Frontend Translations

ALL user-visible text MUST use t(). Hardcoded user-facing strings are bugs.

Usage

import { useDynamite } from '@aexol/dynamite';

const { t, locale } = useDynamite();
t('Hello World');
t('Welcome, {{name}}', { name: 'John' });

Factory Pattern (data files & Zod schemas)

Files outside React tree can't call hooks — accept t as parameter:

export const getFeatures = (t: (key: string) => string) => [{ title: t('Feature One') }];

export const createSchema = (t: (key: string) => string) =>
  z.object({ name: z.string().min(2, t('Name must be at least 2 characters')) });

export type SchemaValues = z.infer<ReturnType<typeof createSchema>>;

// Inside component:
const schema = createSchema(t);
const form = useForm({ resolver: zodResolver(schema) });

Locale (Cookie-Based)

• Locale stored in a locale cookie — NOT localStorage, NOT Zustand
• LanguageSwitcher sets cookie + window.location.reload()
• Server reads cookie → SSR renders correct language
• New locale: add to SUPPORTED_LOCALES in backend/src/config/cookies.ts, create frontend/public/locales/{code}/common.json, restart dev

What to Translate

Always: buttons, page titles, form labels/placeholders, error messages, toasts, table headers, tab labels, nav items, empty states, confirmation dialogs

Never: brand names, code snippets, URLs, strings in api//lib//stores/ that don't reach UI

Rules

1. Key = English text — flat, no nesting
2. Factory pattern for all data files and Zod schemas
3. Locale via cookie only
4. NEVER manually edit non-English locale files — auto-generated by @aexol/vite-plugin-dev-translate
5. Commit generated translation files to git
6. Files outside React tree (api/, lib/) can't call useDynamite() — leave in English
7. Date formatting: use locale from useDynamite() with BCP 47 map: { en: 'en-US', pl: 'pl-PL' }

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