Artifact language

codev itself speaks English: its commands, messages, skills and templates are in English. The planning artifacts your team reads and approves — proposals, specs, designs, tasks — can be written in any language.

Setting the language

The language: key of _codev/config.yaml sets the language of the prose in artifacts, as an ISO 639 code:

language: fr

Accepted values are a two- or three-letter lowercase language code, optionally followed by one subtag such as a region or a script: en, fr, de, pt-BR, zh-Hant. Any other value makes the configuration invalid. When the key is absent, the language is English (en).

How codev init chooses it

codev init writes the language: key for you, with a comment saying where the value came from. It uses, in order:

1. the --language <CODE> option;
2. otherwise your locale — the first of LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES and LANG that names a language. C and POSIX are skipped, so LC_ALL=C does not hide a meaningful LANG;
3. otherwise en.

codev init --language pt-BR

# set with `codev init --language`
language: pt-BR

Detection keeps only the language part of the locale — fr_FR.UTF-8 gives fr — except where the region changes the written language: pt_BR gives pt-BR, zh_TW and zh_HK give zh-Hant, zh_CN and zh_SG give zh-Hans. Pass --language to record any other region. --no-detect disables locale detection along with the rest of the environment probe.

On a project that already has a _codev/config.yaml, codev init does not touch the file. To change the language later, edit the key.

What is translated, and what is not

The skills write every sentence in the configured language, whatever language you chat with Claude in: the files are the team’s record, and the language is the team’s choice.

The skills write the structure of the files in English: template headings (# Proposal:, ## Why, ## What Changes, ## Context, # Tasks…), spec and delta structure (## Purpose, ### Requirement:, #### Scenario:…), and the scenario and normative keywords (**WHEN**, **THEN**, SHALL, MUST).

codev reads that structure in English or in French, whatever language: says, so a team can also write its specs entirely in French. Each keyword has its text in every language of codev’s keyword catalog:

A requirement written entirely in French therefore looks like this:

### Exigence : Le thème suit la préférence du système

L'application DOIT s'afficher avec le thème du système tant que l'utilisateur n'en a pas choisi.

#### Scénario : Aucun thème choisi

- **GIVEN** un utilisateur qui n'a jamais modifié le thème
- **WHEN** son système est en mode sombre
- **THEN** l'application s'affiche avec le thème sombre

How codev reads and writes them:

• French keywords forgive case, accents and the space — ordinary or no-break — before a colon: ### Exigence: X and #### Scenario : Y are read too. English keywords are read exactly as before.
• Normative keywords count only in upper case, in both languages: doit in lower case is ordinary prose, and the requirement fails validation.
• A document may mix both languages.
• When codev sync or codev archive edits a spec, it writes the keywords in that spec’s language; a new spec takes the language of the delta that creates it.
• The changelog shows release note categories in English, whatever language wrote them.
• Domain names (security, migration…) and the review record’s markers stay in English. codev does not read the **GIVEN** / **WHEN** / **THEN** lines, which the skills write in English.

Warning A codev release older than this catalog rejects French keywords. Before your team writes them, raise codev_version in _codev/config.yaml to the first release whose changelog announces them, so that every contributor runs a codev that reads them. A heading in a language codev does not know, such as ### Requisito:, is reported in a delta section (delta_unexpected_heading), and the sync and the archive refuse the change.

Which skills use it

codev instructions --json exposes the language in its language field. /codev-propose and /codev-update write artifact prose in that language, and /codev-configure writes the context: and rules: it proposes in it too. The ADR template used by codev decision commands has English section headings; write the body in your team’s language.