What do translation statuses mean?

Every translation in Better i18n has a status that tracks its progress through your workflow. Statuses help teams coordinate who needs to do what.

The four statuses

Draft

A translation that has been created or edited but not yet submitted for review. This is the default status when you:

• Edit a translation inline in the editor
• Import translations via CLI or JSON upload
• Use AI to generate a translation

Who sees it: The person editing the translation.

Pending

A translation that has been submitted for review. Change a translation to "Pending" when you're done editing and want someone else to check it.

Who sees it: Reviewers and translators looking at the review queue.

Reviewed

A translation that has been checked by a reviewer. This means someone has looked at the translation and confirmed it's accurate, but it hasn't been approved for publishing yet.

Who sees it: Project managers who approve translations for publishing.

Approved

A translation that is ready to be published. Once approved, it will be included in the next publish operation.

Who sees it: Anyone — this is the final status before going live.

Status workflow

The typical flow is:

Draft → Pending → Reviewed → Approved → Published

However, you can skip steps. For example, if you're a solo developer, you might go directly from Draft to Approved.

Status and publishing

Only Approved translations are included when you click "Publish." Draft, Pending, and Reviewed translations stay in the dashboard and don't affect your live app.

This means you can safely edit translations without worrying about breaking your production app — nothing goes live until you explicitly publish.

Filtering by status

In the translation editor, use the status filter to focus on translations at a specific stage. This is essential for review workflows:

• Filter to Pending to see what needs review
• Filter to Approved to verify what will go live on the next publish
• Filter to Missing to find untranslated keys