How to Read Validation Badges
What each validation badge means (Missing, Same, Param, Length, ICU, Guarded, and Malformed) and how to fix them, including the one-click wrench autofix.
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StringLane validates all translations whenever a project loads and after each edit. Problems appear as inline badges on the affected cell. Hover over a badge for a tooltip with the full error message.
Badge types#
Seven badges can appear on a cell. Colour indicates severity — red is an error, yellow a warning — but the badges are distinguished by their label, not their colour, so they stay readable if you can't separate the two hues.
| Badge | Severity | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Missing | error | No value in this locale |
| Param | error | Placeholder missing or wrong |
| ICU | error | Invalid ICU syntax |
| Malformed | error | Placeholder syntax is broken |
| Same | warning | Identical to the base locale |
| Length | warning | Over the character budget |
| Guarded | warning | A protected term was changed |
Missing (red)#
The key exists in the base locale but not in this target locale file. The cell is empty and reads Click to translate….
Fix: Type a translation manually, or click ✨ to translate with AI. To fill a whole locale, use the ✨ Translate… popover in the sidebar footer. To clear missing translations across the whole project in one pass, use Translate all missing with AI from the Command Palette.
Same (yellow)#
The translation is identical to the base locale value. This usually means the key hasn't been translated yet: the source value was copied but not replaced.
Fix: Check if the string should actually be translated. Proper nouns (brand names, product names), URLs, and technical identifiers often should be the same in all locales: use Guarded Words to mark these intentionally. If it should be translated, click ✨ or edit the cell.
Param (red)#
A placeholder present in the base locale is missing from, or wrongly spelled in, the target translation. For example, the base has Hello, {name}! but the Spanish translation is ¡Hola! with no {name}.
Fix: When StringLane can work out the correct string on its own, a 🔧 wrench button appears next to the badge — click it and the fix is applied instantly, with no AI call and no cost. Otherwise, add the missing placeholder yourself; the tooltip names exactly which one is missing or extra. See How to Fix Placeholder Mismatches.
Malformed (red)#
The placeholder syntax itself is broken — an unclosed {, a stray brace, a % specifier that isn't valid for the format. This is distinct from Param, where the placeholders are well-formed but the wrong set.
Fix: The 🔧 wrench button repairs the common cases deterministically. Click it, or correct the syntax by hand.
Length (yellow)#
The translation exceeds the character budget for that key. The budget is the key's Max length, set in the metadata panel or in Settings → Project → Key Constraints — one value, shown in two places. On ARB it is stored as x-max-length in the @key block; on the other formats it goes to .stringlane/metadata.yaml.
The character-width preview under the detail pane shows every locale as a bar against the budget, so you can see how close the others are before one tips over.
Fix: Shorten the translation. See How to Add Key Descriptions and Limits on Any Format for setting the limits.
ICU (red)#
The translation contains invalid ICU MessageFormat syntax. Common causes: unmatched braces, missing other plural category, or a malformed select clause.
Fix: Click the badge for the specific error, then edit the cell using the ICU Format Helper or Visual ICU Editor. See Working with ICU Plurals and Select Forms.
Guarded (yellow)#
A term marked as a guarded word (brand name, product term) has been translated or modified in this target locale. The translation differs from the base locale value for that protected term.
Fix: Re-translate the key with ✨: the AI will respect the guarded word constraint. Or manually restore the guarded term to its original form.
Two checks that appear only in the Issues panel#
Not every validation result is a cell badge. Two show up as rows in the Issues Panel (⌘J):
Literal # in plural (warning). An ICU plural body contains a bare #. In most ICU implementations # is substituted with the number — but Flutter's gen-l10n does not do this, so the string ships with a literal # on screen. If you write ARB for Flutter, this is the check that catches it. Each row offers Fix with AI, which tries a deterministic rewrite (# → the plural variable) before falling back to the model.
Missing plural category (error). The target language requires a CLDR plural category the translation does not provide — Ukrainian and Polish need few and many, Arabic needs all six. See Working with ICU Plurals.
Row-level indicators#
The key sidebar shows a per-key dot summarising the worst badge in any locale for that key:
- Red dot: at least one error-level badge (Missing, Param, ICU, Malformed)
- Amber dot: at least one warning-level badge (Same, Length, Guarded), no errors
The status bar carries the project-wide totals — translation percentage, locale and key counts, and error and warning chips you can click to filter.
Use the Issues only filter in the sidebar (or ⌘⇧I) to show only keys with any badge, and the Issues Panel (⌘J) to see every problem in the project as one row per (locale, issue), with click-to-jump and per-row Fix-with-AI actions. Fix all with AI at the foot of the panel sweeps every addressable row in one pass.