Should app implement multi-language support (i18n) ?

[meloniasty]

Do you think i18n is essential at this stage?

[unidoc-ahall]

Honest answer: not at this stage.

First, an important distinction — there are two "languages" here:

• Content (your documents, registers, templates) is already language-agnostic. It's all user content, so you can run the whole management system in any language today — we even ship an Icelandic template ÍST 85. The actual ISMS content is not blocked.
• UI chrome (buttons, labels, system text) is English-only. That's what i18n would address.

UI i18n is a big, cross-cutting investment — every string externalized, formatting, dates, the lot. At this stage (pre-1.0, small team, building the core) it pulls effort away from the core and isn't essential, precisely because the content side already works in any language.

This is not a "no forever":

1. We keep the discipline of not hardcoding UI strings, so adding languages later is config, not a rewrite.
2. We revisit when there's a concrete market case — which markets, which languages, who specifically needs the UI translated.

So: not now, door left open, and the content is already multilingual today. Which markets/languages are you seeing the pull from?

[meloniasty]

ok, I fully understand. I'm from SME based in Poland:) English is OK for me, but sometimes we can have external auditor that will require local language.

[unidoc-ahall]

That's a fair scenario — and I think it's already covered, at the layer that actually matters to an auditor.

An auditor reviews the management system itself — your policies, risk register, records, evidence — not the application's buttons and menus. That whole content layer is already language-agnostic: documents are git-backed markdown, so you can clone the repo, translate the documents (and the template structure) into Polish, and hand the auditor an ISMS that reads entirely in their language. AI is a natural help for the bulk of that translation. The UI chrome staying in English doesn't change what the auditor is actually reading.

In practice security/ISO audits also tend to run in English — the standards themselves are published in English — so English UI is rarely the blocker; the documented system is what gets scrutinized.

So: local-language content for an auditor is supported today; local-language UI stays on the radar for later if a broader market case builds. (AI-assisted document translation is a natural fit for the AI-first direction — happy to spin up its own thread if that'd be useful to you.)

[unidoc-alip]

Hi @meloniasty, currently we are exploring about adding the i18n into the application and preparing the foundation of multi-language support, as there's related request regarding the i18n feature at #212.

Would you be interested in contributing the Polish translation when the multi-language already supported?

[meloniasty]

I think I can try :)

[unidoc-alip]

Thank you @meloniasty

[unidoc-alip]

Hi @meloniasty, now ISMS supported the multi-language, the foundation of it has been placed.

If you want to try, you can follow this PR #280 regarding the example of the adding another language and translation.

Best,
Alip

[unidoc-ahall]

@meloniasty do you want us to do a PR for the Polish translation and you review it? We now have Icelandic, Indonesian and Portuguese and want to finish the Polish translation. Let us know.

[unidoc-ahall]

Closing this, we merged #318 in with Polish. Please go over it when you get a chance @meloniasty and do a PR to fix any translations that are incorrect thanks :)