open discord translator

An open source discord bot using the latest discord integration features and supporting multiple translation backend

NOTE: this bot has been designed for a very limited amount of guild because of the translation APIs quota limitations, as such, it is not recommended to use it on a large scale.

Features

Translation Command

Translate a message to another language using the /translate command without leaving discord

Directly send the translated message

Write a message in a language for it to be sent in another language using the /send command note: because the bot is using webhooks normal users cannot delete their message, as such, a delete button is provided to the user if the translation doesn't seem right.

Context menu translation

To quickly translate a message to your language, just right click on it then do apps > translate It'll automatically detect the input language and translate it to the language set in your discord settings

Replicas

Replicas are translation joints between two channels.

For example, a message in #channel-1...

...will be translated to spanish and be sent to #channel-2

or a #international channel can automatically provide a copy of the message in english in this scenario, messages that are already into the target language won't get translated

Managing replicas

Replicas are managed using the /replicas command

Use /replicas add to add a new replica

Use /replicas list to list all the replicas

Use /replicas remove to remove a replica

⚠ because replicas require the privileged intent READ_MESSAGE_CONTENT to work, they are disabled by default. (see the Environment variables section for guidance)

Installation

⚠️ To setup the bot, you'll need a discord bot token. If you don't know how to create one, you can find a quick tutorial here.

Using Docker (recommended)

Docker compose (recommended)

Edit the docker-compose.yml file present in this repo and set the environment variables (check the Environment variables section for more information)

then start the bot (tip: you can use the -d flag to run it in the background)

docker-compose up

to invite the bot, use the link printed in the console (use docker-compose logs to get the link if you started the bot in the background)

Docker cli

docker volume create open-discord-translator
docker run -d \
    --name open-discord-translator \
    -e TOKEN=[your token here] \
    -e GUILD= \
    -e SKIP_COMMAND_VALIDATION=false \
    -e ACCENT_COLOR=Blurple \
    -e DELETE_BUTTON_TIMEOUT=10 \
    -e ENABLE_REPLICAS=false \
    -e TRANSLATION_API_DRIVER=google_search \
    -e SELECTED_LANGUAGES=en,es,fr,de,it,ja,ko,pt,ru,zh-CN,zh-TW,pl,nl,sv,ar,cs,da,fi,el,hi,hu,id,no,la,ro \
    -e GOOGLE_API_KEY= \
    -e DEEPL_API_KEY= \
    -e LIBRETRANSLATE_URL= \
    -e DATABASE_PATH=database.sqlite \
    -e DATABASE_DRIVER=sqlite \
    -v open-discord-translator:/app/database.sqlite \
    ghcr.io/kalitsune/open-discord-translator:latest

to invite the bot, use the link printed in the console

Using kubernetes (experienced users only)

⚠ the bot has not been designed to be scaled up, as such, if you set more than one replica, the bot may behave unexpectedly.

Direct deploy (you'll still need to setup some environment variables for it to work)

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kalitsune/open-discord-translator/main/open-discord-translator.yml
kubectl edit deployment.apps odt-deployment

Using the kubernetes deployment file provided in this repository

kubectl apply -f open-discord-translator.yml

Using nodejs

grab the latest release on github then uzip it

install the dependencies

npm install --production

edit the .env file to your needs, be sure to set the DISCORD_TOKEN variable check the Environment variables section for more information

then start the bot

npm start

to invite the bot, use the link printed in the console

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Default value
TOKEN	The discord bot token	none
GUILD	IF defined, the bot will be restricted to this specific guild id	none
SKIP_COMMAND_VALIDATION	If set to true, the bot will not check if the commands are up to date	false
ACCENT_COLOR	Color used for the bot embeds can be a number, hex or one of those	Blurple
DELETE_BUTTON_TIMEOUT	The time in seconds before the delete button for the send disappear (leave empty for infinite)	10
ENABLE_REPLICAS	Enable the /replicas commands as well as listening to potential message to translate. ⚠ Require MESSAGE_CONTENT privileged intent	false
TRANSLATION_API_DRIVER	The translation API to use (check supported drivers)	google
SELECTED_LANGUAGES	The languages to use for the translation command, if empty, the first 25 supported languages returned by the translation driver will be used	[CSV, check .env]
GOOGLE_API_KEY	Your google api key, only needed if you use the google paid translation API	none
DEEPL_API_KEY	Your deepl auth key, only needed if you use the deepl translation API	none
LIBRETRANSLATE_URL	The link to where your libretranslate is running, only needed if you use libretranslate	none
DATABASE_DRIVER	The database driver to use (check supported drivers)	sqlite
SQLITE_PATH	The path to the sqlite database file, only needed if you use the sqlite database driver	./database.sqlite

