Modes

tagent-cli works in one of two modes, chosen by its arguments.

Unified mode (no arguments)

tagent-cli

Two ways to translate run side by side until you quit:

• The interactive prompt in the terminal: type text, press Enter. See Interactive commands.
• The global hotkeys, in any application: select text and press the translate hotkey (Alt+A) or the speech hotkey (Alt+S). See Hotkeys.

Both use the same settings and the same session state: a language switched with /l applies to the hotkey too, and /s can replay a phrase you translated with the hotkey.

At start, a banner shows the languages, the providers, the active hotkeys and the main commands. If your configuration file lacks settings a newer version added, a line under the banner says so; see Upgrading.

CLI mode (with arguments)

tagent-cli "Hello world"          # translate a phrase
tagent-cli translate              # a single word: a dictionary entry
tagent-cli -l de "Hello world"    # into German, for this run only
tagent-cli -l en de "Hello world" # from English into German
tagent-cli -s "Hello world"       # read aloud

One translation, then it exits. No hotkeys, no prompt. The output is plain text when it goes to a file or a pipe, so it works in scripts:

tagent-cli -l en "Guten Morgen" > out.txt

-l doesn’t change the configuration file. All options are listed in Command-line options.

What works where

• On Wayland the hotkeys come from the desktop’s Global Shortcuts portal and need the menu entry (tagent-cli --install-desktop); they translate the mouse selection, and the terminal isn’t brought forward. See Hotkeys: On Wayland.
• Without the portal (Sway, Hyprland) or without XWayland (no DISPLAY), there are no global hotkeys; the prompt and the command line work.
• On macOS, the hotkeys, clipboard and window handling aren’t implemented yet.

See Troubleshooting: Platforms.