action-translate-readme

• English
• 繁體中文版README.md
• 简体中文
• Française

Introduction

GitHub Action to translate Readme to any language

This is a GitHub Action that automatically translate the readme in your repo to a specified language.

[!NOTE] v1 version translator is implemented through Linux third-party package; v2 version is implemented through generative AI for translation

• We all know writing README documents is time-consuming, but now there's a solution to save you half the time. That's our action-translate-readme

• Translate different language versions of README through generative AI

• Automatically commit and push the translated files through GitHub Actions (CI/CD)

• For example: Write or Modify the English version of the README, automatically generate Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French... and other versions of the README

How to use ?

[!IMPORTANT] Since the result of the generative AI model's translation may have issues occasionally, it's recommended to perform operations on a branch and finally merge back to the main branch.

[!WARNING] If you encounter this error: Error: Input required and not supplied: token, please ensure that Token is established as per step two below, or check if the Token has expired!

1. Click the :star: icon to add this item to your GitHub repository.

2. Set up your GitHub Token (mandatory):

   1. Create a new GitHub Secret Token

      • Settings
      • Developer settings
      • Personal access tokens - Tokens(classic)
      • Generate new token
      • Choose token's lifetime - it's recommended to use permanently
      • Scope selection: repo and workflow
      • Keep your secret token (don’t lose it, you’ll need to paste it later)
      

   2. Add the GitHub Token to repository secret

      • In your repository - settings
      • Securities and variables
      • Actions
      • New repository secret
      • Fill in the label and name it with token (e.g., Action_Bot)
      

3. Choose GPT translation model (optional)

   • g4f: Default is to use free g4f for OpenAI calls to complete translation tasks.

   • zhipuai: If you need free and stable translation, you can register an account on the Zhipuai AI Platform and apply for an API KEY, which is a completely free GPT model without requiring a credit card.

     • To use this option, please follow the method of adding GitHub Token in step 2-2, and add API KEY of Zhipuai AI to GitHub Repos' Secrets.

       

   • openai: Guarantee high quality and stable quality, if you have an OPENAI API KEY, gpt-4o will be used as the translation model.

     • To use this option, please follow the method of adding GitHub Token in step 2-2, and add API KEY of OpenAI to GitHub Repos' Secrets.

       

4. Create your action example in .github/workflows/your_action.yml. You can directly copy the following:

    # .github/workflows/translate.yml
    name: Translate Readme
   
    on:
        push:
            branches: ['**']
   
    jobs:
        translate:
            runs-on: ubuntu-latest
            steps:
                - name: Checkout
                  uses: actions/checkout@v3
                  with:
                    fetch-depth: 3
   
                - name: Auto Translate
                  uses: Lin-jun-xiang/action-translate-readme@v2 # Based on the tag
                  with:
                    token: ${{ secrets.Action_Bot }} # Based on step2 name
                    zhipuai: ${{ secrets.zhipuai_api_key }} # Optional: Based on step3
                    openai: ${{ secrets.openai_api_key }}  # Optional: Based on step3
                    langs: "en,zh-TW,zh-CN,French,Arabic" # You can define any langs

   Pay attention to several parameters in the .yml:

   • token: GitHub Token for authorizing the operation (added as per step two).
   • zhipuai: Zhipuai API, added as per step three (optional)
   • openai: OpenAI API, added as per step three (optional)
   • langs: Specify the languages to be translated, be sure to separate different languages with , such as:
     • "en": Translate English version only
     • "en,zh-TW": Translate English, Traditional Chinese
     • "French,Arabic": Translate French, Arabic

   PS: If neither zhipuai nor openai is added to GitHub Secrets, g4f will be used for translation.

5. Now you can update README.md, and it will automatically generate a translated version!

Demo

Results of Test Document

• View the test document which used our tool to update the documents.

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