Accent
Developer-oriented translation tool.
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Fetched · June 5, 2026 ★ 1,486 Updated: June 5, 2026
README
<div align="center">
<img src="logo.svg" width="300" />
<p>
<br /><strong>The first developer-oriented translation tool</strong>
<br />True asynchronous flow between translators and your team.
<br />
</p>
</div>
[Demo](https://accent-demo.fly.dev) • [Website](https://www.accent.reviews) • [GraphiQL](http://demo.accent.reviews/graphiql/)
[](https://github.com/mirego/accent/actions)
[](https://coveralls.io/github/mirego/accent?branch=master) [](https://gitter.im/mirego/accent?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
[](https://hub.docker.com/r/mirego/accent/)
[](https://hub.docker.com/r/mirego/accent/)
Accent provides a powerful abstraction around the process maintaining translations in a web/native app.
- **History**. Full history control and actions rollback. _Who_ did _what_, _when_.
- **UI**. Simple yet powerful UI to enable translator and developer to be productive.
- **CLI**. [Command line tool](https://github.com/mirego/accent/tree/master/cli) to easily add Accent to your developer flow.
- **Collaboration**. Centralize your discussions around translations.
- **GraphQL**. The API that powers the UI is open and documented. It’s easy to build a plugin/cli/library around Accent.
## Contents
| Section | Description |
| --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [🚀 Getting started](#-getting-started) | Quickly setup a working app |
| [🚧 Requirements](#-requirements) | Dependencies required to run Accent’ stack |
| [🎛 Mix commands](#-executing-mix-commands) | How to execute mix task with the Twelve-Factor pattern |
| [🏎 Quickstart](#-quickstart) | Steps to run the project, from API to webapp, with or without Docker |
| [🌳 Environment variables](#-environment-variables) | Required and optional env var used |
| [✅ Tests](#-tests) | How to run the extensive tests suite |
| [🚀 Heroku](#-deploy-on-heroku) | Easy deployment setup with Heroku |
| [🌎 Contribute](#-contribute) | How to contribute to this repo |
## 🚀 Getting started
Easiest way to run an instance of Accent is by using the offical docker image: https://hub.docker.com/r/mirego/accent
1. The only external dependancy is a PostgreSQL database.
2. Create a `.env` file. Example:
```
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres@docker.for.mac.host.internal/accent_development
DUMMY_LOGIN_ENABLED=1
# Required for session management. Must be a 64-byte string.
# Generate one using: openssl rand -hex 64
SECRET_KEY_BASE=KEY
```
3. Run the image
```shell
$ docker run --env-file .env -p 4000:4000 mirego/accent
```
This will start the webserver on port 4000, migrate the database to have an up and running Accent instance!
## 🚧 Requirements
- `erlang ~> 26.1`
- `elixir ~> 1.15`
- `postgres >= 9.4`
- `node.js >= 16.19`
## 🎛 Executing mix commands
The app is modeled with the [_Twelve-Factor App_](https://12factor.net/) architecture, all configurations are stored in the environment.
When executing `mix` commands, you should always make sure that the required environment variables are present. You can `source`, use [nv](https://github.com/jcouture/nv) or a custom l33t bash script.
Every following steps assume you have this kind of system.
But Accent can be run with default environment variables if you have a PostgreSQL user named `postgres` listening on port `5432` on `localhost`.
### Example
With `nv` you inject the environment keys in the context with:
```shell
$ nv .env mix <mix command>
```
## 🏎 Quickstart
_This is the full development setup. To simply run the app, see the *Getting started* instructions_
1. If you don’t already have it, install `nodejs` with `brew install nodejs`
2. If you don’t already have it, install `elixir` with `brew install elixir`
3. If you don’t already have it, install `postgres` with `brew install postgres` or the Docker setup as described below.
4. Install dependencies with `make dependencies`
5. Create and migrate your database with `mix ecto.setup`
6. Start Phoenix endpoint with `mix phx.server`
_That’s it!_ You should now be able to open the app at `http://localhost:4000`
### Makefile
The Makefile should be the main entry for common tasks such as tests, linting, Docker, etc. This simplifies the development process since you don’t have to search for which service provides which command. `mix`, `npm`, `prettier`, `docker`, `stylelint`, etc are all used in the Makefile.
### Docker
For the production setup, we use Docker to build an OTP release of the app. With docker-compose, you can run the image locally. Here are the steps to have a working app running locally with Docker:
_When running the production env, you need to provide a valid authentication setup in the `environment` section in `docker-compose.yml` file._
See the following sections to see available variables to enable third-party logins or dummy login (email only, no password).
