setube/github-chinese

What it does

GitHub's interface is English-only by default, which gets in the way of navigation for Chinese-speaking users. This extension replaces interface strings on github.com, gist.github.com and www.githubstatus.com with Simplified or Traditional Chinese, and does the translation locally in the browser.

It translates only interface text, not user-generated content: READMEs, comments, code, commit messages, repository names, usernames and custom labels stay as written. Both dictionaries have more than 30,000 entries organized by page type (repository, issue, pull request, Actions, settings and so on). The Traditional Chinese dictionary is translated from English using Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau terminology rather than converted from Simplified form. Translation follows GitHub's React rendering and page navigation, so text rewritten by the framework is retranslated; attributes such as aria-label, placeholder and title, as well as tab titles, are covered, and <relative-time> elements are localized.

A separate, opt-in accelerator rewrites download links, HTTPS clone URLs and failed image loads to a third-party mirror. It is off by default and can be configured, removed and speed-tested.

Getting started

The fastest route is a store install: Chrome Web Store, Microsoft Edge Add-ons or Firefox Add-ons. After installation the translation applies immediately; already-open GitHub pages do not need a refresh.

To install from a release instead, download the matching package from the releases page and load it manually:

• Chrome: github-chinese-<版本>-chrome.zip — unzip, open chrome://extensions, enable developer mode, choose "Load unpacked" and select the unzipped folder.
• Edge: github-chinese-<版本>-edge.zip — same steps under edge://extensions with developer mode enabled.
• Firefox: github-chinese-<版本>-firefox.xpi — the signed build installs when opened in Firefox; unsigned builds load temporarily via about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox and disappear after restart.

Safari on macOS needs macOS 13+ and Safari 18+. The host app is unsigned and not notarized, so after unzipping and moving GitHub Chinese.app to Applications, clear the quarantine flag:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/GitHub Chinese.app"

Then open the app once to register the extension, enable "Allow unsigned extensions" under Safari's Develop menu, and grant site access for the three supported domains. That setting resets each time Safari quits.

To build from source, you need Bun 1.3+ and Node.js 22.13+:

git clone https://github.com/setube/github-chinese.git
cd github-chinese
bun install
bun run build

The output goes to .output/chrome-mv3; Edge, Firefox and Safari use build:edge, build:firefox and build:safari. Load the unpacked folder the same way as above.

Settings and page control

The popup offers a master switch, current-page status, per-page exclusion, time localization, title translation, download acceleration, interface language, translation language and appearance. Translation language defaults to the browser language when it is Chinese (Traditional for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Hant; otherwise inferred from timezone), and switching it retranslates open pages.

The options page handles exclusion paths (one per line, starting with /, case-insensitive, where * matches one segment and ** any number), custom dictionary entries imported or exported as {"原文": "译文"} JSON, and accelerator configuration.

Constraints and caveats

• Supported browsers: Chrome and Edge versions with Manifest V3, Firefox 140+, Firefox Android 142+, and Safari 18+ on macOS.
• Translation is performed locally and no data is sent to the developer. With acceleration enabled, download URLs, clone URLs and failed image URLs go to the mirror you choose.
• Accelerator URLs must be https, with {url} or {path} placeholders; mirrors differ in which addresses they support. Built-in mirrors are third-party volunteer services whose availability changes, and they can see your IP and download URLs and modify downloaded files. When cloning through a mirror, the remote points at the mirror and credentials are sent there on push; restore the original remote with git remote set-url origin https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>.git before pushing.
• Private and internal repositories and secret gists are not accelerated. Page CSS and JS are never accelerated because GitHub's content security policy only loads them from github.githubassets.com.
• Settings use storage.sync and may follow a browser account; custom entries use storage.local.
• The extension is MIT licensed. The Traditional Chinese dictionary is a separate translation from English, not a Simplified-to-Traditional conversion.

HotRepo's take

HotRepo's record for this project is a single snapshot: on 2026-11-01 it appeared on the TypeScript new-project list with 174 stars and 13 forks, having gained 74 stars in the window from 2026-10-31 13:45 UTC to 2026-11-01 09:45 UTC. The hourly star samples in that window move from 100 to 174 without a jump, which matches a steadily growing young repository rather than a sudden spike. No all-language daily rank was recorded, so there is no basis for placing it on the main GitHub daily chart. The distinguishing technical detail is that the Traditional dictionary is translated from English with regional terminology and validated through a parity check against the Simplified one, which sets it apart from extensions that rely on script conversion.