Translations Introduction

Translations keep the text of your site out of your templates. Each language has one YAML file of keys and values, and the t filter looks a key up in the current language. Use them when your site serves more than one language, and to set your own date formats and system messages.

Where translation files live

Put one file per language in app/translations/, for example en.yml and de.yml. Module code keeps its own in modules/<name>/public/translations/ or private/translations/.

en:
  app:
    greeting: Welcome back
  time:
    formats:
      short: "%-H:%M"

Use a translation

<h1>{{ 'app.greeting' | t }}</h1>

t is the main spelling; translate is another name for it. Date formats live under time.formats and are used by the l filter: see Date format.

Example: a missing key

insites-cli exec liquid docs57 "{{ 'app.missing.key' | t }}|{{ context.language }}"
translation missing: en.app.missing.key|en

This ran on the docs.insites.io instance on 1 November 2026. A key that is not defined prints a translation missing message rather than failing, so a typo shows up on the page. context.language holds the current language.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the language key at the top of the file. Keys sit under en:, de: and so on.
• Leaving a key out of one language file. That language shows the missing message.
• Putting text that changes often in translations. They suit fixed labels; content that editors change belongs in the CMS.

• Multi-language pageServe a page in several languages.
• System messagesChange built-in messages.
• Date formatNamed date formats.