jesseduffield/lazygit · error

Language not found: {{configLanguage}}

Error message

Language not found: {{configLanguage}}

What it means

i18n.NewTranslationSetFromConfig accepts 'en' or any code present in the built-in languageCodes list; anything else returns this error. The configured gui.language must match a translation lazygit actually ships. 'en' is special-cased because English is the base set embedded in the binary.

Source

Thrown at pkg/i18n/i18n.go:47

			}
		}

		// Detecting a language that we don't have a translation for is not an
		// error, we'll just use English.
		return EnglishTranslationSet(), nil
	}

	if configLanguage == "en" {
		return EnglishTranslationSet(), nil
	}

	if slices.Contains(languageCodes, configLanguage) {
		return newTranslationSet(log, configLanguage)
	}

	// Configuring a language that we don't have a translation for *is* an
	// error, though.
	return nil, errors.New("Language not found: " + configLanguage)
}

func newTranslationSet(log *logrus.Entry, language string) (*TranslationSet, error) {
	log.Info("language: " + language)

	baseSet := EnglishTranslationSet()

	if language != "en" {
		translationSet, err := readLanguageFile(language)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
		err = mergo.Merge(baseSet, *translationSet, mergo.WithOverride)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to c477a2959b)

Solutions

1. Set gui.language to 'en' or to a supported code; check the languages documented in docs (e.g. 'de', 'fr', 'ja', 'zh-CN', 'nl', 'pl', 'ru').
2. Restart lazygit after fixing the config.
3. If you expected the language to exist, update lazygit — the translation list grows over releases.

Example fix

# before
gui:
  language: 'enu'
# after
gui:
  language: 'en'

// Before setting gui.language, check it against the shipped codes:
if language != "en" && !slices.Contains(languageCodes, language) {
    return fmt.Errorf("unsupported language %q", language)
}

func isSupportedLanguage(code string, supported []string) bool {
    return code == "en" || slices.Contains(supported, code)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Setting gui.language in config.yml to a code that is not in languageCodes (e.g. 'zz', a regional variant like 'pt-BR' when only 'pt' exists, or a typo like 'enu').

Common situations: Manually editing config.yml after seeing a language name (not code) in docs; using a two-letter code for a language whose translation was removed or renamed between lazygit releases.

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AI-assisted analysis of jesseduffield/lazygit@c477a2959b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/58d54a3658ee5b91. Report an issue: GitHub.