Translation MCP Server

Multilingual translation for ADK-Rust Enterprise agents. Provides 5 MCP tools across 200+ languages — zero configuration, no API keys required.

Architecture

Key Principles

Zero configuration — works out of the box with no API keys or environment variables.
200+ languages — covers every major language including African, Asian, and indigenous languages.
Translation memory — leverages millions of human-verified translations from MyMemory.
Quality scoring — every translation includes a confidence/quality score.
Batch support — translate into multiple languages in a single call.
Registry-ready — ships with mcp-server.toml for automatic ADK-Rust Enterprise onboarding.

Tools

Tool	Purpose	Risk Class
`translate`	Translate text between any two languages	Read-only
`detect_language`	Detect the language of input text	Read-only
`batch_translate`	Translate text into multiple target languages at once	Read-only
`search_translation_memory`	Search human-verified translation memory	Read-only
`list_languages`	List supported languages with ISO 639-1 codes	Read-only

Backends

Backend	Purpose	Rate Limit
MyMemory	Primary translation engine	5,000 words/day (anonymous)
MyMemory (with email)	Extended quota	30,000 words/day

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install mcp-translate

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/zavora-ai/mcp-translate
cd mcp-translate
cargo build --release

The binary is at target/release/mcp-translate.

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "translate": {
      "command": "mcp-translate"
    }
  }
}

Kiro

Add to your project's .kiro/settings/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "translate": {
      "command": "mcp-translate"
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "translate": {
      "command": "mcp-translate"
    }
  }
}

Windsurf

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "translate": {
      "command": "mcp-translate"
    }
  }
}

Codex (OpenAI)

Add to ~/.codex/config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "translate": {
      "command": "mcp-translate"
    }
  }
}

Open Code

Add to ~/.config/opencode/config.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "translate": {
      "command": "mcp-translate"
    }
  }
}

Any MCP Client (Streamable HTTP)

mcp-translate --transport http --port 8080

Then connect your client to http://localhost:8080/mcp.

Docker

docker run -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/zavora-ai/mcp-translate:latest

Quick Start

Translate text

{
  "name": "translate",
  "arguments": {
    "text": "The future of artificial intelligence is bright",
    "source": "en",
    "target": "sw"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "translation": "Mustakabali wa akili bandia ni mzuri",
  "source_lang": "en",
  "target_lang": "sw",
  "quality": 0.85,
  "alternatives": [
    {
      "translation": "Mustakabali wa akili bandia ni mzuri",
      "quality": "85",
      "source": "Machine Translation"
    }
  ]
}

Detect language

{
  "name": "detect_language",
  "arguments": {
    "text": "Bonjour le monde, comment allez-vous?"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "detected_language": "fr",
  "text_sample": "Bonjour le monde, comment allez-vous?"
}

Batch translate

{
  "name": "batch_translate",
  "arguments": {
    "text": "Hello world",
    "source": "en",
    "targets": ["fr", "de", "ja", "ar", "sw"]
  }
}

Response:

{
  "source": "en",
  "original": "Hello world",
  "translations": [
    { "language": "fr", "translation": "Bonjour le monde" },
    { "language": "de", "translation": "Hallo Welt" },
    { "language": "ja", "translation": "こんにちは、世界。" },
    { "language": "ar", "translation": "مرحبا بكم" },
    { "language": "sw", "translation": "Jambo dunia!" }
  ]
}

Search translation memory

{
  "name": "search_translation_memory",
  "arguments": {
    "text": "Terms and conditions",
    "source": "en",
    "target": "fr"
  }
}

Response:

{
  "query": "Terms and conditions",
  "langpair": "en|fr",
  "matches": 5,
  "results": [
    {
      "segment": "Terms and Conditions",
      "translation": "Termes et conditions",
      "quality": "100",
      "source": "European Commission",
      "last_updated": "2024-03-15"
    }
  ]
}

