Translation services

Translation services

These routes call a translation service: text goes in, a translation comes back. Some of these services run a language model behind their API, but none takes a prompt from this tool. They need no model and often no key. They also cannot answer a question, so everything in this tool that asks the model something is off on them.

The routes

Pick one with --api_format.

--api_format	service	key	target languages
google	Google Translate's public web endpoint	none	most; the source is detected
deepl	DeepL through the RapidAPI DeepL Translator	--key, or BBM_DEEPL_API_KEY	DeepL's list; others are refused with DeepL do not support …
deeplfree	DeepL's free web endpoint	none	DeepL's list
caiyun	Caiyun	--key, or BBM_CAIYUN_API_KEY	Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese
tencent	Tencent TranSmart	none	Chinese or English
customapi	your own HTTP service	none; the address goes in --api_base	whatever your service does

Both DeepL routes send the source as English. Use them for English books.

Caiyun publishes a test token, 3975l6lr5pcbvidl6jl2, for trying the route; for your own, follow this tutorial.

Commands

Google

bbook_maker \
  --book_name my_book.epub \
  --api_format google \
  --language zh-hant

DeepL

bbook_maker \
  --book_name my_book.epub \
  --api_format deepl \
  --key ${deepl_key} \
  --language ja

DeepL free

bbook_maker \
  --book_name my_book.epub \
  --api_format deeplfree \
  --language de

Caiyun

bbook_maker \
  --book_name my_book.epub \
  --api_format caiyun \
  --key ${caiyun_key} \
  --language zh-hans

Tencent

bbook_maker \
  --book_name my_book.epub \
  --api_format tencent \
  --language zh-hans

Custom API

bbook_maker \
  --book_name my_book.epub \
  --api_format customapi \
  --api_base https://your.host/translate \
  --language ja

The custom API contract

The tool sends one POST per paragraph to --api_base, form-encoded, with three fields: text, source_lang and target_lang. It reads the translation from the data field of the JSON answer. Each request times out after 10 seconds, and the tool waits 5 seconds between requests. --source_lang reaches your service here.

What these routes cannot do

• No prompt. --prompt has no place to go; the text is sent alone.
• No session. --use_context session is refused: there is no conversation to keep.
• No plan classification by the engine itself. On an EPUB the run falls back to the --translate-tags selection (p by default), so verse or tables outside <p> stay untranslated. Name an LLM classifier and the book gets a full plan while the engine translates: --classify-model gpt-6-luna (it reads OPENAI_API_KEY), or a provider entry's classify_model. This was run end to end on Google Translate. Without one, --plan-classify model is refused, and --plan-classify all still translates every block the plan finds without asking anyone. See Plan mode.
• No glossary. --glossary is read only by the OpenAI- and Codex-shaped routes; here it is ignored with a warning.
• No stated source language on google, deepl, deeplfree, caiyun and tencent. --source_lang is ignored with a warning; only customapi (and the qwen LLM route) send it.

Everything else works: --test, --resume, --single_translate, the per-format flags on the Formats pages.

Rate limits

Caiyun prints will sleep 60s for the time limit when it is rate-limited, and waits. DeepL free and Tencent pause between requests on their own. The patient retry policy applies to every route.