The CLI reads a .nt3.yml file from your project root (the directory where you run nt3 commands). This file defines which Entri project to sync with and where your translation files are located.
Minimal example
project_id: "proj_abc123"
source_language: en
file_patterns:
- path: "src/locales/{lang}.json"
format: json-nested
Full reference
project_id
Required. The ID of your Entri project. Found in the Entri dashboard under Project Settings.
project_id: "proj_abc123"
source_language
Required. The language code for your source strings — the language your developers write in. Common values: en, de, fr, ja.
update_translations (optional)
Controls whether nt3 push overwrites existing translations. Mirrors the --overwrite CLI flag, but lets you set a per-project default in the config file.
| Value | Behaviour |
|---|
false (default) | Existing translations are skipped; only new keys are created |
true | Existing translations are replaced on every push |
update_translations: true
--overwrite flag always takes precedence over this setting when both are present.
file_patterns
Required. A list of file pattern objects. Each entry defines one set of translation files to sync.
file_patterns:
- path: "src/locales/{lang}.json"
format: json-nested
path
Required. The file path pattern with a {lang} placeholder. The CLI replaces {lang} with the language code at runtime.
path: "src/locales/{lang}.json"
# Resolves to: src/locales/en.json, src/locales/fr.json, etc.
nt3 commands (typically your project root).
Required. The file format. Must be one of the supported format identifiers:
| Value | File type |
|---|
json-flat | Flat key-value JSON (e.g., {"key": "value"}) |
json-nested | Nested JSON objects (e.g., {"section": {"key": "value"}}) |
yaml | YAML key-value |
po | GNU gettext PO files |
xliff | XLIFF 1.2 |
xliff2 | XLIFF 2.0 |
arb | Application Resource Bundle (Flutter) |
android-xml | Android string resources (res/values/strings.xml) |
ios-strings | iOS Localizable.strings |
ios-stringsdict | iOS Stringsdict files (plurals) |
namespace (optional)
A namespace string to scope this file’s keys within the project. Useful when multiple file patterns share the same project but represent different parts of the app.
file_patterns:
- path: "src/locales/{lang}/common.json"
format: json-nested
namespace: common
- path: "src/locales/{lang}/checkout.json"
format: json-nested
namespace: checkout
Multiple file patterns
Projects that split translations across multiple files — by feature, by library, or by format — can define multiple patterns:
project_id: "proj_abc123"
source_language: en
file_patterns:
- path: "src/locales/{lang}.json"
format: json-nested
namespace: app
- path: "public/locales/{lang}/marketing.json"
format: json-flat
namespace: marketing
- path: "mobile/ios/{lang}.strings"
format: ios-strings
namespace: ios
nt3 push or nt3 pull.
Mobile app example
project_id: "proj_abc123"
source_language: en
file_patterns:
- path: "android/app/src/main/res/values-{lang}/strings.xml"
format: android-xml
For Android XML, the source language file path should use the base values directory convention. When using the CLI, make sure the path pattern resolves correctly for both the source and target languages.
Flutter example
project_id: "proj_abc123"
source_language: en
file_patterns:
- path: "lib/l10n/intl_{lang}.arb"
format: arb
GNU gettext example
project_id: "proj_abc123"
source_language: en
file_patterns:
- path: "locales/{lang}/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po"
format: po
Generating the config file
Rather than writing .nt3.yml by hand, use nt3 init to create it interactively or non-interactively:
nt3 init -p proj_abc123 -f po --path "locales/{lang}/messages.po"
--force to overwrite an existing config:
nt3 init --force -p proj_new123
