WP-CLI Commands for Multilingual WordPress Management
If you manage WordPress sites at scale — agencies, developers, DevOps — you spend most of your time in a terminal, not in wp-admin. Lang Forge ships a full suite of WP-CLI commands so every action you can take in the admin UI has a scriptable equivalent.
Why WP-CLI matters for multilingual sites
- CI/CD pipelinespull translations as part of a deploy, validate string coverage before shipping a new feature
- Bulk operationstranslating a thousand posts one at a time in the browser is painful;
wp langforge translate --all --lang=deis one command - Automationagency teams set up nightly cron jobs to populate translation memory, export XLIFF, or check for outdated translations
- Scriptingshell scripts that set up a brand-new multilingual site in one pass
The 11 commands
Status and inspection
wp langforge statusPrints overall translation status: languages configured, posts per language, translation progress percentage, outdated translations, and AI credit usage.
wp langforge status --lang=de --post-type=productFilters the status output by language and post type.
Translation
wp langforge translate <post-id> --lang=de --aiTranslates a specific post into the target language. The --ai flag routes through the AI pipeline; without it, the post is duplicated as an untranslated draft.
wp langforge translate --all --lang=de --aiTranslates every published post into German using AI. Shows a cost estimate before running and asks for confirmation (bypass with --yes).
Export and import
wp langforge export --lang=de --format=xliff --output=translations.xlfExports all content for a given target language as XLIFF 1.2.
wp langforge export --lang=de --format=csv --output=translations.csvCSV format for simpler workflows.
wp langforge import translations.xlfImports translations from an XLIFF or CSV file. Auto-detects format from file extension.
Translation memory
wp langforge tm-populateScans all existing translated posts and populates the translation memory. Useful after migrating from another translation plugin or after importing a large batch of content.
wp langforge tm-search "Buy now" --source=en --target=deSearches the translation memory for a string and prints matches with similarity scores.
Glossary
wp langforge glossary-import glossary.csvImports glossary entries from CSV.
wp langforge glossary-export glossary.csvExports the current glossary to CSV.
Site duplication
wp langforge duplicate --lang=de --aiDuplicates the entire site into a new language and optionally runs AI translation in the background. Equivalent to the one-click duplication feature in the admin, but fully scriptable.
Standard WP-CLI conventions
Every command follows WP-CLI’s conventions:
--helpon any command shows full usage and flag documentation--format=json|csv|yaml|tablefor machine-readable output--dry-runon every write command to preview without making changes- Exit codes that are safe to check in shell scripts (
0for success, non-zero for failure) - Colorized output when running in a TTY, plain when piped
Use cases
- Agency onboardinga shell script that configures a new client site with the right languages, URL format, and starter content in one command
- Nightly content synca cron job that exports XLIFF for the current week’s new posts and emails it to a translation vendor
- CI test coveragea pipeline step that runs
wp langforge status --fail-if-incompleteto block deploys if new strings are untranslated - Data migration
tm-populateafter importing content from another CMS - Disaster recoveryscripted re-import of translations from a backup file
Ready to script your multilingual workflow?
WP-CLI commands are included in every paid plan and in the free version on WordPress.org.