Current locales match the PS5 console languages (SCE_SYSTEM_SERVICE_PARAM_ID_LANG 0–30): zh-CN.json (简体中文), zh-TW.json (繁體中文), en-US.json (English; also used for English UK), ja-JP.json (日本語), ko-KR.json (한국어), fr-FR.json (Français; also French Canada), de-DE.json (Deutsch), it-IT.json (Italiano), es-ES.json (Español; also Latin American Spanish), pt-BR.json (Português do Brasil), pt-PT.json (Português de Portugal), nl-NL.json (Nederlands), fi-FI.json (Suomi), sv-SE.json (Svenska), da-DK.json (Dansk), no-NO.json (Norsk), pl-PL.json (Polski), ru-RU.json (Русский), tr-TR.json (Türkçe), cs-CZ.json (Čeština), hu-HU.json (Magyar), el-GR.json (Ελληνικά), ro-RO.json (Română), ar-SA.json (العربية, trial), th-TH.json (ไทย), vi-VN.json (Tiếng Việt), id-ID.json (Indonesia), and uk-UA.json (Українська). English UK (18), Spanish LatAm (20), and French Canada (22) reuse the matching existing catalog. Hebrew / Hindi / Malay / Slovak are not PS5 console languages and have no system language ID. The generator scans every *.json in this directory. Each locale is selectable in Toolbox and via toolbox.language. The Settings XML is still LTR, so Arabic glyphs render but the page layout is not mirrored.

File layout

Each locale file has exactly two sections:

Section	Keys	Runtime
`toolbox`	dotted ids such as `fan.enable`	`toolbox_i18n::tr("fan.enable")`
`notifications`	`notify.*` ids such as `notify.fan.open_failed`	`onion_notify(true, "notify.fan.open_failed")`

en-US.json is the fallback locale (meta.fallback: true). Every other locale file must contain the same keys and the same printf conversions.

The build runs generate_catalog.py and rejects:

missing keys in any locale
empty keys or embedded NUL
mismatched printf conversions (%s, %d, %i, %u, %X, …)

Generated tables are embedded in shellui (toolbox) and libonion_platform (notifications).

How to add a Toolbox string

Add the same key to every locale JSON file under toolbox.
Prefer one complete sentence with printf placeholders when values are inserted. Do not split a sentence across several keys and concatenate them in C++ (word order cannot be translated).
```
"cheats.enable_fmt": "Enable/disable %s for %s"
```
```
"cheats.enable_fmt": "为 %s 启用/禁用 %s"
```

Format with the shared helper, not a local snprintf wrapper:

toolbox_i18n::format("cheats.enable_fmt", game, cheat);

Rebuild. Missing the key in one locale fails the catalog step.
Switch Toolbox language, leave the page, and reopen it. XML is built when the page opens. The same save path used by log level (settings_commit → BREW_RELOAD_SETTINGS → LoadSettings) tells daemon and util to apply the new language. That is a config reread, not a SceShellUI inject.

Missing toolbox keys render as the key itself (visible in the menu).

How to add a notification

Add a stable notify.<area>.<name> key to every locale JSON file under notifications. Never use the English sentence as the key.
Keep printf placeholders identical in every language.

Pass the key, not the English text:

onion_notify(true, "notify.fan.open_failed");
onion_notify(true, "notify.payload.loading", name);
onion_notify_rich("notify.brand", "notify.boot.starting", ...);

Do not pass a raw English format string. Unknown keys are shown unchanged (English-looking leftover, or a debug "%s" passthrough).

ShellUI's notify("…") helper forwards to the same catalog. Unpacker has its own notify() and does not use this catalog.

How to add a language

Catalog compilation already scans this directory. A new JSON file is embedded automatically. To make the language selectable you still need the runtime mapping:

Add <locale>.json with the same keys as en-US.json, plus meta.id (the config.ini value), meta.bcp47, and meta.fallback: false.
Add lang.<id> to every locale file (the Toolbox list label).
Add a kUiLanguage* value, parse/serialize it in settings, and add a Toolbox list item with that integer.
Add the matching Lang / ONION_NOTIFY_LANG_* values and map meta.id in notify_i18n.c / toolbox_i18n.cpp.
If the PS5 system language should pick it when Toolbox language is system, add that id in onion_notify_resolve_language (0 → ja, 2/22 → fr, 3/20 → es, 4 → de, 5 → it, 6 → nl, 7 → pt-PT, 8 → ru, 9 → ko, 10 → zh-Hant, 11 → zh-Hans, 12 → fi, 13 → sv, 14 → da, 15 → no, 16 → pl, 17 → pt-BR, 19 → tr, 21 → ar, 23 → cs, 24 → hu, 25 → el, 26 → ro, 27 → th, 28 → vi, 29 → id, 30 → uk; everything else is en).

Web UI

The browser pkg-installer UI in ../webui/ keeps its own dictionaries in src/i18n.js — the same locale set as the Toolbox, but bundled into the pkg-server's single-file page. Its language resolves the same way as the Toolbox (toolbox.language, else the console system language) and updates live when the daemon's system-language poll pushes BREW_UTIL_SET_SYSTEM_LANG to util.

Intentional exclusions

These user-visible strings are not in the JSON catalogs on purpose:

Surface	Why
Settings menu label `★OnionHEN Tools`	Equal-length binary patch of `★Debug Settings`. Length is fixed.
HomeUI top-nav `OnionHEN`	Brand token, same in every language.
Notification watermark `[OnionHEN]`	Brand prefix in `onion_notify_format`.
About names, handles, Ko-fi URL, project URLs	Proper nouns / addresses.
Unpacker start-failure toasts	First-stage loader; no language setting and its own `notify()`. English only until it is wired to `onion_notify`.
Cheat names / descriptions from cheat files	Come from the cheat JSON, not OnionHEN.

Logs (LOG_*) are developer-facing and stay English.

Current coverage

Checked against call sites (not just the JSON files):

Toolbox menus, game-options cheat entry, PKG GetString hooks, and About donor/WeChat labels go through toolbox_i18n::tr().
Daemon / util / shellui / bootstrapper toasts go through notify.* keys. Host tests cover zh-Hans, zh-Hant, en, ja, ko, fr, de, it, es, pt-BR, pl, ru, ar, and th lookup.
Four toolbox keys are unused leftovers from an older menu grouping: group.lang, group.lang.sub, group.shortcuts, group.shortcuts.sub. They are translated but not shown.
Welcome toast formats notify.boot.made_by with ONIONHEN_VERSION. The author display name is part of each locale's translation (麒麟 in Chinese, Kylin elsewhere).
External plugins own their dynamic UI and service-specific translations; the OnionHEN catalog contains only host-owned strings.

Arabic is a complete key-for-key trial locale, not a native RTL layout.

README.md Unescape Escape

Shared translations