translate-patcher

translate-patcher is a terminal UI patcher for embedding external translation dictionaries into visual novel game resources.

The first supported target is MTool-style JSON applied to TyranoScript games packaged as Electron ASAR archives. The goal is simple: Linux/Wine users can patch the game resource package once and play without running MTool or a live text hook.

Status

This repository is in early development. The current MVP can:

• scan the launch folder for resources/app.asar and *.json
• let the user choose specific ASAR and JSON files inside the launch folder's parent
• preview Tyrano scenario count and estimated translation matches
• create a timestamped .bak
• patch data/scenario/**/*.ks inside the ASAR
• write translate-patcher-report.txt

Image text, video subtitles, Kirikiri, Ren'Py, Unity, and arbitrary binary formats are out of scope for v0.1.

Usage

Start the app from a game folder:

translate-patcher

The TUI shows detected files and asks for confirmation before modifying anything. By default it uses a conservative TyranoScript strategy:

• replace plain scenario text
• replace #character name lines
• keep Tyrano tags and resource paths intact

The patch is written in place after a backup is created:

resources/app.asar.YYMMDD-HHMMSS.bak

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NihilDigit/translate-patcher/main/install.sh | bash

The installer downloads the latest GitHub Release artifact for the current Linux platform, verifies checksums, and installs translate-patcher to ~/.local/bin.

Supported installer targets:

• x86_64-unknown-linux-musl
• aarch64-unknown-linux-musl

Build

cargo build

Run the TUI:

cargo run -p translate-patcher

Quality checks:

cargo fmt --check
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo test

Release Versioning

translate-patcher uses CalVer tags:

vYY.MM.DD
vYY.MM.DD-1

Release binaries are built by GitHub Actions from manually pushed tags.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later.