Locize MCP Server

The Locize MCP (Model Context Protocol) server lets AI assistants — Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and others — interact directly with your translation projects.

Server URL: https://mcp.locize.app

Setup

Claude Desktop / claude.ai (OAuth)

1. Go to Settings > Connectors > Add custom connector
2. Enter URL: https://mcp.locize.app
3. Click Connect — your browser opens a login/consent screen
4. Sign in with your Locize account and grant the requested permissions
5. A Personal Access Token is created automatically in your profile

Claude Code (CLI)

claude mcp add --transport http locize https://mcp.locize.app

Then run /mcp in a Claude Code session and complete the OAuth flow.

Note: After first-time OAuth, Claude Code may show "Authentication successful, but server reconnection failed." This is a known Claude Code issue — simply restart Claude Code and the server will connect automatically using the stored token.

Other HTTP-native clients (Cursor, VS Code, etc.)

Add the server URL https://mcp.locize.app in your client's MCP settings and complete the OAuth flow. The exact steps vary by client — consult your client's MCP documentation.

Stdio transport (PAT — alternative)

For clients that support stdio but not HTTP, use mcp-remote as a bridge:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "locize": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.locize.app"]
    }
  }
}

Authentication

The MCP server supports two authentication methods:

OAuth 2.0 (recommended) — used automatically by Claude Desktop, Cursor, and other MCP clients that support it. No manual token management needed. The OAuth flow creates a Personal Access Token in your profile automatically. Access can be revoked at any time.

Personal Access Token (PAT) — for CI/CD, scripts, or clients that don't support OAuth. Create one in your profile under Personal Access Tokens. Pass it as Authorization: Bearer lz_pat_.... See the PAT documentation for details on scopes and security.

Available tools

The MCP server exposes 22 tools organized by workflow:

Discovery

Translation content

Release workflow

Branch workflow

Project structure

Example prompts

Once connected, you can ask your AI assistant things like:

• "Find all missing German translations in the checkout namespace"
• "Publish the latest version of my project"
• "Add Japanese to all versions"
• "Create a branch for the v2 feature, translate it, then merge it back"
• "Show me which keys changed in English this week"
• "Report these new keys from my codebase to Locize"
• "What's the translation coverage for the production version?"

PAT scopes

Tools require specific PAT scopes. If a tool returns a scope error, your token needs additional permissions.

Beyond PAT scopes

PAT scopes are only the first gate. Your project-level role and permissions still apply on top:

• Project role — your role on a given project (admin / manager / publisher / user / accountant) always wins when it is stricter than the PAT scope. For example, a PAT with manage scope called by a user whose project role is readonly still cannot modify that project.
• Language / version / namespace scope — if your membership is restricted to specific languages, versions, or namespaces, get_translations and find_missing_translations will reject requests outside that scope.
• translateOnly users — the structural tools (add_language, remove_language, change_languages, add_version, delete_version, publish_version, copy_version, copy_language, create_branch, merge_branch, rename_namespace, delete_namespace) are blocked for users marked translate-only.
• Blocked / revoked access — if your project membership is blocked or your PAT has been revoked, every tool call fails immediately with a 401.
• Parent project access — for tenant and branch projects, merging translations with the parent only happens if your PAT also has access to the parent project; otherwise you see the child-only view.

Technical details

• Transport: Streamable HTTP (Web Standard Request/Response)
• Auth: OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Code + PKCE with Dynamic Client Registration) or PAT Bearer token
• Endpoint: POST https://mcp.locize.app
• OAuth metadata: GET https://mcp.locize.app/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource
• Stateless: Each request creates a fresh MCP server instance. No session management required.

See also

• Why not just use AI to translate? — how Locize and AI tools complement each other
• Automatic Translation — combine saveMissing with AI auto-translation for a fully automated workflow
• Personal Access Tokens — create and manage tokens for MCP authentication