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Ardam — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:11:01 +0000

Ardam

Apr 13

Why ChatGPT breaks your JSON i18n files (and what I built to fix it)

#webdev #i18n #ai #programming

Comments

2 min read

Why ChatGPT breaks your JSON i18n files (and what I built to fix it)

Ardam — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:38:29 +0000

https://localizejson.lovable.app
If you've ever tried to translate a JSON localization file using ChatGPT, you've probably run into this.You paste in something like this:
{
"welcome": "Welcome back, {name}!",
"messages": "You have {count} new messages",
"errors": {
"not_found": "Page not found",
"rate_limit": "Wait %d seconds"
}
}
And you get back something like this:
{
"welcome": "Bon retour, nom!",
"messages": "Vous avez nombre nouveaux messages",
"errors": {
"non_trouvé": "Page non trouvée",
"limite_taux": "Attendez secondes"
}
}
Three things just broke:

{name} got translated to nom — your app will now throw a runtime error
{count} disappeared entirely
%d vanished
The keys got translated too — your code references not_found but the file now says non_trouvé

Now you're spending 20 minutes manually fixing a file that should have taken 30 seconds.

Why this keeps happening
ChatGPT is a language model. Its job is to translate text. It doesn't understand that {name} is a code placeholder that must survive the translation unchanged, or that your keys are referenced directly in your codebase and cannot be modified.
You can prompt-engineer your way around it sometimes — adding instructions like "do not translate anything inside curly braces" — but it's unreliable. Complex nested files, arrays, and mixed placeholder formats like %d, {0}, or {{name}} trip it up constantly. And when it fails, it fails silently — you don't find out until something breaks in production.

What I built
I got frustrated enough to build a specific tool for this: Localizejson
It does one thing well — translates JSON i18n files while guaranteeing:

All keys are preserved exactly
All placeholders ({name}, %d, {count}, {{variable}}) survive unchanged
Nested objects and arrays are handled correctly
The output is valid JSON you can drop straight into your project

Upload your file, pick a language, get a clean translation back in seconds. No signup, completely free right now.

The before/after
Input:
json{
"welcome": "Welcome back, {name}!",
"messages": "You have {count} new messages",
"dashboard": {
"title": "Dashboard",
"stats": "{count} active users",
"growth": "{percentage}% growth"
},
"errors": {
"not_found": "Page not found",
"rate_limit": "Wait %d seconds"
}
}
Output (French):
json{
"welcome": "Bon retour, {name} !",
"messages": "Vous avez {count} nouveaux messages",
"dashboard": {
"title": "Tableau de bord",
"stats": "{count} utilisateurs actifs",
"growth": "{percentage}% de croissance"
},
"errors": {
"not_found": "Page introuvable",
"rate_limit": "Patientez %d secondes"
}
}
Every placeholder intact. Every key unchanged. Ready for production.

Try it
If you've hit this problem before, give it a try and let me know what's missing or broken — I'm actively improving it based on feedback.

https://localizejson.lovable.app

Would really appreciate any feedback.

Ardam — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:08:14 +0000

Ardam

Apr 10

I built a tool to translate JSON i18n files without breaking anything

#ai #webdev #programming #javascript

Comments

1 min read

I built a tool to translate JSON i18n files without breaking anything

Ardam — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 15:07:01 +0000

A few weeks ago I ran into a small but frustrating problem.

I was using AI to translate JSON i18n files. It worked… until it didn’t.

Keys would get changed
Placeholders like {name} or %d would break
Sometimes the JSON wouldn’t even parse

Every time, I had to manually fix the output before I could use it.

That defeats the whole point.

The real issue

AI is great at generating text, but it doesn’t respect strict structure.

And i18n files depend on structure:

keys must stay identical
placeholders must remain untouched
formatting must be valid

If any of those break, your app breaks.

What I built

I built a simple tool that does one thing:

Translate JSON i18n files without breaking anything

You upload a file, choose a language, and get back:

same keys
placeholders preserved
valid JSON
production-ready output

No cleanup needed.

Where most tools fail

The interesting part wasn’t building it, it was testing it properly.

I tested against real-world cases:

deeply nested objects
arrays
mixed placeholders ({name}, %d, {count})
UI strings, emails, notifications

This is where most approaches fail quietly.

Why I made it

I didn’t want a smarter translator.

I wanted a safer one.

Something you can actually trust in a production workflow without double-checking every line.

Would you use this?

I’m trying to understand:

Is this something you’d actually use in your workflow?
How are you currently handling JSON translations?
What would make this a must-have tool for you?
Try it

If you want to test it:

https://localizejson.lovable.app