Multilingual sites from the ef CLI

The ef CLI covers both ways of building a multilingual site: a page per language linked as translations, and one page with its texts in the brand dictionary. It calls the same API as the app, with the same permissions.

Before you start

Connect the CLI to your project: Connect the ef CLI.
These commands need ef 0.26.2 or later. Check with ef --version; update with npm i -g @elasticfunnels/cli@latest.
Add the brand’s languages first, in Pages → Advanced → Translations or with ef translations push (below). Every command takes the language code you gave there (ro, pt-br).
ef claude writes a section on multilingual sites into the project’s CLAUDE.md, so an AI agent working in the folder uses these commands.

Translate a page

ef pages translate about --lang ro                  # new page ro/about, a copy of about, pulled to pages/ro/about.ef
ef pages translate about --lang es --slug es/acerca --title "Acerca de"
ef pages translate about --lang de --no-copy        # start empty
ef pages translations about                         # the group: language, slug, status, URL, stale

translate copies the group’s source page, so ef pages translate ro/about --lang es also copies about. It refuses (exit 2) when the group already has that language or the slug is taken. Translate pages/ro/about.ef, then ef push pages/ro/about.ef. Link pages that already exist, or undo a link:

ef pages create ro/despre --lang ro --translation-of about   # an empty page, linked
ef pages settings ro/despre --lang ro --translation-of about
ef pages settings ro/despre --translation-of none
ef pages settings about --lang none

Translate a component

ef components translate header --lang ro
ef components translations header

A page in Romanian then includes the Romanian header; pages in other languages keep the base one. --code and --name set the new component’s code and name.

The language in your local files

ef pull writes each page’s language and source into the first line of its file:

{{-- efmeta:{"v":1,"type":"page","brandId":7,"id":42,"slug":"ro/about","path":"pages/ro/about.ef","language":"ro","translation_of":"about"} --}}

translation_of is the source page’s slug (for a component, its code). Change a page’s language with ef pages settings, which updates the server and this line together. ef push sends language and translation_of only when you changed them in the file since the last pull, so pushing an older file never undoes a change someone made in the app.

Stale and missing translations

ef i18n check                   # every brand language, pages and components
ef i18n check --lang ro,es      # only these languages
ef i18n check --pages --json    # for a script
ef i18n synced ro/about         # after you updated the translation
ef i18n synced header-ro --component

check lists, per source page or component, which languages exist, which are missing and which are stale: the source’s text (SEO title, SEO description and visible text) changed since the translation was made or marked up to date. It also reads the source’s local file, so an edit you have not pushed yet shows as “stale after push”. Only pages that already have at least one translation count. A page with a language and no translation yet is one you chose not to translate (most sites translate some pages, not all), so it is not reported as missing; add --untranslated to list those too. It also lists every page with a language whose file still has its own hreflang, canonical or og:locale tag. EF writes those tags for pages with a language and leaves its own out when the page declares one, so a hand-written tag left over from an older setup quietly wins. ef push and ef lint print the same warning for that file. It exits 1 when a translation is stale, and with --strict also when one is missing or a page keeps its own language tags, so it can stop a publish:

ef i18n check --lang ro,es && ef push --all

The brand dictionary as files

ef translations pull                         # translations/<code>.json, one per language
ef translations push                         # every file in translations/
ef translations push translations/ro.json
ef translations push --dry-run               # what would change
ef translations push --prune                 # also delete keys the files no longer have

{
  "language": { "code": "ro", "label": "Română", "is_default": false, "sort_order": 1, "url_prefix": null },
  "entries": {
    "hero.title": "Somn mai bun din prima săptămână",
    "nav.home": "Acasă"
  }
}

Field	Meaning
`code`	The language code. A file for a code the brand does not have creates that language.
`label`	The name shown in the switcher and the prompt. Write it in its own language.
`is_default`	The default language. Only one file may say `true`.
`sort_order`	Order in the switcher.
`url_prefix`	The prefix for prefix routing; `null` uses the code (none for the default language).
`entries`	`key: text`. `push` sends only the texts that changed.

Without --prune, push never deletes: a key that is only on the server stays, and the output says how many there are. ef push skips the translations/ folder; send it with ef translations push.

Brand settings

ef i18n settings                                   # show
ef i18n settings --prefix-routing on               # /ro/about serves the dictionary page about in Romanian
ef i18n settings --prompt default                  # off | default | custom
ef i18n settings --x-default en                    # hreflang x-default; none = the default language

See Language prompt and switcher for the prompt options and SEO for what x-default does.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Done. For `ef i18n check`: nothing stale.
`1`	`ef i18n check` found a stale translation (with `--strict`, also a missing one or a page with its own language tags).
`2`	The request was refused: an unknown language, a duplicate language in a group, a slug already taken, a bad flag value.
`7`	The page, component or source slug does not exist.

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Developers

Before you start

Translate a page

Translate a component

The language in your local files

Stale and missing translations

The brand dictionary as files

Brand settings

Exit codes

​Before you start

​Translate a page

​Translate a component

​The language in your local files

​Stale and missing translations

​The brand dictionary as files

​Brand settings

​Exit codes

Before you start

Translate a page

Translate a component

The language in your local files

Stale and missing translations

The brand dictionary as files

Brand settings

Exit codes