# Internationalization (i18n) URL: /bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/ Section: i18n Description: Multi-language sites with gettext PO/MO, RTL support, and translation workflows --- > For a complete page index, fetch /bengal/llms.txt. Bengal supports multi-language sites with directory-based content, gettext PO/MO translation files, plural-aware translations via`nt()`, and full RTL (right-to-left) layout support for Arabic, Hebrew, and other bidirectional languages. ## Do I Need This? Note Skip this if: Your site is single-language only. Read this if: You need translated content, hreflang SEO, RTL layouts, or a translator workflow. ## Quick Start - Configure languages in`bengal.toml`: toml TOML ``` [i18n] default_language = "en" strategy = "prefix" content_structure = "dir" languages = [ { code = "en", name = "English", weight = 1 }, { code = "es", name = "Español", weight = 2 }, { code = "ar", name = "العربية", weight = 3, rtl = true }, ] ``` - Create content per locale: ``` content/ ├── en/ │ ├── _index.md │ └── about.md ├── es/ │ ├── _index.md │ └── about.md └── ar/ ├── _index.md └── about.md ``` - Add PO translation files for UI strings: ``` i18n/ ├── en/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po ├── es/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po └── ar/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po ``` - Use`t()`in templates: html HTML ``` ``` - Compile and build: BASH ``` bengal i18n compile bengal build ``` ## Translation Workflow Step Command Description Extract `bengal i18n extract` Scan templates for`t()` calls, generate `.pot` Translate Edit`.po`files Add translations with a PO editor (e.g. Poedit) Compile `bengal i18n compile` Compile`.po` → `.mo`for faster loading Status `bengal i18n status` Check translation coverage per locale Build `bengal build` Generate site ## Key Concepts - Content structure:`dir` (content/en/, content/es/) or `file`(about.en.md, about.es.md) - URL strategy:`prefix` (/en/, /es/) or `subdomain`(en.example.com) - Fallback: When a key is missing, Bengal falls back to the default language - RTL: Arabic and Hebrew get`dir="rtl"` on ``automatically ## Guides i18n Quickstart Set up a bilingual site with gettext PO/MO in 5 minutes (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/quickstart/) RTL Layout Support CSS authoring for Arabic, Hebrew, and bidirectional sites (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/rtl/) Translator Contributor Guide How to contribute translations and PO file conventions (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/translator-guide/) Multilingual Sites Serve your documentation in multiple languages with proper URL routing and translations (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/multilingual/) ## In This Section i18n Quickstart (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/quickstart/) Set up a bilingual site with gettext PO/MO in 5 minutes Multilingual Sites (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/multilingual/) Serve your documentation in multiple languages with proper URL routing and translations RTL Layout Support (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/rtl/) CSS authoring for Arabic, Hebrew, and bidirectional sites Translator Contributor Guide (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/i18n/translator-guide/) How to contribute translations and PO file conventions Related Pages Configuration (/bengal/docs/ship/configuration/) Configuring Bengal with bengal.toml Related Ship (/bengal/docs/ship/) Build configuration, SEO/discovery, output formats, and deployment Related Runtime Capabilities (/bengal/docs/ship/configuration/capabilities/) Enable self-hosted diagram, math, and third-party JS capabilities Related Analysis (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/analysis/) Site structure analysis tools Related Versioned Documentation (/bengal/docs/build-sites/structure/versioning/) Serve multiple versions of your documentation from a single site Related persona-operator (/bengal/tags/persona-operator/)