Machine translation

Article last updated at September 1, 2026

Without the --provider option, the yfm translate command translates documentation via Yandex Translate. This is the fastest translation method: it suits draft versions and regular language synchronization, but the result usually needs proofreading. For higher quality, use AI translation or CAT tools.

Usage

  1. Get an authorization token: an OAuth token, an IAM token, or a service account API key.

  2. Find out the folder ID for which your account has the ai.translate.user role or higher.

  3. Estimate the translation volume without API requests:

    yfm translate -i ./docs --source ru --target en --auth <token> --folder <folder-id> --dry-run

  4. Run the translation:

    yfm translate -i ./docs --source ru --target en --auth <token> --folder <folder-id>

Translated files appear in the target language folder - docs/en in the example above.

Parameters

Common parameters (--source, --target, --files, --include, --exclude, --dry-run, and others) are described on the Localization page. Below are the yandex provider parameters.

Parameter

Description

--auth

Authorization token: a value or a path to a file with the token. The type is detected by prefix: y0_ - OAuth token, t1. - IAM token, AQVN - service account API key. Required

--folder

Folder ID for which your account has the ai.translate.user role or higher. Required

--glossary

Path to a YAML file with a glossary - pairs of terms that must be translated in a fixed way

Limits

Yandex Translate has limits on the amount of translated text. The CLI reduces the volume on its own: documents are split into segments, and repeated segments are translated once.

If a limit is still exceeded, the command fails with the TRANSLATE_LIMIT_EXCEED error. In that case, retry later or narrow the file set with filters - already translated files can be excluded.

The --dry-run option helps estimate the text volume before running.

Previous
Localization
Next
AI translation