Connect Lokalise to ChatGPT via MCP: Translations

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Lokalise, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

Lokalise + ChatGPT

Lokalise translation management through API v2: projects with progress per language, keys and translations with review flags, languages, contributors, translation and review tasks, file exports as background processes, comments, screenshot metadata, branches, custom translation statuses and the glossary.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

LOKALISE_API_TOKEN

Step 1 — Get credentials

Setting up takes about 2 minutes. You need a Lokalise account with access to the projects.

1. In Lokalise click your profile picture, open Profile settings > API tokens and generate a token. A read-only token is enough for the reading tools; changes need a read and write token.
2. Paste it into LOKALISE_API_TOKEN. It is sent in the X-Api-Token header and acts with your rights in each project.
3. Install the connector and run lokalise_list_projects to check the token.

Lokalise's own MCP servers: Lokalise also runs MCP servers in beta (https://mcp.lokalise.com/mcp/project-management and /mcp/software-development, with OAuth or an apikey header). This connector works with the API v2 and your token.

What it reads:

• Projects with type, base language and team; with include_statistics: 1 the progress, keys, words and QA issues per language. Project languages, every language Lokalise supports with ISO code and plural forms, and the custom translation statuses.
• Keys with name per platform, description, tags, filenames, context, character limit and, with include_translations: 1, their texts. Filters: key name, tag, filename, platform, untranslated, QA issues or archived.
• Translations, one row per key and language, filtered by language, reviewed, unverified, untranslated, QA issues or active task.
• Contributors with rights and languages, and lokalise_get_my_contributor for the token owner, whose name the writes go under.
• Tasks with type, status, due date, languages, assignees and progress; files with key count and last import; comments per project or per key; screenshot metadata with linked keys; branches; glossary terms with translations, tags and flags.

What it writes:

• lokalise_create_keys adds new strings with their platforms and source text. lokalise_update_key and lokalise_bulk_update_keys change names, descriptions, tags (merge_tags adds rather than replaces), platforms, filenames, context, character limits and translations.
• lokalise_update_translation changes one text and its reviewed, unverified or custom status flags. Plural keys take a JSON string with the forms (one, other, ...).
• lokalise_add_languages by ISO code; lokalise_add_contributors, which sends invitation emails; lokalise_create_task for a translation, review or automatic_translation task on some keys and languages, assigned to users or groups with a due date; lokalise_update_task, where {"close_task": true} closes it.
• lokalise_add_key_comments (a question to translators or context for a string), lokalise_create_branch, lokalise_create_glossary_terms (for example brand names that must not be translated, or forbidden words) and lokalise_update_glossary_terms.

File exports: lokalise_download_files starts an export in a format such as json, xliff, strings, xml, po or yaml and returns a process_id. The AI calls lokalise_get_process until status is finished and hands you the details.download_url zip link, which expires after a while. The export is a POST but does not change the project.

Switched off at install: lokalise_delete_key, which deletes a key with all its translations and cannot be undone. A workspace admin turns it on when the team needs it.

Ids and formats: project ids look like 767946315e9866d013c1d0.08299127; to work on a branch, pass <project id>:<branch name>. Key, translation, task, language and user ids are numbers. Languages are ISO codes such as en, de or pt_BR. List answers wrap the items (projects, keys, translations, ...). Times come as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS (Etc/UTC) plus a Unix ..._timestamp. Flags in filters are 0 or 1.

Paging: limit and page; the totals come in the x-pagination-total-count and x-pagination-page-count headers, shown under _headers. Keys and translations also take pagination: cursor: the AI passes the x-pagination-next-cursor value as cursor until it is missing. Glossary terms page with cursor only.

Limits: 6 requests per second per token and per IP address, and at most 10 requests in flight per project; 429 means slow down.

Common errors: 401 means a wrong token. 403 means a read-only token used for a write, or missing rights in the project. 404 means an unknown project or item. 400 is a validation error naming the field; it also appears when the X-Api-Token value is not a valid token, for example with spaces or quotes.

The connector does not upload translation files (that needs base64 content) or screenshots, and does not delete projects, languages, tasks or glossary terms.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in ChatGPT

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

ChatGPT adds MCP servers as plugins on its Plugins page, on the web and on paid plans. Developer mode is no longer needed. In a Business workspace only admins and owners can add one; in Enterprise and Edu an admin can grant the Create plugins with MCPs permission.

1. Go to chatgpt.com/plugins, click Add, then Add custom MCP server.
2. Enter a name, e.g. Name: Lokalise.
3. Under Connection, enter the Server URL https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID and keep Authentication on OAuth.
4. Select I understand and want to continue, then Create as a plugin. When ChatGPT asks, sign in to AnythingMCP and allow access.
5. Install the new plugin from your personal plugins, then type @ in a chat and pick it.

Available tools

Example prompts

• "What is the translation progress of the mobile app project per language?"
• "Which keys tagged checkout are still untranslated in German and French?"
• "Export the web project as JSON files for de and it and give me the download link."
• "Create a review task for the Spanish translations of the onboarding keys, due next Friday."
• "Add "AnythingMCP" to the glossary as a brand name that must not be translated."

FAQ

Does the free ChatGPT plan work with custom MCP servers? OpenAI documents custom MCP servers for paid plans only; the Free plan is not on its list.

Next steps

• Connector landing page
• Connect to Claude
• Connect to Cursor
• Connect to Gemini
• Connect to Meta Muse
• Connect to Microsoft Copilot