CLI Reference

Installation

# Global tool
dotnet tool install -g intelligenthack.MoonBuggy.Cli

# Local tool (project-level, tracked in .config/dotnet-tools.json)
dotnet tool install intelligenthack.MoonBuggy.Cli

Both methods provide the moonbuggy command.

moonbuggy extract

Scans source files for _t() and _m() calls, transforms MoonBuggy syntax to ICU MessageFormat, and writes or updates PO files.

moonbuggy extract [files...] [options]

Arguments

Argument	Description
[files...]	Optional list of specific files to scan. When omitted, scans all files matching the include globs in moonbuggy.config.json.

Options

Flag	Description
--clean	Remove PO entries for strings no longer found in source. Without this flag, obsolete entries are preserved.
--locale <locale>	Extract for specific locale(s) only. Can be repeated: --locale es --locale ru. Must match a locale in the config.
--verbose	Show detailed extraction output.
--watch	Watch mode. Re-extracts when source files change. Respects --locale and [files...] filters.

Examples

# Extract all strings for all locales
moonbuggy extract

# Extract only from specific files
moonbuggy extract Pages/Index.cshtml.cs Pages/Shared/*.cs

# Extract for Spanish only, removing obsolete entries
moonbuggy extract --clean --locale es

# Watch mode during development
moonbuggy extract --watch

Output

Prints a statistics table after extraction:

Catalog statistics:
┌──────────┬─────────────┬─────────┐
│ Language │ Total count │ Missing │
├──────────┼─────────────┼─────────┤
│ en       │     42      │    0    │
│ es       │     42      │    3    │
│ ru       │     42      │    7    │
└──────────┴─────────────┴─────────┘

Behavior

• Non-destructive by default. Existing translations in PO files are preserved. New entries get empty msgstr.
• Idempotent. Running extract twice produces the same result.
• Shared PO files. If Lingui.js also writes to the same PO files, entries from both extractors coexist. They share the same msgid key format (ICU MessageFormat).

moonbuggy validate

Validates PO files for completeness and correctness without modifying them.

moonbuggy validate [options]

Options

Flag	Description
--strict	Fail (exit code 1) on any missing translation (empty msgstr). Without this, missing translations produce warnings.
--locale <locale>	Validate specific locale(s) only. Can be repeated.
--verbose	Show detailed validation output.

Checks performed

1. Completeness — every msgid has a non-empty msgstr.
2. Variable consistency — variables in msgstr match those in msgid. No missing or extra {var} placeholders.
3. ICU validity — msgstr contains valid ICU MessageFormat syntax.
4. Plural forms — plural categories in msgstr match CLDR requirements for the target locale.

Examples

# Validate all locales (warnings only)
moonbuggy validate

# Strict mode for CI — fail on any missing translation
moonbuggy validate --strict

# Validate only Spanish
moonbuggy validate --locale es --verbose

CI integration

Add to your CI pipeline to catch translation issues before they ship:

- name: Validate translations
  run: moonbuggy validate --strict

Configuration

Both commands read moonbuggy.config.json from the current directory. See Configuration for the file format.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	Success
1	Validation failure (with --strict) or error