Built-in browser translation is convenient, but it is often too broad for developer tools. It can translate repository content along with the interface, turning terms such as "branch" into awkward words and making technical pages harder to read.
There is also a more serious concern in corporate environments: depending on the translation feature or service being used, page content may be sent to an external translation provider. That can be unacceptable when a page contains private repository code, internal issue discussions, or other confidential information.
I wanted a narrower and more predictable solution:
- Translate only GitHub's fixed interface labels
- Leave README files, issues, comments, and source code untouched
- Never send text to an external translation API or cloud translation service
- Perform the entire translation locally in the browser
So I built GitHub UI Translator, an open-source browser extension for Chrome and Firefox.
A Chrome extension that translates the GitHub UI into multiple languages using local dictionaries.
GitHub UI Translator
GitHub UI Translator is a browser extension (Chrome and Firefox) that translates GitHub's English UI into Japanese using a local dictionary
It does not rely on external translation APIs or cloud services; all translation runs locally in the browser.
This project is currently an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
Features
- Runs entirely locally, with no external network requests
- Translates fixed GitHub UI text such as navigation items and buttons while avoiding content areas such as READMEs, issues, comments, and code blocks
- Lets you turn translation on or off from the extension popup
Current Limitations
- Only Japanese is supported.
- Dynamic text that includes numbers, dates, or user names, such as "3 commits" or "opened 2 days ago", is not translated.
- Only
github.comis supported. GitHub Enterprise and other custom domains are not supported. - Tested on Chrome and Firefox. Other Chromium-based browsers (Edge, Brave, etc.) should also…
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