`kagi translate`

Translate text through Kagi Translate and return one JSON envelope with the core translation plus the auxiliary text-mode sections.

Translate demo

Synopsis

kagi translate [OPTIONS] [TEXT]

Description

kagi translate uses your existing KAGI_SESSION_TOKEN, bootstraps a translate_session at runtime, then calls the live translate.kagi.com endpoints over HTTP.

By default the command fetches:

language detection
translated text
alternative translations
text alignments
translation suggestions
word insights

If an auxiliary section fails, the core translation still succeeds and the failure is recorded in warnings.

Plain kagi translate "..." means --from auto --to en. The CLI detects the source language first, then translates to English unless you pass --to.

Authentication

Required: KAGI_SESSION_TOKEN

The command follows the same Session Link auth story as other subscriber features. Save the full Session Link URL with:

kagi auth set --session-token 'https://kagi.com/search?token=...'

The CLI uses your existing KAGI_SESSION_TOKEN to fetch https://translate.kagi.com/, reads the returned translate_session cookie from Set-Cookie, then uses normal Rust HTTP requests for the rest of the flow.

Arguments

`<TEXT>`

The text to translate. If omitted, the command reads text from stdin.

kagi translate "Bonjour tout le monde"
echo "Bonjour tout le monde" | kagi translate --to ja

Core Options

`--from <LANG>`

Source language code. Default: auto.

`--to <LANG>`

Target language code. Default: en. auto is not accepted for the target language.

`--quality <QUALITY>`

Quality preference passed through to Kagi Translate.

`--model <MODEL>`

Model override passed through to Kagi Translate.

Context and Style Options

`--prediction <TEXT>`

Bias translation toward a predicted completion.

`--predicted-language <LANG>`

Predicted source language code.

`--formality <LEVEL>`

Formality hint.

`--speaker-gender <GENDER>`

Speaker gender hint.

`--addressee-gender <GENDER>`

Addressee gender hint.

`--language-complexity <LEVEL>`

Language complexity hint.

`--translation-style <STYLE>`

Translation style hint.

`--context <TEXT>`

Extra translation context.

`--dictionary-language <LANG>`

Dictionary language override.

`--time-format <FORMAT>`

Time formatting style.

`--use-definition-context <true|false>`

Toggle definition-aware translation behavior.

`--enable-language-features <true|false>`

Toggle language-feature enrichment.

`--preserve-formatting <true|false>`

Preserve formatting when possible.

`--context-memory-json <JSON>`

Raw JSON array passed through as context_memory.

kagi translate "Bonjour" \
  --context-memory-json '[{"kind":"glossary","value":"Use Hello, never Hi"}]'

Auxiliary Section Controls

`--no-alternatives`

Skip the alternative translations call.

`--no-word-insights`

Skip the word insights call.

`--no-suggestions`

Skip the translation suggestions call.

`--no-alignments`

Skip the text alignments call.

Output Format

{
  "bootstrap": {
    "method": "reqwest(set-cookie bootstrap)",
    "authenticated": true
  },
  "detected_language": {
    "iso": "fr",
    "label": "French"
  },
  "translation": {
    "translation": "Hello everyone",
    "source_language": "fr",
    "target_language": "en"
  },
  "alternatives": {
    "elements": []
  },
  "text_alignments": {
    "alignments": []
  },
  "translation_suggestions": {
    "suggestions": []
  },
  "word_insights": {
    "insights": []
  },
  "warnings": []
}

Examples

Basic Translation to English

kagi translate "Bonjour tout le monde"

Translate to Japanese

kagi translate "Hello everyone" --to ja

Provide Style and Context

kagi translate "Can you review this?" \
  --to fr \
  --formality more \
  --translation-style natural \
  --context "Professional email to a client"

Fastest Core Output Only

kagi translate "Bonjour tout le monde" \
  --no-alternatives \
  --no-word-insights \
  --no-suggestions \
  --no-alignments

Extract Just the Translated Text

kagi translate "Bonjour tout le monde" | jq -r '.translation.translation'

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Error - see stderr

kagi auth set --session-token 'https://kagi.com/search?token=...'

Auxiliary section warnings

If warnings is non-empty, the translation succeeded but one or more optional follow-on calls were rejected or unavailable.

On this page