Automate Laravel App Translations with Gemini AI (Without the Headache)

So here’s the thing — if you’ve ever tried localizing a Laravel app manually, you know it can be a nightmare. Digging through endless Blade files, scanning for translation keys, updating multiple language folders… it adds up fast. I’ve been there. That’s why when I stumbled across Laravel Gemini Translator, it felt like someone finally handed me a shortcut I didn’t know I needed.

This tool doesn’t just promise automated translation — it actually delivers it, and in a very Laravel-ish way. Let’s break it down.

Why Bother Automating Translations?

Alright, real talk: manual translation works fine for tiny projects. You’ve got, say, 12 keys to translate into Spanish? Sure, go ahead.

But once your app grows — multiple views, JavaScript, maybe some Vue or Inertia thrown in — managing translations across locales becomes a full-time job. And unless you’re multilingual or hiring a team, mistakes are bound to happen.

Gemini Translator solves this pain point by doing two things really well:

It scans your Laravel app for translation keys
Then it uses Google Gemini AI to translate them in bulk

You still get full control over your language files, but without all the grunt work. Nice, right?

Getting Started: Installation & Setup

Installing the package is straightforward. Just run:

composer require jayesh/laravel-gemini-translator

Once that’s done, you’ll want to publish the config file:

php artisan gemini:install

Now here’s something I missed the first time: you’ll need an API key from Google AI Studio. Pop that into your .env file like so:

GEMINI_API_KEY=your-secret-api-key
GEMINI_REQUEST_TIMEOUT=600

That timeout setting is optional, but if you’re translating a ton of keys (especially into multiple languages), it’s smart to give it room to breathe.

Let Gemini Do the Heavy Lifting

Once everything’s wired up, the real magic happens with this command:

php artisan translations:extract-and-generate --langs=fr,de,id

This single command will:

Crawl through your codebase (Blade, PHP, JS, Vue, etc.)
Extract all translation keys
Feed them to Gemini AI for instant translation
Generate the language files in resources/lang

If this doesn’t impress you… you’ve clearly never had to do this manually before 😅

Tweaking the Process to Fit Your Project

One thing I love? The tool doesn’t force you into a one-size-fits-all pipeline. You get plenty of flags and flexibility:

Want to exclude vendor or test files from translation?

  --exclude=vendor,tests

Only want to scan .blade.php files?

  --extensions=blade.php

Already have partial translations and don’t want to overwrite them?

  --skip-existing

Change where translations go?

  --target-dir=resources/lang/overrides

Translate in chunks to avoid timeout or API abuse?

  --chunk-size=40

Need it fast? Use:

  --driver=fork

No joke, this level of control is what separates a toy package from something I’d use in production.

But… Is It Always Perfect?

Short answer: no. It’s AI. You still need to review the output, especially if you’re dealing with industry-specific or localized slang.

I’ve had Gemini give me formal translations where casual tone was better — or slightly awkward phrases that a native speaker would side-eye. But as a first pass, it’s miles ahead of starting from scratch.

You can easily pull in a human translator later to polish the generated files. And even then, they’ll thank you for not handing them a blank slate.

A Few Gotchas to Watch Out For

This wouldn’t be a real-life writeup if I didn’t share a few things that tripped me up:

Don’t commit your API key. I know, obvious — but still. Add .env