Installing the Lingo.dev MCP server is straightforward using npm:

npm install lingo.dev

For specific components of the ecosystem, you can install them individually as needed.

Using Lingo.dev Compiler

Basic Setup

The Lingo.dev Compiler enables multilingual support for React apps at build time without modifying your components:

import lingoCompiler from "lingo.dev/compiler";

const existingNextConfig = {};

export default lingoCompiler.next({
  sourceLocale: "en",
  targetLocales: ["es", "fr"],
})(existingNextConfig);

After configuring, simply run your build command (e.g., next build), and the compiler will automatically generate Spanish and French versions of your app.

Using Lingo.dev CLI

The CLI allows you to translate code and content directly from your terminal:

npx lingo.dev@latest run

This command scans your project, identifies translatable strings, and efficiently handles the translation process with fingerprinting and caching to minimize redundant work.

Setting Up CI/CD for Automated Translations

For continuous integration/deployment of translations, add this to your GitHub workflow:

# .github/workflows/i18n.yml
name: Lingo.dev i18n
on: [push]

jobs:
  i18n:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: lingodotdev/lingo.dev@main
        with:
          api-key: ${{ secrets.LINGODOTDEV_API_KEY }}

This setup automatically maintains translations as your codebase evolves.

Using the SDK for Dynamic Content

For real-time translation of dynamic content like user-generated text:

import { LingoDotDevEngine } from "lingo.dev/sdk";

const lingoDotDev = new LingoDotDevEngine({
  apiKey: "your-api-key-here",
});

const content = {
  greeting: "Hello",
  farewell: "Goodbye",
  message: "Welcome to our platform",
};

const translated = await lingoDotDev.localizeObject(content, {
  sourceLocale: "en",
  targetLocale: "es",
});
// Returns: { greeting: "Hola", farewell: "Adiós", message: "Bienvenido a nuestra plataforma" }

This approach works well for chat applications, comment sections, and other scenarios requiring on-the-fly translation.

Getting Support

If you need help with your Lingo.dev MCP server setup:

• Documentation is available at lingo.dev/mcp
• Join the community Discord for live support at lingo.dev/go/discord

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "lingo-dev" '{"command":"npx","args":["lingo.dev@latest","run"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "lingo-dev": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "lingo.dev@latest",
                "run"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "lingo-dev": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "lingo.dev@latest",
                "run"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect