Continuous Localization: Keeping Translations in Sync with Agile Development

Your engineering team embraced agile years ago. Sprints. Daily standups. Continuous integration. Features ship weekly, sometimes daily. The old waterfall days are gone.

Except for translations.

According to DORA’s 2024 State of DevOps Report (39,000+ professionals surveyed), elite engineering teams deploy multiple times per day, 182x more frequently than low performers. High performers deploy daily to weekly. Yet translation workflows often operate on monthly cycles, creating a fundamental mismatch.

Translations still happen in batches. Someone exports a file, sends it to translators, waits two weeks, and hopes the codebase hasn’t changed too much by the time they return. This is waterfall hiding inside your agile process, and it’s costing you more than you realize.

Why Traditional Translation Breaks Agile

Traditional translation workflows assume stability. Export strings. Translate. Import. Deploy. This works when your product changes quarterly. It falls apart when your product changes daily.

The Export/Import Treadmill

Here’s the manual export/import cycle that most teams suffer through:

Developer runs export script → Uploads to shared folder →
Notifies translator → Translator downloads → Translates in spreadsheet →
Re-uploads → Developer downloads → Runs import script →
Fixes merge conflicts → Commits → Opens PR → Reviews → Merges

Each step in this process is a potential failure point:

And here’s the worst part: this entire cycle happens for every language, every release. If you support 10 languages and release weekly, that’s 10 manual cycles every single week.

Stale Translation Context

Traditional workflows create a dangerous gap: the time between when strings are written and when they’re translated.

A developer adds button text “Submit for review” on Monday. Strings get exported Tuesday. By Wednesday, a design review changes the button to “Request approval” and the developer updates the codebase. When translations return Friday, they’re for “Submit for review”, a string that no longer exists.

The translator had no way to know the context changed. You now have translations that are technically correct but semantically wrong.

This stale translation context problem gets worse at scale. With hundreds of strings changing across multiple features, keeping translators synchronized becomes impossible without automation.

Zero Visibility for Developers

In most teams, developers have no idea what’s translated. They merge features, ship code, and hope translations exist. Common questions with no good answers:

• “Is this feature ready to ship in German?”
• “Which strings in my PR still need translation?”
• “Why are users seeing English in the Japanese app?”

Without visibility, you’re flying blind. Features ship untranslated. Users complain. Someone scrambles to figure out what happened.

What Is Continuous Localization?

Continuous localization applies agile principles to translation. Instead of batch processing, translations flow continuously alongside development.

The core principle: translations should move at the speed of code.

The fundamentals:

• Strings sync automatically when code changes
• Translators work on current strings, not exports from last week
• Translation status visible in PRs and CI/CD
• No manual export/import cycles
• Translations deploy with features, not weeks later

Integrating Translations into Your CI/CD Pipeline

Here’s a pattern that works well:

On Every Push

name: Sync Translations

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Push translations to Teaaams
        uses: teaaams/sync-action@v1
        with:
          action: push
          api_key: ${{ secrets.TEAAAMS_API_KEY }}

This automation eliminates the manual export/import cycle entirely. Strings flow to translators immediately. Translations flow back automatically.

On Pull Requests

name: Translation Preview

on:
  pull_request:
    paths:
      - 'locales/**'

jobs:
  preview:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Preview translation changes
        uses: teaaams/sync-action@v1
        with:
          action: preview
          api_key: ${{ secrets.TEAAAMS_API_KEY }}
          github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

The preview action runs a dry-run and comments a summary of translation changes directly on the PR. Developers see exactly which strings need translation before merging. No more surprises.

Teaaams Sync GitHub Action

Sync translations with Teaaams in your CI/CD workflows. Supports pull, push, pull-request, and preview actions.

github.com/Teaaams/sync-action

Branch-Aware Translations

Modern continuous localization systems understand branches. Feature branch translations stay isolated until merge. Main branch translations are always production-ready.

Scenario	Traditional	Continuous
Feature branch strings	Mixed with main	Isolated per branch
Translation conflicts on merge	Manual resolution	Auto-reconciled
Translate before code review	Rare	Standard practice
Delete branch, clean up translations	Manual	Automatic

This branch awareness means translators can work on feature strings while the feature is still in development, without polluting the main translation base.

Making the Shift to Continuous Localization

Transitioning from traditional to continuous localization doesn’t require a complete overhaul. Here’s a phased approach:

Phase 1: Automate Sync

Start by automating the export/import cycle. Even if translators still work the same way, removing manual file handling saves hours and reduces errors. Connect your repository to your TMS, set up automatic string extraction on push, and configure automatic translation file updates.

Phase 2: Add Visibility

Integrate translation status into your development workflow. PRs show translation coverage. CI fails if critical strings are untranslated. Add translation status to PR checks, create dashboards for progress, and set up alerts for untranslated strings.

Phase 3: Enable Real-Time Collaboration

With automation and visibility in place, translators can work in real-time. Strings appear for translation immediately. Context is always current. Onboard translators to the TMS platform, set up notifications for new strings, and enable in-context translation previews.

Continuous vs Traditional: The Full Comparison

Aspect	Traditional Translation	Continuous Localization
Sync frequency	Weekly/monthly batches	Real-time on every push
String freshness	Days to weeks stale	Always current
Developer involvement	High (manual processes)	Low (automated)
Time to translated feature	Weeks after development	Same sprint as development
Visibility	Opaque until deployment	Full transparency in CI/CD
Error rate	High (manual handoffs)	Low (automated validation)
Scale complexity	Grows linearly with languages	Stays constant

When Should You Adopt Continuous Localization?

You’re ready for continuous localization if:

• You release more than once per month
• You support (or plan to support) 3+ languages
• Translation delays have blocked releases
• You’ve shipped untranslated strings to production
• Developers spend significant time on translation logistics

If your release cycle is truly quarterly and you only support one target language, traditional workflows might still work. For everyone else, continuous localization is the clear choice.

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The goal is translations that keep pace with development. No more batch exports. No more stale context. No more flying blind.