Translation API drivers

Driver name	Description
google_search	The google translation API for free, the threshold might be low
google_cloud	The google translation API, you need to set the GOOGLE_API_KEY environment variable
deepl	The deepl translation API, you need to set the DEEPL_API_KEY environment variable
libretranslate	The libretranslate API, you need to set the LIBRETRANSLATE_URL environment variable

Database API drivers

Driver name	Description
sqlite	The sqlite database driver, you need to set the SQLITE_PATH environment variable to enable persistence but it is not mandatory

Development

Localizations

As of today, the bot is only localized in the following languages:
If you want to join the translation effort in order to make open-discord-translator available to a broader audience of people you're welcome to help!

Setup

⚠️ To setup the bot, you'll need a discord bot token. If you don't know how to create one, you can find a quick tutorial here.

clone the repository and install the dependencies

git clone https://github.com/Kalitsune/open-discord-translator
cd open-discord-translator
npm install

create a .env.dev file and set the TOKEN variable (check the Environment variables section for more information)

cp .env .env.dev

⚠️ warning: it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to set a GUILD_ID if you're planning on starting the bot for development purposes. It'll tell the bot to register its commands on your guild which is instantaneous instead of registering global commands which take a while to get registered.

then start the bot

npm run dev

to invite the bot, use the link printed in the console

Setting Up LibreTranslate

To utilize LibreTranslate, you must first set it up, which is a straightforward process. Begin by cloning the repository with the following command:

git clone git@github.com:LibreTranslate/LibreTranslate.git

Ensure docker is operational on your system, then initiate LibreTranslate using:

./run.sh --port 6969 # Use http://localhost:6969 as your LIBRETRANSLATE_URL
# For Windows, use: run.bat --port 6969

Additionally, various methods for launching LibreTranslate are detailed here: click, providing instructions for docker, CUDA hardware acceleration, k8s, and building from source.

A comprehensive list of all settings and flags is also available, offering options to modify the IP address and port for LibreTranslate, along with many other configurations.

Discord api

the bot is initialized in the ./src/index.js file, everything in the ./src/discord/ directory is related to the discord api the ./discord/events/ discord directory contains the discord events listeners, the file name must be one of those the ./discord/interactions/commands/ discord directory contains the discord commands, the file name does not matter

Add a new translation API driver

create a new file in the ./src/api/drivers/ directory

touch ./src/translations/drivers/mydriver.js

make sure to export the following functions

module.exports = {
    async init() {
        // if you need to initialize the driver, do it here
        // you must return the supported source and target languages 
        // warning: the supported languages can't be more than 25 due to discord limitations
        const supported_languages = [
            {
                "language": "Afrikaans",
                "code": "af"
            },
            // ...
        ];
        return supported_languages
    },
    async translate(text, to, from= undefined) {
        to = to || "en"
        // translate the text from the source language to the target language
        // return the translated text
        // feel free to add more environment variables if needed (don't forget to update the readme)
        
        // you must return the translated text and the source language, if it is auto, then return the detected language
        return {text: translated_text, from: source_language, to}
    },
    name: "Demo module"
}

then you set the TRANSLATION_API_DRIVER environment variable to your driver name and start the bot

Add a new database driver

create a new file in the ./src/database/drivers/ directory

touch ./src/database/drivers/mydriver.js

make sure to export the following functions

module.exports = {
    async init() {
        // if you need to initialize the driver, do it here
        // feel free to add more environment variables if needed (don't forget to update the readme)
    },
    async addReplicaChannels(guildId, sourceChannelId, targetChannelId, targetLanguageCode) {
        // add a channel to be replicated in another language
    },
    async getReplicaChannels() {
        // get all the channels to be replicated
    },
    async getGuildReplicaChannels(guildId) {
        // get all the channels to be replicated in a guild
    },
    async getReplicaChannel(sourceChannelId, targetChannelId, targetLanguageCode) {
        // get a specific channel to be replicated
    },
    async removeReplicaChannel(sourceChannelId, targetChannelId, targetLanguageCode) {
        // remove a channel from the replication list
    },
}

then you set the DATABASE_DRIVER environment variable to your driver name and start the bot