pijler/lang-scanner

🚀 Introduction

A universal translation key scanner designed for Laravel projects.

It scans your codebase for translation calls, generates/updates your JSON language files, and ensures consistency across all locales.

Although it’s a Laravel package, it’s flexible enough to scan translations from any type of project (PHP, Vue, React, etc.) by customizing the extensions and methods.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Scans translation calls in any file type (.php, .js, .ts, .vue, .jsx, …).
• ⚙️ Flexible configuration for methods (__, trans, trans_choice, t, i18n.t, …).
• 📂 Supports multiple paths and modules.
• 🧩 Extensible via extends for modular configs.
• ✅ check or --check checks if all language files have the same keys.
• 📑 sort automatically orders JSON keys globally (enabled by default).
• 🔗 --dot saves translations in dot notation.
• 🚫 --no-update skips updating JSON files when running check (verification only).
• 🔀 merge or --merge combines duplicate or related translations into a single entry.
• 📝 --duplicate lists all duplicate translations for review.
• ❌ --remove removes duplicate translations, keeping only the main version, when running duplicate.

📦 Installation

    composer require pijler/lang-scanner --dev

⚙️ Configuration

Create a scanner.json file at the root of your Laravel project.

Example: Laravel project:

{
    "scanner": [
        {
            "lang_path": "lang/",
            "paths": ["resources/"],
            "extensions": [".php"],
            "methods": ["__(*)", "trans(*)", "trans_choice(*)"]
        }
    ]
}

Example: Vue project inside Laravel:

{
    "scanner": [
        {
            "lang_path": "resources/lang/",
            "paths": ["resources/js/"],
            "extensions": [".js", ".vue"],
            "methods": ["$t(*)", "i18n.t(*)"]
        }
    ]
}

Example: React project inside Laravel:

{
    "scanner": [
        {
            "lang_path": "resources/lang/",
            "paths": ["resources/js/"],
            "extensions": [".jsx", ".tsx"],
            "methods": ["t(*)", "i18n.t(*)"]
        }
    ]
}

Example: Multi-module config:

{
    "extends": [
        "/module1/scanner.json",
        "/module2/scanner.json"
    ]
}

Example with check:

{
    "scanner": [
        {
            "check": true,
            "lang_path": "lang/"
        }
    ]
}

Example with merge:

{
    "scanner": [
        {
            "merge": true,
            "lang_path": "lang/"
        }
    ]
}

📋 Usage

Run the scan:

    ./vendor/bin/scanner

The command will:

• Parse files defined in paths with the configured extensions.
• Detect translation calls based on the provided methods.
• Create or update JSON files inside lang_path.

⚡ CLI Options

--check

Checks if that all language JSON files inside lang_path have the same keys.

Reports inconsistencies when a key exists in one locale but is missing in another.

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --check

--sort

Sorts all JSON keys alphabetically. Enabled globally by default, can be disabled if needed:

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --sort=false

--dot

Saves JSON translations in dot notation:

{
    "auth.failed": "These credentials do not match our records."
}

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --dot

--empty

When using check, you may want to ignore empty translations as finished translations.

A good option to use in CI/CD pipelines.

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --check --empty

--no-update

When using check, prevents updating JSON files even if sort or dot are enabled.

Useful for CI/CD validation pipelines.

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --check --no-update

--merge

Ensures that all language JSON files inside lang_path have the same keys.

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --merge

--duplicate

Checks for and lists all duplicate records, allowing you to identify inconsistencies without modifying anything yet.

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --duplicate

--remove

After identifying duplicate records, automatically removes the repeated entries, keeping only the main version.

    ./vendor/bin/scanner --duplicate --remove

🧩 Extensibility with extends

Use extends to reuse configs across modules:

{
    "extends": [
        "/packages/core/scanner.json",
        "/packages/admin/scanner.json"
    ]
}

💡 Best practices

• Configure methods according to your framework (__(*)/trans(*) for Laravel, t(*) for Vue/React).
• Always run with check in multi-language projects.
• Keep sort enabled for clean, ordered JSON files.
• Use --no-update in pipelines when you want validation only.
• Avoid duplicate keys, as you may forget and translate them differently.
• Centralize shared configs with extends.

Any improvement or correction can open a PR or Issue.

📝 License

Open-source under the MIT license.

🚀 Thanks!