Translation QA Checks

When managing translations across many languages, it's easy for localization errors to slip through. A translator might accidentally remove a placeholder, break placeholder syntax, add extra spaces, or miss punctuation. These translation quality issues are hard to spot manually, especially at scale, and can lead to broken UI, missing data, or confusing user experiences.

QA Checks solve this by automatically validating your translations and flagging potential issues such as missing placeholders, broken placeholder syntax, inconsistent punctuation, spelling and grammar errors, and more. Issues are detected in real time as you type and also run in the background when translations are saved or modified in bulk.

Feature availability

QA Checks are available in advanced plans. Upgrade your plan to use this feature.

If you use the self-hosted version, you must set up the license to use this feature.

Enabling QA Checks

If you would like to start using QA checks, you have to enable them first. To enable QA checks

1. Go to Project settings
2. Find the QA Checks section
3. Toggle QA Checks on

Once enabled, Tolgee will automatically run checks on all translations in the project. You'll see a progress indicator while the initial check completes.

Available Check Types

Tolgee provides check types organized into two categories: general checks that catch common translation issues, and syntax checks that validate the structure of the translation itself.

General Checks

These checks catch common translation issues such as formatting inconsistencies, missing content, and spelling or grammar errors

Check	Description
Empty translation	Detects blank or whitespace-only translations
Spaces mismatch	Leading/trailing space differences, doubled spaces, non-breaking spaces
Unmatched new lines	Missing or extra line breaks compared to the base translation
Trim check	Detects leading/trailing spaces or new lines within the base translation
Character case mismatch	Capitalization differences (e.g., first letter case)
Missing numbers	Numeric values present in the base but missing in the translation
Spelling	Spelling errors (off by default)
Grammar	Grammar errors (off by default)
Repeated words	Consecutive repeated words (e.g., "the the")
Punctuation mismatch	Missing, extra, or replaced punctuation marks
Brackets mismatch	Missing or extra brackets compared to the base
Brackets unbalanced	Unclosed or unopened brackets within the translation
Special character mismatch	Missing or extra special characters
Different URLs	URLs that are missing, extra, or different from the base
Key length limit	Translation exceeds the key's configured character limit

Syntax Checks

These checks validate the structure and syntax of the translation itself

Check	Description
Inconsistent placeholders	Variable placeholders (e.g., {userName}) missing or extra compared to the base
Inconsistent HTML	HTML tags missing or extra compared to the base
HTML syntax	Unclosed or unopened HTML tags
ICU syntax	Invalid message format (select, plural, choice expressions)

Spelling and Grammar Checks

Typos and grammar mistakes in translations are easy to miss during manual review, especially across many languages. The Spelling and Grammar checks help catch these errors automatically.

Both checks are powered by an external spelling and grammar engine that uses dictionaries and pattern-matching rules. This means they are effective at catching common typos, misspellings, and basic grammar errors, but they have important limitations to be aware of.

What These Checks Can Do

• Detect common spelling mistakes and suggest corrections
• Flag basic grammar errors such as incorrect word forms or agreement issues
• Provide one-click corrections for most detected issues

What These Checks Cannot Do

These checks use rule-based pattern matching, not contextual understanding. They work best on standard prose and may not perform well in all situations

• Domain-specific terms, brand names, and abbreviations are often flagged as errors. Use Ignore to dismiss these, or add them to your project glossary so they are automatically excluded from spelling and grammar results.
• Short, non-sentence text such as button labels, menu items, or single-word translations may trigger irrelevant suggestions. Tolgee already filters out some sentence-level rules (like "capitalize first letter") that don't apply to short text, but occasional false positives are expected.
• Language coverage varies. The engine supports approximately 30 languages, with some having comprehensive rules and others having minimal coverage. If a language is not supported, the checks silently return no results for that language.
• Placeholders, HTML, and URLs are excluded. To reduce noise, issues that overlap with placeholders, HTML tags, or URLs are automatically filtered out. Dedicated checks already cover those elements.

Enable Spelling and Grammar Checks

Both checks default to Off because they require additional setup for self-hosted instances and are best enabled intentionally after understanding their limitations.

To enable them, go to Project settings > QA Checks and set Spelling and Grammar to Warning.

Self-hosted instances

Spelling and grammar checks require a separate container to run. If you are self-hosting Tolgee, see the self-hosting setup guide for deployment instructions. Without it, these checks cannot be enabled.

Viewing QA Issues

In the Translation Editor

To help translators catch issues as they work, QA checks are shown directly in the translation editor. When you open a translation for editing, the QA checks panel appears below the text field. Each issue shows

• The check type (e.g., "Spaces mismatch")
• A description of what was detected
• A suggested replacement when available, with highlighted differences

Issues are updated in real time as you type, so you get immediate feedback on your changes.

Inline Highlights

Problematic text spans are highlighted directly in the translation editor. Hovering over a highlight shows the issue details and a suggested fix.

QA Badge

A QA badge appears next to translations in the translations list view when there are open issues or checks are still running

• Badge with count - number of open issues
• Spinner - checks are still running (e.g., after an import or settings change)

When all issues are resolved, the badge disappears.

Fixing Issues

One-Click Corrections

When a check provides a suggested replacement, you can apply it with a single click on the Correct button. The fix is applied directly to the translation text.

Ignoring Issues

Sometimes a flagged issue is intentional or a false positive. For example, you might deliberately omit a placeholder in a specific language, or a grammar check might not understand a domain-specific term. In these cases, you can Ignore the issue. Ignored issues won't count toward the issue total and won't appear as warnings.

To ignore an issue, click the Ignore button next to it in the QA panel. You can also Unignore it later if needed.

Configuring Check Severity

You can customize which checks are active and their severity at both the project level and the language level.

Project-Level Settings

To configure QA checks for your entire project

1. Go to Project settings > QA Checks
2. For each check type, set the severity
   • Warning - the check is active and issues are reported
   • Off - the check is disabled

Currently, only two severity levels are supported: Warning and Off. More severity levels may be added in the future.

Most checks default to Warning. The exceptions are Spelling and Grammar, which default to Off. See Spelling and Grammar Checks for details on their capabilities and limitations.

Self-hosted: Spelling and Grammar checks

Spelling and Grammar checks require a separate LanguageTool container. If you are self-hosting Tolgee, see the self-hosting setup guide for how to deploy and configure the LanguageTool container. Without it, Spelling and Grammar checks cannot be enabled.

Language-Level Overrides

Some checks may not be relevant for all languages. For example, character case checks don't apply to languages without case distinctions, and certain punctuation rules differ across writing systems. Language-level overrides let you fine-tune settings for these cases.

To configure overrides for a specific language

1. Go to Project settings > QA Checks
2. Click on the Language overrides section
3. Select a language and adjust the settings

Language-level settings always take precedence over project-level settings. Changing project settings does not affect languages that already have overrides. You can reset a language back to project defaults at any time.

When QA Checks Run

QA checks run in real time as you type in the translation editor, so you get immediate feedback without saving first. When you save a translation, all enabled checks run again and results are persisted. This also applies to imported translations. The QA badge and issue counts are updated accordingly.

The system is designed to handle all rechecking automatically, so you should never need to trigger a manual recheck under normal circumstances. However, as a last resort, you can manually trigger a full QA recheck for all translations in a project from the translations view using batch operations.

Checks are also automatically re-run when the base language translation changes, a language tag is changed, or branches are merged.

Plural Translations

For translations that use plural forms, QA checks run separately on each plural variant. Issues are reported per variant, so you can see exactly which form has the problem.