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First login and translation

This guide walks you through first login, workspace creation, and translating your first file in Bowrain. The steps below use the browser; the desktop app follows the same flow after its own first sign-in.

Prerequisites​

You need access to a Bowrain server — a hosted workspace at app.bowrain.cloud or one your team runs. Open your server URL in a browser to begin. (Running your own server? See For developers → Self-hosting.)

Logging In​

The web UI redirects you to your configured identity provider for authentication. Depending on your provider configuration, you will see options like:

  • Username & password — sign in with your account
  • Self-registration — create a new account (if enabled in your identity provider)
  • Social login — GitHub, Google, LDAP, or other configured identity providers

After authenticating, you are redirected back to the Bowrain web UI with an active session.

Personal Workspace​

After your first login, a personal workspace is automatically created for you. This workspace is named after your display name and is ready to use immediately — no manual workspace creation needed.

Creating a Team Workspace​

To collaborate with others, create an additional workspace:

  1. Click the + button in the workspace rail (left edge of the screen)
  2. Enter a Name (e.g., "My Team") — the slug is auto-generated
  3. Adjust the Slug if needed (URL-safe identifier)
  4. Click Create

You are automatically added as the workspace owner and switched to the new workspace.

Creating a Project​

  1. From the Translate view (the default), click New Project
  2. Enter the Project name (e.g., "Website Translation")
  3. Select the Source language (e.g., English)
  4. Select one or more Target languages (e.g., French, German, Japanese)
  5. Click Create

The project opens in the project view.

Uploading Files​

  1. Drag and drop files onto the upload zone in the project view, or click Add Files to browse
  2. The server auto-detects the file format (HTML, XML, JSON, YAML, PO, Markdown, XLIFF, and more)
  3. Files appear in the file list with format icon, block count, and word count

Supported formats include all formats registered in the neokapi format registry. See Formats for the complete list.

Opening the Editor​

Click any file name in the project view to open it in the translation editor. The editor loads all translatable blocks from the file and displays them in a source/target grid.

Translating​

Manual Translation​

  1. Click a target cell or press Enter on the selected row to start editing
  2. Type the translation
  3. Press Enter to save and advance to the next block, or Escape to cancel

AI Translation​

  1. Configure an AI provider in the backend (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Ollama)
  2. Click AI Translate in the toolbar to translate the entire file
  3. Review and edit the AI-generated translations as needed

Machine Translation​

  1. Configure an MT provider (DeepL, Google, Microsoft, ModernMT, or MyMemory)
  2. Select the provider from the toolbar dropdown
  3. Click AI Translate to translate the file using the selected MT engine

Reuse from content memory​

  1. In Pre-process, choose Recycle from memory to pre-fill targets across the whole file
  2. Exact and high-confidence fuzzy matches land as drafts; the editor's context panel shows the per-block matches with their scores
  3. In Review, Apply exact Memory fills the selected blocks from exact matches only

See Content memory for the entry browser and how matching works.

Pseudo-Translation​

Click Pseudo in the toolbar to generate pseudo-translations — useful for testing layout and character handling before starting real translation.

Exporting​

Click the Export button in the toolbar to download the translated file in its original format with all translations applied.

Inviting Team Members​

Invite colleagues to your workspace using the invitation system:

  1. Go to Settings in the sidebar
  2. Scroll to the Invitations section
  3. Enter the email address of the person to invite
  4. Select a role:
    • Admin — manage projects and members
    • Member — translate and review content
    • Viewer — read-only access
  5. Click Invite

This creates an invite link. You can:

  • Copy the link and share it directly (via Slack, email, etc.)
  • If SMTP is configured, the invite is also sent by email automatically

When the invited person clicks the link, they are directed to authenticate with the identity provider. After signing in (or registering), they are added to the workspace with the assigned role.

You can manage pending invitations in the Settings page — view active invites, see usage counts, and revoke invites that are no longer needed.

CLI Connection​

Connect kapi to your server for command-line workflows:

kapi auth login    # the hosted service is the default; --server for self-hosted

This starts a device authorization flow:

  1. The CLI displays a URL and a one-time code
  2. Open the URL in your browser
  3. Enter the code to authorize the CLI
  4. The CLI receives a token and stores it locally

After login, CLI commands automatically authenticate with the server.

Claiming Anonymous Projects​

If you started with kapi init locally (without a server connection), you can claim that project into your server workspace:

kapi auth claim

This transfers the anonymous local project into your personal workspace on the server, preserving all files and translations.

What's Next​