Lokalise Cost TuningSAFE

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The instruction file, verbatim from the audited commit — this is the text the model reads, and the surface the audit's instruction layer examines. Quoted here so you can judge it without cloning anything.

---
name: lokalise-cost-tuning
description: 'Optimize Lokalise costs through plan selection, usage monitoring, and
  efficiency.

  Use when analyzing Lokalise billing, reducing costs,

  or implementing usage monitoring and budget alerts.

  Trigger with phrases like "lokalise cost", "lokalise billing",

  "reduce lokalise costs", "lokalise pricing", "lokalise budget".

  '
allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash(curl:*), Bash(jq:*), Grep
version: 1.14.0
license: MIT
author: Jeremy Longshore <[email protected]>
tags:
- saas
- lokalise
- monitoring
- cost-optimization
compatibility: Designed for Claude Code
---
# Lokalise Cost Tuning

## Overview

Optimize Lokalise localization spending across plan tiers, contributor seats, Translation Memory (TM) leverage, machine translation (MT) triage, and dead key cleanup. Lokalise pricing is per-seat subscription (Essential ~$120/user/month, Pro ~$290/user/month) with optional pay-per-use for MT and AI features.

## Prerequisites

- Lokalise Admin role for billing and usage visibility
- `LOKALISE_API_TOKEN` with read access to project statistics
- Understanding of translation workflow (human, MT, or hybrid)
- `curl` and `jq` for API queries

## Instructions

### Step 1: Audit Current Usage

```bash
set -euo pipefail
echo "=== Lokalise Usage Audit ==="

# Get all projects with statistics
PROJECTS=$(curl -sf "https://api.lokalise.com/api2/projects?limit=100&include_statistics=1" \
  -H "X-Api-Token: ${LOKALISE_API_TOKEN}")

echo "$PROJECTS" | jq -r '.projects[] | [.name, .statistics.keys_total, (.statistics.languages // [] | length), .statistics.progress_total] | @tsv' \
  | column -t -s $'\t' -N "Project,Keys,Languages,Progress%"

# Totals
TOTAL_KEYS=$(echo "$PROJECTS" | jq '[.projects[].statistics.keys_total] | add')
TOTAL_LANGS=$(echo "$PROJECTS" | jq '[.projects[] | (.statistics.languages // [] | length)] | max')
PROJECT_COUNT=$(echo "$PROJECTS" | jq '.projects | length')

echo ""
echo "Totals: ${PROJECT_COUNT} projects, ${TOTAL_KEYS} keys, up to ${TOTAL_LANGS} languages"
echo ""

# Contributor count (seats = cost driver)
TEAMS=$(curl -sf "https://api.lokalise.com/api2/teams" \
  -H "X-Api-Token: ${LOKALISE_API_TOKEN}")
echo "$TEAMS" | jq -r '.teams[] | "Team: \(.name) — \(.users_count) users (seats)"'
```

### Step 2: Reduce Per-Seat Costs

Seats are the largest cost driver. Strategies to minimize:

```typescript
import { LokaliseApi } from "@lokalise/node-api";
const lok = new LokaliseApi({ apiKey: process.env.LOKALISE_API_TOKEN! });

// Audit: Find inactive contributors (no activity in 90 days)
async function findInactiveContributors(projectId: string): Promise<void> {
  const contributors = await lok.contributors().list({
    project_id: projectId,
    limit: 500,
  });

  console.log("=== Contributor Activity Audit ===");
  for (const c of contributors.items) {
    const langs = c.languages
      .map((l: { lang_iso: string }) => l.lang_iso)
      .join(", ");
    console.log(
      `${c.fullname} <${c.email}> — ` +
      `admin: ${c.is_admin}, reviewer: ${c.is_reviewer}, ` +
      `languages: [${langs}]`
    );
  }

  console.log(`\nTotal contributors: ${contributors.items.length}`);
  console.log(
    "Review: Remove freelancers between tasks. " +
    "Use contributor groups for batch management."
  );
}

// Strategy: Use task-based access for freelance translators
// - Add freelancers when a translation task opens
// - Remove them when the task closes
// - This avoids paying for idle seats
// Cost example: 10 individual seats = ~$1,200/month
//               3 permanent + task-based freelancers = ~$360/month
```

### Step 3: Maximize Translation Memory (TM) Hits

TM matches reduce human translation volume. Keys with 100% TM match cost zero for translation.

```typescript
// Strategy: Translate similar projects sequentially to build TM
// Don't translate 3 apps in parallel — do one first, seed the TM,
// then the others get 30-50% free matches on shared strings

// Enable automations on upload to apply TM automatically
const uploadResult = await lok.files().upload(projectId, {
  data: base64FileData,
  filename: "en.json",
  lang_iso: "en",
  use_automations: true,      // Apply TM + MT suggestions
  replace_modified: true,
  detect_icu_plurals: true,
});

// Check TM coverage after upload
const languages = await lok.languages().list({ project_id: projectId, limit: 50 });
for (const lang of languages.items) {
  console.log(
    `${lang.lang_iso}: ${lang.statistics?.progress ?? 0}% translated, ` +
    `${lang.statistics?.words_to_do ?? "?"} words remaining`
  );
}
```

### Step 4: Machine Translation Triage

Pre-translate low-risk content with MT. Reserve human translation for critical strings.

```bash
set -euo pipefail
# Identify untranslated key volume per language
curl -sf "https://api.lokalise.com/api2/projects/${LOKALISE_PROJECT_ID}/languages" \
  -H "X-Api-Token: ${LOKALISE_API_TOKEN}" \
  | jq '.languages[] | {
    locale: .lang_iso,
    progress: .statistics.progress,
    words_to_do: .statistics.words_to_do
  }'
```

**MT triage matrix — decide by key prefix:**

| Key Prefix | Content Type | Translation Method | Cost Impact |
|-----------|-------------|-------------------|-------------|
| `tooltip.*`, `help.*` | Tooltips, help text | Machine Translation | Low risk, high volume savings |
| `log.*`, `debug.*` | Log messages | MT or skip | These rarely face users |
| `ui.label.*`, `nav.*` | UI labels, navigation | Human | Medium risk, must be natural |
| `marketing.*`, `cta.*` | Marketing copy, CTAs | Human (senior) | High risk, brand-critical |
| `legal.*`, `tos.*` | Legal text | Human + legal review | Compliance-critical |

### Step 5: Clean Up Dead Keys

Orphaned keys waste per-word costs and clutter the project.

```typescript
import { readFileSync } from "fs";

async function findOrphanedKeys(
  projectId: string,
  sourceCodeDir: string
): Promise<string[]> {
  // Get all keys from Lokalise
  const allKeys: string[] = []

SAFEgrade B · trust 89/100 Nothing in the source contradicts what it says it does. Grade A is reserved for packages that have also passed the behavioural sandbox.

What the source does

Filesystem

none-observed

Network

none-observed

Shell

none-observed

Dependencies

pinned

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none-found

Findings (0)

No findings outside the package's declared scope.

Gates applied: no_behavioural_pass.