1. Run `make build` to build the OTP release with Docker
2. Run `make dev-start-postgresql` to start an instance of Postgresql. The instance will run on port 5432 with the `postgres` user. You can change those values in the `docker-compose.yml` file.
3. Run `make dev-start-application` to start the app! The release hook of the release will execute migrations and seeds before starting the webserver on port 4000 (again you can change the settings in `docker-compose.yml`)
_That’s it! You now have a working Accent instance without installing Elixir or NodeJS!_
## 🌳 Environment variables
Accent provides a default value for every required environment variable. This means that with the right PostgreSQL setup, you can just run `mix phx.server`.
| Variable | Default | Description |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `DATABASE_URL` | `postgres://localhost/accent_development` | A valid database URL |
| `PORT` | `4000` | A port to run the app on |
| `SECRET_KEY_BASE` | _DEFAULT_UNSAFE_KEY_ | The secret key that is used to encrypt session (cookie) |
| `SIGNING_SALT` | _DEFAULT_UNSAFE_SALT_ | The salt used to sign session cookies |
### Production setup
| Variable | Default | Description |
| ----------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `RESTRICTED_PROJECT_CREATOR_EMAIL_DOMAIN` | _none_ | If specified, only authenticated users from this domain name will be able to create new projects. |
| `FORCE_SSL` | _false_ | If the app should always be served by https (and wss for websocket) |
| `SENTRY_DSN` | _none_ | The _secret_ Sentry DSN used to collect API runtime errors |
| `WEBAPP_SENTRY_DSN` | _none_ | The _public_ Sentry DSN used to collect Webapp runtime errors |
| `CANONICAL_URL` | _none_ | The URL of the app. Used in sent emails and to redirect from external services to the app in the authentication flow. |
| `DISABLE_CANONICAL_HOST_REDIRECT` | _none_ | Remove the redirect to the canonical host URL. Use with caution. |
| `STATIC_URL` | _none_ | The URL of the app. Default to the CANONICAL_URL value. |
| `WEBAPP_SKIP_SUBRESOURCE_INTEGRITY` | _none_ | Remove integrity attributes on link and script tag. Useful when using a proxy that compress resources before serving them. |
| `DATABASE_SSL` | _false_ | If SSL should be used to connect to the database |
| `DATABASE_POOL_SIZE` | _10_ | The size of the pool used by the database connection module |
| `MACHINE_TRANSLATIONS_VAULT_KEY` | _DEFAULT_UNSAFE_VAULT_KEY_ | The secret key that is used to encrypt machine translations services config key |
| `TZDATA_AUTOUPDATE_DISABLED` | _none_ | Turn off automatic updates for Tzdata, needed when running read-only containers |
| `SECRET_KEY_BASE` | _DEFAULT_UNSAFE_KEY_ | The secret key that is used to encrypt session (cookie) |
### Authentication setup
Various login providers are included in Accent using Ueberauth to abstract services.
| Variable | Default | Description |
| -------------------------- | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `DUMMY_LOGIN_ENABLED` | _none_ | If specified, the password-less authentication (with only the email) will be available. |
| `GITHUB_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `GITLAB_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `GITLAB_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `GITLAB_SITE_URL` | `https://gitlab.com` | |
| `GOOGLE_API_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `GOOGLE_API_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `SLACK_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `SLACK_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `SLACK_TEAM_ID` | _none_ | |
| `DISCORD_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `OIDC_CLIENT_ID` | _none_ | |
| `OIDC_CLIENT_SECRET` | _none_ | |
| `OIDC_DISCOVERY_URI` | _none_ | |
| `OIDC_UID_FIELD` | `sub` | |
| `OIDC_SCOPE` | `openid profile email` | |
### Email setup
If you want to send emails, you’ll have to configure the following environment variables:
| Variable | Default | Description |
| ------------------ | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `MAILER_FROM` | _none_ | The email address used to send emails. |
| `SENDGRID_API_KEY` | _none_ | Use SendGrid to send emails |
| `MANDRILL_API_KEY` | _none_ | Use Mandrill to send emails |
| `MAILGUN_API_KEY` | _none_ | Use Mailgun to send emails |
| `MAILGUN_DOMAIN` | none | Use a custom domain in Mailgun |
| `MAILGUN_BASE_URI` | none | [Send emails from a different server](https://hexdocs.pm/bamboo/Bamboo.MailgunAdapter.html#module-api-base-uri-configuration) |
| `SMTP_ADDRESS` | _none_ | Use an SMTP server to send your emails. |
| `SMTP_API_HEADER` | _none_ | An optional API header that will be added to sent emails. |
| `SMTP_PORT` | _none_ | The port ex: (25, 465, 587). |
| `SMTP_PASSWORD` | _none_ | The password for authentification. |
| `SMTP_USERNAME` | _none_ | The username for authentification. |
### Metrics and monitoring setup
If you want to track performance of Accent, you can configure NewRelic with the following environment variables:
| Variable | Default | Description |
| ----------------------- | ------- | ---------------- |
| `NEW_RELIC_APP_NAME` | _none_ | Service APM name |
| `NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY` | _none_ | License key |
### OpenTelemetry
Accent ships with OpenTelemetry instrumentation for Phoenix, Absinthe, Ecto, Oban, Dataloader, Bandit, and Tesla. Traces are exported via OTLP when the endpoint is configured.
