How to Configure Guarded Words and Product Context

Guarded words and product context are configured per project in Project Settings. They affect how AI translation behaves — and guarded words also trigger a validation badge if a translation accidentally overwrites a protected term.

Open Project Settings

Press ⌘, or click the gear icon in the toolbar. Navigate to the AI tab.

Guarded words

Guarded words are terms that must never be translated — your app name, brand names, technical terms, or any string that must appear verbatim in every language.

To add a guarded word:

1. Click + Add in the Guarded Words section.
2. Type the word or phrase (e.g. "StringLane", "ARB", "App Store").
3. Press Enter or click Save.

You can add as many as you need. Each guarded word is stored in your project settings and shared across all locales.

How it works:

• The AI is instructed to never translate these terms, placing the instruction as a hard constraint in every prompt.
• If a translator accidentally changes a guarded word, a Guarded badge (yellow) appears on that cell.
• Clicking ✨ on a guarded-word cell and re-translating will restore the original term.

Product context

Product context is a short description of your app that helps the AI produce natural-sounding translations. Include:

• What the app does (1–2 sentences)
• Who uses it (e.g. "indie developers", "non-technical small business owners")
• Tone and style notes (e.g. "friendly and direct", "formal and professional")

Example:

A desktop localization editor for indie Flutter and iOS developers. Tone: technical but approachable. Users are familiar with software development concepts.

This text is prepended to every AI translation prompt. The more specific it is, the better the results.

Locale-specific context

In the same AI settings, you can add per-locale cultural notes. For example:

• pt-BR: "Use informal 'você' form. Prefer Brazilian Portuguese idioms over European Portuguese."
• ja: "Use polite form (です/ます). Avoid katakana loanwords where a native term exists."

These notes are passed to the AI only when translating for that specific locale. See Configure Locale Context for Better AI Output for details.