deepl.nvim

A Neovim plugin for translating text in-place using the DeepL API. Select any text in your editor and translate it instantly without leaving your workflow.

Requirements

• Neovim >= 0.7.0
• plenary.nvim (for plenary.curl)
• curl available in your $PATH
• DeepL API key (see DeepL API)

Installation

Using lazy.nvim

{
  "alassek/deepl.nvim",
  dependencies = { "nvim-lua/plenary.nvim" },
  opts = {
    api_token = os.getenv("DEEPL_API_TOKEN"),
  }
}

Configuration

Setup Options

require('deepl').setup({
  api_token = '',                   -- Your DeepL API token (required)
  target_lang = 'EN-US',            -- Default target language
  model_type = 'quality_optimized', -- Translation model type
  formality = 'default',            -- Formality level
})

Available Options

Target Languages

Supported target languages include:

• EN-US - English (American)
• EN-GB - English (British)
• DE - German
• FR - French
• ES - Spanish
• IT - Italian
• JA - Japanese
• ZH-HANS - Chinese (Simplified)
• ZH-HANT - Chinese (Traditional)

See the DeepL API documentation for the complete list.

Model Types

• quality_optimized
• prefer_quality_optimized
• latency_optimized

Formality Levels

• default
• more
• less
• prefer_more
• prefer_less

Usage

Basic Translation

1. Select text in visual mode (v, V, or Ctrl-v)
2. Run :Translate to translate to your default target language
3. The selected text will be replaced with the translation

Specify Source Language

If DeepL can't detect the source language correctly, specify it manually:

:Translate DE

This tells DeepL that the source text is in German.

Interactive Configuration

Use the :DeepL command to access configuration menus:

:DeepL                " Open main configuration menu
:DeepL target_language " Directly open target language selection
:DeepL model          " Directly open model type selection  
:DeepL formality      " Directly open formality selection

Buffer-Local Settings

Interactive configuration will set buffer-local settings. This means if you switch buffers you will revert to the global configuration. Global settings can be updated dynamically via vim.g.deepl_formality etc.

-- Change target language globally
vim.g.deepl_target_language = "FR"

-- Set for current buffer only
vim.b.deepl_formality = "more"
vim.b.deepl_model_type = "latency_optimized"

API Token Setup

DeepL Free vs Pro

The plugin automatically detects your account type based on your API token:

• Free API tokens end with :fx
• Pro API tokens don't have this suffix

Environment Variable (Recommended)

For security, store your API token in an environment variable:

export DEEPL_API_TOKEN="your-token-here"

Then in your Neovim config:

api_token = os.getenv("DEEPL_API_TOKEN")