Manual
Overview Getting Started Core concepts Quick Start Guide Create an account and sign in Projects Create and manage projects Project settings Languages Workflow and translation lock Translation Keys Key names and groups ICU messages and placeholders Translating The translation editor Keyboard shortcuts Review & Reports Review workflow Reports Branches & Merging Branch workflows: create, merge, and delete The Branches page Translation Memory How translation memory works Glossary The glossary Import & Export Import and export files File formats Integrations GitHub GitLab CI and CLI settings Webhooks Teams & Access Roles and permissions Teams Inviting people Project access Account & Organization Account settings Organization settings Billing & Plans Plans and limits
CLI
Overview Set up the CLI Commands File formats Use the CLI in CI
API
Overview Authentication: API keys and session tokens Endpoints Pull translations for your build
Log in Get started free
Integrations

GitHub

Connect GitHub, create projects from repositories, and let a pull request set up the CI job for you.

3 min read · Updated October 2026

Connecting GitHub lets Continuous Translations create a project from a repository, and open a pull request that adds everything your repository needs to send strings and fetch translations. Merged pull requests also merge their translation branch.

Only organization owners and admins can connect GitHub, browse repositories and link them.

Connect GitHub #

  1. Open Organization settings → Integrations.
  2. In the GitHub card choose Connect. You go to GitHub to install the Continuous Translations app on your account or organization, and come back.
  3. The card now says “Connected to account”. Choose Add account to connect another GitHub account, or Disconnect to remove a connection.

If the card says “Not set up on this server yet”, the GitHub integration has not been configured for this installation.

Disconnecting does not change linked projects. They keep their configuration but can no longer be changed from the app. You can also remove the app in GitHub.

Create a project from a repository #

  1. On the Projects page choose From repository. The button appears once GitHub or GitLab is connected.
  2. If you connected more than one account, pick the Account.
  3. Pick the Repository. Private repositories are marked with a lock. Repositories that already belong to another project are not listed.
  4. The app looks for locale files and shows what it found, for example locales/en.json and the number of translation files.
  5. Check or adjust the form:
FieldNotes
Project nameFilled in from the repository.
Source fileThe path of your source language file.
Translation filesA path with {lang} in it, for example locales/{lang}.json. {lang} is replaced by the language code.
Source languageChanging it scans the repository again.
Translate intoLanguages found in the repository are ticked. Select at least one.
  1. Choose Create project.

The app then:

  • creates a project key and stores it as the CT_API_KEY secret of the repository,
  • creates the branch ct/setup with a ct.yml file and a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/translations.yml),
  • opens a pull request for you.

Merge the pull request. From then on, every push runs the workflow and sends your strings to Continuous Translations.

Note

The setup detects the layout <directory>/<language>.json, with one JSON file per language. For other layouts, fill in the paths yourself. Names with an upper-case region, such as pt-BR.json, are not detected and must be entered by hand. A repository belongs to one project.

Open Project settings → CI & CLI. Under Repository choose Link repository and follow the same steps. The card then shows the repository, the source and translation paths, the branch, and a link to the setup pull request. Unlink removes the link only: the files and the CT_API_KEY secret in GitHub stay as they are.

Pull requests and branches #

When the workflow runs for a pull request, the strings are pushed to a branch with the name of the Git branch. A Git branch other than the default branch becomes a branch in Continuous Translations, created from main. When a pull request is merged into the default branch, the branch of the same name is merged into main automatically. Pull requests from forks are ignored.

For the commands the workflow runs, see the CLI and CI and CLI.