Introduction

Verba is an open-source, self-hostable i18n collaboration engine built for development teams that want structured, auditable translations without heavy SaaS tooling.

You can run Verba two ways:

• Try it on Nubisco at verba.nubisco.io — sign in with a free Nubisco Platform account and start translating in seconds. Free tier includes up to 3 projects.
• Self-host with Docker Compose on your own infrastructure. See Getting Started.

Why Verba?

Most teams start with spreadsheets or shared JSON files committed to Git. This works for a while, but falls apart quickly:

• No real workflow. There is no distinction between a draft and an approved string.
• No permissions. Anyone can edit anything, in any language, even languages they don't speak.
• No history. Changes are invisible unless someone manually tracks them.
• No coordination. Who is translating what? Is that string still being worked on?
• No pipeline. Turning "the spreadsheet" into deployable JSON is a manual, error-prone job.

Verba makes translations structured, reviewable, and deployable.

What Verba Is

Verba is a self-hosted web application that provides:

• A project-based workspace model with locales, namespaces, keys, and translations.
• A four-stage workflow (TODO → IN_PROGRESS → SUBMITTED → APPROVED) that separates drafts from production-ready strings.
• Role-based access control enforced on the server. Translators cannot approve their own work.
• Per-user locale assignments. A translator only sees and works on the languages they are responsible for.
• A rich translation editor with syntax highlighting for {placeholders} and @:key.references, autocomplete, live preview, plural form toggle, and a variable test panel.
• A Board with drag-and-drop task management, swim lanes by assignee, and inline filtering.
• Threaded comments and a full history timeline on every key.
• Import from JSON, CSV, or XLSX.
• Export to JSON, CSV, or XLSX, with optional resolution of @:key references.
• A full audit trail of every status change, assignment, edit, and comment.

What Verba Is Not

Verba is intentionally minimal. It is not:

• A machine translation service.
• A SaaS platform with a marketplace.
• A version-control system for translation files (use Git for that).
• A build tool. Verba exports clean JSON; your build pipeline consumes it.

These are future extension points. The core is designed to remain stable and small.

Core Philosophy

Self-hosted first

Your translation data stays on your infrastructure. Verba has no telemetry, no cloud dependency, and no vendor lock-in. A single docker compose up is all you need to run it.

Open source

Verba's Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 licensed. You can inspect every line of code, contribute fixes, and self-host it freely under the terms of the AGPL.

Team collaboration without chaos

Translation is a team sport. Verba gives every team member a clear role, a clear queue of work, and a clear path from "not started" to "ready for production", without requiring everyone to be a developer.

Server-enforced rules

Workflow transitions, role checks, and ACL are validated in the API. The frontend is a convenience layer; the rules cannot be bypassed by a crafty API call.

Design Principles

• Canonical full keys. Keys live inside a namespace and are exposed consistently as namespace.key.
• Server-enforced rules. Workflow transitions and ACL are validated in the API; the frontend is a convenience layer.
• Minimal surface area. REST only, no GraphQL, no microservices.
• SQLite first, Postgres ready. Works locally with zero infrastructure; scales to Postgres in production.
• OTP-first CE auth. Community deployments default to local email OTP; enterprise deployments can layer Nubisco Platform on top.

Key Features at a Glance

Feature	Description
Projects & locales	Group keys by project; each project has its own set of languages
Namespaces	Organise keys by feature/section; useful for large projects
Translation workflow	TODO → IN_PROGRESS → SUBMITTED → APPROVED, enforced on the server
Roles	ADMIN, MAINTAINER, TRANSLATOR, READER, per project
Locale assignments	Each translator is assigned the specific locales they work on
Translation editor	Rich editor with placeholder highlighting, key-reference autocomplete, and live preview
Board	Visual task board with drag-and-drop, filters, and assignee swim lanes
Comments & history	Threaded comments + full change timeline on every key
Import	Upload JSON files per namespace
Export	JSON, CSV, or XLSX, with @:key reference resolution option
CLI installer	verba setup wizard for first-time configuration
Self-hostable	Docker Compose + SQLite or Postgres