Languages

NodePress can hold the same content in several languages. Each entry has a locale, and translations of an entry share its slug: hello-world in English and hello-world in French are two entries of one content type, linked by that slug.

Enabling languages

Admins set the languages under Settings → Languages.

• Add a language takes a language code such as fr, pt-BR or zh-Hant (up to 50 languages). Codes are stored in their standard casing, so pt-br becomes pt-BR.
• Make default sets the default language. It’s used when an API request doesn’t ask for a language, and as the fallback with ?fallback=true.
• Removing a language keeps its entries. It only stops being offered in the editor. The page shows how many entries each language has, and lists languages that have entries but aren’t enabled, so you can enable them again.

A new install has one language, en.

Translating in the editor

In the entry editor, the language menu in the toolbar lists the entry’s translations with their status.

• Add Translation creates the entry in another enabled language as a draft, with a copy of the current content to translate. If the translation exists already, the editor opens it.
• Reference shows another translation next to the form while you write. Copy Empty Fields from … fills the fields you haven’t filled yet from that language.

When you create a new entry, pick its language in the language selector. It starts on the default language.

The entries list has a language filter, and its language column shows which translations exist for each entry and which are missing.

Each translation is a separate entry with its own status, versions and SEO fields. Publishing the English version doesn’t publish the French one.

Reading translations from the API

Request	Returns
GET /api/blog/hello-world	The entry in the default language
GET /api/blog/hello-world?locale=fr	The French entry, or 404 if there is none
GET /api/blog/hello-world?locale=fr&fallback=true	The French entry, or the default-language entry when there’s no French one
GET /api/blog	Entries in all languages
GET /api/blog?locale=fr	French entries only
GET /api/blog?locale=fr&fallback=true	French entries, plus default-language entries that have no published French translation

Every entry in a response has its locale, so you can tell which language you got:

{
  "id": "8c0f8e6e-5b1a-4a39-9d62-0f3c2b6a1d44",
  "slug": "hello-world",
  "locale": "en",
  "data": { "title": "Hello world" },
  "seo": null,
  "createdAt": "2026-10-26T09:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-10-26T09:00:00.000Z"
}

Single-entry reads also send a Content-Language header with the locale that was served. With ?fallback=true it differs from the ?locale= you asked for when the fallback was used.

The JS client can set locale and fallback once for every request.

Languages in URLs on your site

NodePress doesn’t render your site, so how languages appear in your URLs is up to you (/fr/blog/hello-world, fr.example.com, …). Two features need to know:

• The content type’s Preview URL can include {locale}.
• Automatic redirects put /{locale} in front of the path for entries that aren’t in the default language, unless the Preview URL gives the path.

Languages API

Method	Path	Who	What
GET	/api/locales	Public	{ "defaultLocale": "en", "locales": ["en", "fr"] }, default first
PUT	/api/locales	Admins	Set { "defaultLocale": "en", "locales": ["en", "fr", "de"] }; the default must be one of the languages
GET	/api/locales/usage	Editors, admins	Number of entries per locale
POST	/api/entries/:id/translate	Contributors, editors, admins	{ "targetLocale": "fr", "copyData": true } creates a draft translation, or returns the existing one

GET /api/locales is cached on the server for up to a minute. Saving the languages clears that cache.