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.

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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