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Purpose
`MYMEMORY_EMAIL`	No	Increases daily quota from 5,000 to 30,000 words
`RUST_LOG`	No	Log level (default: `info`)

MCP Server Manifest

server_id = "mcp_translate"
display_name = "Translate"
version = "1.0.0"
domain = "translation"
risk_level = "low"
writes_allowed = "none"
transports = ["stdio"]
governance_gates = []

Supported Languages

Major Languages

Code	Language	Code	Language	Code	Language
`en`	English	`fr`	French	`de`	German
`es`	Spanish	`pt`	Portuguese	`it`	Italian
`nl`	Dutch	`ru`	Russian	`zh`	Chinese
`ja`	Japanese	`ko`	Korean	`ar`	Arabic
`hi`	Hindi	`bn`	Bengali	`ur`	Urdu
`tr`	Turkish	`pl`	Polish	`uk`	Ukrainian
`vi`	Vietnamese	`th`	Thai	`id`	Indonesian

African Languages

Code	Language	Code	Language	Code	Language
`sw`	Swahili	`am`	Amharic	`ha`	Hausa
`yo`	Yoruba	`ig`	Igbo	`zu`	Zulu
`af`	Afrikaans	`rw`	Kinyarwanda	`so`	Somali

Nordic Languages

Code	Language	Code	Language	Code	Language
`sv`	Swedish	`no`	Norwegian	`da`	Danish
`fi`	Finnish	`et`	Estonian	`lv`	Latvian

Special Codes

Code	Meaning
`auto`	Autodetect source language

Full list of 200+ languages available via the list_languages tool or at mymemory.translated.net.

Use Cases

Multilingual Customer Support

Agent receives message in unknown language
→ detect_language → "sw" (Swahili)
→ translate (sw→en) → English for agent processing
→ translate (en→sw) → Reply in customer's language

Document Localization

Agent has English documentation
→ batch_translate (en → [fr, de, es, ja, zh])
→ 5 localized versions in one call

Legal/Compliance Translation

Agent needs official translation reference
→ search_translation_memory ("Terms and conditions", en→fr)
→ Returns EU Commission verified translation (quality: 100%)

Content Quality Assurance

Agent receives translation from external source
→ translate (same text, same pair)
→ Compare quality scores and alternatives
→ Flag discrepancies for human review

Testing

# Build
cargo build

# Run (zero config)
cargo run

# Test with MCP client
echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"0.1"}}}' | cargo run 2>/dev/null

Documentation

Document	Description
mcp-server.toml	ADK-Rust Enterprise registry manifest
CHANGELOG.md	Version history
Rust Docs	Generated API documentation

Contributing

Contributions welcome. Priority areas:

Additional translation backends (DeepL, Google Translate with API key)
Glossary/terminology management
Translation caching layer
Document-level translation with formatting preservation

Contributors

James Karanja Maina

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE for details.

Part of the ADK-Rust Enterprise MCP server ecosystem.

Built with ❤️ by Zavora AI

Registry Compliance

This server implements the ADK MCP SDK contract:

HealthCheck — async health probe for registry monitoring
mcp-server.toml — manifest declaring tools, risk classes, and credentials
Structured tracing — RUST_LOG env-filter for observability

mcp-translate 1.0.1

Translation MCP Server

Architecture

Key Principles

Tools

Backends

Installation

From crates.io

Build from source

Claude Desktop

Kiro

Cursor

Windsurf

Codex (OpenAI)

Open Code

Any MCP Client (Streamable HTTP)

Docker

Quick Start

Translate text

Detect language

Batch translate

Search translation memory

Configuration

Environment Variables

MCP Server Manifest

Supported Languages

Major Languages

African Languages

Nordic Languages

Special Codes

Use Cases

Multilingual Customer Support

Document Localization

Legal/Compliance Translation

Content Quality Assurance

Testing

Documentation

Contributing

Contributors

License

Registry Compliance