| Variable | Default | Description |
| ----------------------------- | --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT` | _none_ | OTLP collector endpoint (e.g. `http://localhost:4318`). No traces are exported when this is not set. |
| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL` | `http_protobuf` | Transport protocol: `http_protobuf` or `grpc`. |
| `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS` | _none_ | Comma-separated `key=value` headers added to export requests. |
| `OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES` | _none_ | Comma-separated `key=value` resource attributes (e.g. `service.name=accent`). |
#### Google Cloud Platform (Cloud Trace)
To send traces directly to [GCP Cloud Trace](https://cloud.google.com/trace) via the Telemetry OTLP API:
1. **Enable the Telemetry API** in your GCP project:
```
gcloud services enable telemetry.googleapis.com
```
2. **Grant IAM roles** to the service account running Accent:
- `roles/telemetry.tracesWriter`
3. **Set environment variables:**
```
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT=https://telemetry.googleapis.com
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL=grpc
OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=gcp.project_id=YOUR_PROJECT_ID
```
On GCP-managed runtimes (Cloud Run, GKE, GCE), authentication is handled automatically via the attached service account and Application Default Credentials (ADC).
4. **View traces** in the [Cloud Trace console](https://console.cloud.google.com/traces).
### Kubernetes helm chart setup
You can setup the project with [a helm chart like this one](https://github.com/andreymaznyak/accent-helm-chart). This project uses [a fork by andreymaznyak](https://github.com/andreymaznyak/accent) and not this canonical repository. The specs and values may need to be updated if you use this repo.
## ✅ Tests
### API
Accent provides a default value for every required environment variable. This means that with the right PostgreSQL setup (and a few setup commands), you can just run `mix test`.
```shell
$ npm --prefix webapp run build
$ mix ecto.setup
$ mix test
```
The full check that runs in the CI environment can be executed with `./priv/scripts/ci-check.sh`.
## 🚀 Deploy on Heroku
An Heroku-compatible `app.json` makes it easy to deploy the application on Heroku.
<a href="https://heroku.com/deploy?template=https://github.com/mirego/accent">
<img src="https://www.herokucdn.com/deploy/button.svg" alt="Deploy on Heroku" />
</a>
### Using Heroku CLI
_Based on [this guide](https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/container-registry-and-runtime#getting-started)_
```
$> heroku create
Creating app... done, ⬢ peaceful-badlands-85887
https://peaceful-badlands-85887.herokuapp.com/ | https://git.heroku.com/peaceful-badlands-85887.git
$> heroku addons:create heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev --app peaceful-badlands-85887
Creating heroku-postgresql:hobby-dev on ⬢ peaceful-badlands-85887... free
Database has been created and is available
$> heroku config:set FORCE_SSL=true DATABASE_SSL=true DUMMY_LOGIN_ENABLED=true --app peaceful-badlands-85887
Setting FORCE_SSL, DATABASE_SSL, DUMMY_LOGIN_ENABLED and restarting ⬢ peaceful-badlands-85887... done
$> heroku container:push web --app peaceful-badlands-85887
=== Building web
Your image has been successfully pushed. You can now release it with the 'container:release' command.
$> heroku container:release web --app peaceful-badlands-85887
Releasing images web to peaceful-badlands-85887... done
```
## 🌎 Contribute
Before opening a pull request, please open an issue first.
Once you’ve made your additions and the test suite passes, go ahead and open a PR!
Don’t forget to run the `./priv/scripts/ci-check.sh` script to make sure that the CI build will pass :)
## License
Accent is © 2015-2019 [Mirego](https://www.mirego.com) and may be freely distributed under the [New BSD license](http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause). See the [`LICENSE.md`](https://github.com/mirego/accent/blob/master/LICENSE.md) file.
## About Mirego
[Mirego](https://www.mirego.com) is a team of passionate people who believe that work is a place where you can innovate and have fun. We’re a team of [talented people](https://life.mirego.com) who imagine and build beautiful Web and mobile applications. We come together to share ideas and [change the world](http://www.mirego.org).
We also [love open-source software](https://open.mirego.com) and we try to give back to the community as much as we can.
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