FBT in action
Write the text once in English. Translators get whole sentences with the variations their language needs, and FBT picks the right one at runtime.
- Plurals
- Names & gender
- Enums
- Pronouns
<fbt desc="Unread messages in the inbox">
You have
<fbt:plural count="{{ $count }}" name="count"
showCount="yes" many="unread messages">
unread message
</fbt:plural>.
</fbt>
- $count = 1Máš 1 neprečítanú správu.
- $count = 3Máš 3 neprečítané správy.
- $count = 5Máš 5 neprečítaných správ.
- $count = 21Máš 21 neprečítaných správ.
English and German have two forms. Slovak has three (1, 2–4, 5+), Russian uses the form of 1 also for 21, Turkish keeps the noun singular after a number, and Japanese has no plural at all. Translators just fill in the forms of their language.
<fbt desc="Notification about a shared photo">
<fbt:name name="name" gender="{{ $user->gender }}">
{{ $user->name }}
</fbt:name>
shared a photo with you.
</fbt>
- Peter · malePeter s tebou zdieľal fotku.
- Jana · femaleJana s tebou zdieľala fotku.
- Alex · unknownAlex s tebou zdieľal(a) fotku.
In Slovak and Russian, the verb changes with the gender of the person (zdieľal / zdieľala, поделился / поделилась). English, German, Turkish and Japanese keep one sentence.
<fbt desc="Status of an order">
Your order has been
<fbt:enum enum-range="{{ json_encode([
'shipped' => 'shipped',
'delivered' => 'delivered',
'cancelled' => 'cancelled',
]) }}" value="{{ $order->status }}" />.
</fbt>
- shippedTvoja objednávka bola odoslaná.
- deliveredTvoja objednávka bola doručená.
- cancelledTvoja objednávka bola zrušená.
Every value becomes a whole sentence for translators, so they can change the word order and the grammar, not just a single word.
<fbt desc="Notification about an updated profile">
<fbt:param name="name">{{ $user->name }}</fbt:param>
updated
<fbt:pronoun type="possessive" human="true"
gender="{{ $user->pronounGender }}" />
profile.
</fbt>
- Jana · femaleJana aktualizovala svoj profil.
- Peter · malePeter aktualizoval svoj profil.
- Alex · unknownAlex aktualizoval(a) svoj profil.
English and German pick his / her / their. Slovak and Russian use the same reflexive pronoun for everyone (svoj, свой), but the verb changes instead. Turkish and Japanese have no gendered pronouns at all.
HTML fbts are rendered in @fbtTransform … @endFbtTransform. The outputs above are rendered by laravel-fbt.
Why FBT?
Getting grammatically correct translations in dynamic applications is hard. Let FBT do the hard work.
Inline translations
Write texts right where they're used, in Blade with @fbt or in PHP with fbt(). No translation keys, no language files to keep in sync.
Grammar done right
Plurals, genders and names are variations translators fill in. Every language gets correct sentences, even with three plural forms or gendered verbs.
Proven at Facebook
A port of fbt, the framework Facebook built to translate its apps. Same source strings, same translation formats.
Easy setup
One Composer package, artisan commands to collect and translate texts. Store translations in JSON files or in the database.
Translate in context
Inline translating lets translators edit texts right on the page, where they see how they're used.
Built for Laravel
Blade directives, the locale of the application, the signed-in user as viewer context, and clean state for Octane requests and queued jobs.
Get started in minutes
Keep translations in JSON files, or in the database.
- JSON files
- Database
composer require richarddobron/laravel-fbt
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=fbt-config
# Wrap texts with @fbt(...), then collect them
php artisan fbt:collect-fbts
php artisan fbt:generate-translations
# Translate storage/fbt/translation_input.json, then
php artisan fbt:translate
composer require richarddobron/laravel-fbt
php artisan vendor:publish --tag=fbt-config
# Set 'driver' => 'eloquent' in config/fbt.php
php artisan migrate
# Wrap texts with @fbt(...), then collect them
php artisan fbt:collect-fbts
# Add translations to the fbt_translations table, then
php artisan fbt:translate
Let your coding agent set it up
Paste this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor or Copilot, it installs laravel-fbt and wraps the texts of your app.
Add internationalization to this Laravel app with laravel-fbt (docs: https://richarddobron.github.io/laravel-fbt/).
1. Install it with `composer require richarddobron/laravel-fbt` and publish the configuration with
`php artisan vendor:publish --tag=fbt-config`.
2. In config/fbt.php, set `author` and `project`, and set `locale` to `laravel`, so that fbt follows the locale
of the application. Keep the `json` driver (translations in storage/fbt), or set `driver` to `eloquent` and run
`php artisan migrate` to keep phrases and translations in the database.
3. Make the User model implement `fbt\Lib\IntlViewerContextInterface` (`getLocale()` and `getGender()`), so that
texts use the locale and the gender of the signed-in user.
4. Wrap every user-facing text:
- in Blade: `@fbt('Text', 'Description')`, or `<fbt desc="Description">Text</fbt>` inside
`@fbtTransform` ... `@endFbtTransform`,
- in PHP: `fbt('Text', 'Description')`, and `fbs()` for plain text (e.g. HTML attributes).
Every text needs a description which explains its context to translators.
5. Never concatenate translated fragments, keep whole sentences in one fbt. Use `fbt::param()` / `<fbt:param>` for
values, `fbt::plural()` / `<fbt:plural>` for counts, `fbt::name()` / `<fbt:name>` for names of people (with
their gender), `fbt::enum()` and `fbt::pronoun()`.
6. Collect the texts with `php artisan fbt:collect-fbts`, generate the missing translations with
`php artisan fbt:generate-translations` (json driver) and build the translations with `php artisan fbt:translate`.
Based on Facebook's fbt
