The x18n skills
An agent skill is a markdown file that teaches a coding agent how to do a task. The @x18n/cli npm package ships three, in skills/. Their version always matches the version of the CLI that you install.
| Skill | Use it to |
|---|---|
x18n-setup | set up x18n in a project, or migrate from i18n-ally |
x18n-check | run x18n check and fix what it reports |
x18n | manage keys and translations while you work |
Each skill tells the agent which decisions to leave to you, and to ask about them in one message.
x18n-setup
The agent checks what x18n detects with x18n doctor, writes a config only when detection needs help, adds x18n check to the scripts, and reports the first x18n check result. It asks you about the source locale, the locales, the config format and CI.
A reference next to the skill, references/migrate-i18n-ally.md, walks the agent through a migration from i18n-ally: record a baseline, preview the migration, ask about what it drops, write the files, compare with the baseline, and remove the i18n-ally settings once you agree.
x18n-check
The agent runs x18n check --json, groups the diagnostics by check, and fixes the routine ones: missing keys and translations, placeholder mismatches and invalid syntax. It asks you before it deletes unused keys, adds glossary terms, changes the severity of a check, or makes warnings fail CI with --strict.
x18n
The skill tells the agent:
- to use x18n instead of editing locale files by hand, to check whether a key exists before it uses one, to keep placeholders, and to write keys in full instead of composing them at runtime,
- to keep a terms table: the
glossaryin the config. The agent reads it before it translates, proposes new terms with translations, adds the ones you approve, and turns on theglossarycheck, - the loops of Agent workflows: add a key, translate, review, clean up, rename and extract,
- to read the
--jsonoutput and the exit codes, to page large outputs, and to pick a project in a monorepo.
It asks you about key naming, glossary terms, tone per locale, deleting unused keys and large renames.
Install the skills
The skills are in node_modules/@x18n/cli/skills/ after you install @x18n/cli. Agents do not read node_modules, so link the skills into the directory that your agent reads. skills-npm does this for every package that ships skills:
npm i -D skills-npm
pnpx skills-npm setupskills-npm setup adds itself to the prepare script of package.json. After that, every install links the skills again, so the skills stay at the version of the installed CLI.
You can also install them from GitHub with skills:
pnpx skills add x18n-dev/x18nThese come from the main branch, so they can name commands that your installed CLI does not have yet. Run the command again to update them.
Read them
The source of the skills is in skills/ of the repository. A test makes sure that every command and flag that the skills and their references name exists in the CLI.