WP POT Generator

Generate .pot translation files for WordPress plugins and themes using WP-CLI's wp i18n make-pot.

Quick start

Add this step to your workflow:

- name: Generate POT file
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1

That's it. The action scans your repository, auto-detects the plugin/theme slug and text domain, and writes a .pot file to ./languages/<slug>.pot.

Inputs

All inputs are optional. Defaults work for most standard setups.

Input	Default	Description
working-directory	.	Root for relative paths. Relative to repo root, or absolute.
source	.	Directory to scan for translatable strings. Relative to working-directory, or absolute.
output-file	./languages/<slug>.pot	Where to write the .pot file. <slug> is replaced with the actual slug. Relative to working-directory, or absolute.
slug	(auto-detected)	Plugin or theme slug. Auto-detected from the source directory name. For example, if source is /repos/my-plugin, slug becomes my-plugin.
domain	(auto-detected)	Text domain to filter by. Auto-detected from the plugin's Text Domain: header or theme's style.css. When set, only strings with this domain are extracted.
package-name	(none)	Value for the Project-Id-Version POT header. Defaults to the slug if not set.
headers	(none)	Additional POT headers as a JSON string. Example: {"Report-Msgid-Bugs-To":"https://example.com"}
exclude	(none)	Comma-separated patterns to skip. Example: vendor,node_modules,build
include	(none)	Comma-separated patterns to scan only these paths. Files outside the patterns are ignored.
ignore-domain	false	When true, extract strings with any text domain. Useful when your plugin bundles third-party libraries.

Outputs

These are available for downstream steps:

Output	Description
output-path	Absolute path to the generated .pot file.
output-directory	Absolute path to the directory containing the .pot file.
string-count	Number of translatable strings found (excluding the POT header).
slug	The slug that was used (auto-detected or explicitly set).

Examples

Plugin with custom values

Use when the directory name differs from your canonical slug, or you want full control.

- name: Generate POT
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1
  with:
    slug: my-plugin
    domain: my-plugin
    package-name: My Plugin

WordPress theme

Themes declare their text domain in style.css instead of a PHP file.

- name: Generate POT
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1
  with:
    working-directory: ./my-theme
    output-file: ./languages/my-theme.pot

Exclude third-party directories

Skip vendor, build, or dependency directories.

- name: Generate POT
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1
  with:
    exclude: "vendor,node_modules,build,dist"

Scan only specific files

Limit scanning to certain paths when your source is large.

- name: Generate POT
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1
  with:
    include: "includes/*,templates/*"

Extract all strings (ignore text domain)

Catch strings from third-party libraries that use their own domain.

- name: Generate POT
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1
  with:
    ignore-domain: true

Use outputs in later steps

Report or upload the generated file.

- name: Generate POT
  id: pot
  uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1

- name: Report result
  run: |
    echo "Found ${{ steps.pot.outputs.string-count }} translatable strings"
    echo "POT saved to ${{ steps.pot.outputs.output-path }}"

Full CI/CD integration

Generate the POT on every push and save it as a build artifact.

name: Generate translations

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  pot:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Generate POT
        id: pot
        uses: WPTechnix/wp-pot-generator@v1
        with:
          slug: my-plugin
          domain: my-plugin
          package-name: My Plugin
          exclude: "vendor,node_modules"

      - name: Upload POT
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: translations
          path: ${{ steps.pot.outputs.output-directory }}

How it works

This action runs wp i18n make-pot inside the official WP-CLI Docker image. Your repository is mounted into the container, the source directory is scanned for __() and _e() calls, and the resulting .pot file is written back to your workspace.

The entrypoint script handles path resolution, slug and domain auto-detection, optional WP-CLI flags, and outputs the result for downstream steps. Refer to the WP-CLI documentation for details on how strings are extracted.

Prerequisites

Your repository needs to contain a WordPress plugin or theme with a text domain declared:

• Plugin: add Text Domain: my-plugin to the main plugin file's comment block.
• Theme: add Text Domain: my-theme to style.css.

Without these, WP-CLI will fall back to the directory name as the text domain.

License

MIT