Catalog

The catalog is a browsable view of your Messagevisor project: definitions, their relationships, history, examples, and generated views. It is the easiest way to review a project with other humans in a visual way.

Preview#

From an example project:

Main commands#

Command

$ npx messagevisor catalog         # run in dev mode
$ npx messagevisor catalog --port=3100
$ npx messagevisor catalog export  # static export to catalog/ directory
$ npx messagevisor catalog serve   # serve the static catalog locally
$ npx messagevisor catalog serve --port=3100

Command	Description
`catalog`	Run locally so it auto updates as you edit files
`catalog export`	Generate static catalog files on disk (preferably in CI)
`catalog serve`	Serve the static catalog locally

Both catalog and catalog serve use port 3000 by default. Pass --port=<number> or -p <number> when that port is already in use.

Routing behavior#

By default, the catalog uses browser routing, assuming it is hosted on the root of (sub)domain.

That means:

URLs are clean
deep links do not include #
refreshes on deep routes work as long as the host serves index.html for unmatched app routes

If you need hash routing instead, opt in explicitly:

Command

$ npx messagevisor catalog export --hashRouter
$ npx messagevisor catalog serve --hashRouter

Use hash routing when:

your host cannot fall back to index.html
you want static routing behavior without server-side rewrite support

What the catalog shows#

The catalog includes:

messages, locales, attributes, segments, and targets
entity relationships
translations, overrides, formats, and history
set-aware views for sets-based projects
locale and message examples
locale duplicate translation reports
permalinkable example rows and translation rows where supported
locale direction metadata, including RTL-aware rendering for translated content

Why use the catalog#

The catalog is useful for:

code review
onboarding teammates
sharing deep links to a specific message, override, translation row, or example
finding duplicate translation values for a locale without running a separate terminal command
comparing locale and target behavior without running ad hoc CLI commands repeatedly

For product managers, content designers, localization leads, and legal reviewers, the catalog is the human-readable layer over the same definitions engineers validate in CI. It lets reviewers see copy, context, examples, and targeting rules without needing to understand every YAML field.

Review workflow#

A practical catalog review usually looks like this:

run npx messagevisor catalog while authoring
open the message, locale, or target being changed
inspect translations, overrides, examples, and related segments
export, host, and share deep links in the pull request for reviewers
run tests before merging

For hosted documentation or release review, generate the static catalog with catalog export and publish it next to the built datafiles or as a CI artifact.

This is meant to be private for your organization, and not shared with the wider world.

Export and deployment notes#

The catalog is a generated artifact. Treat it like build output:

regenerate when project content changes
publish static files if you want a hosted catalog
prefer browser routing when your host supports SPA fallback routes