🔧 Custom Language Detection in Nuxt I18n Micro

📖 Overview

Nuxt I18n Micro v3 provides a centralized composable — useI18nLocale() — for all locale management. This replaces the manual useState/useCookie patterns from v2. By using useI18nLocale().setLocale() in a server plugin, you can implement any custom detection logic while keeping full compatibility with the module's redirect and cookie systems.

🏗️ Architecture

Key principle: Call useI18nLocale().setLocale() in a server plugin with order: -10. This updates both useState('i18n-locale') and the locale cookie atomically, so the i18n plugin (order: -5) and the server redirect plugin (order: 10) see the correct locale on the first SSR request. Client-side auto-redirects run in the global route middleware on subsequent navigations.

🛠️ Disabling Built-In Auto-Detection

If you want full control over locale detection, disable the built-in mechanism:

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  i18n: {
    autoDetectLanguage: false,
  },
})

✨ Example: Server-Side Detection with useI18nLocale

This is the recommended approach for all strategies.

Step 1: Configure nuxt.config.ts

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['nuxt-i18n-micro'],
  i18n: {
    strategy: 'no_prefix', // Works with ANY strategy
    defaultLocale: 'en',
    localeCookie: 'user-locale',
    autoDetectLanguage: false,
    locales: [
      { code: 'en', iso: 'en-US' },
      { code: 'de', iso: 'de-DE' },
      { code: 'ja', iso: 'ja-JP' },
    ],
  },
})

Step 2: Create plugins/i18n-loader.server.ts

import { defineNuxtPlugin, useRequestHeaders } from '#imports'

export default defineNuxtPlugin({
  name: 'i18n-custom-loader',
  enforce: 'pre',
  order: -10, // Execute BEFORE the i18n plugin (which has order -5)

  setup() {
    const { setLocale } = useI18nLocale()
    const headers = useRequestHeaders(['host', 'x-country', 'accept-language'])
    let detectedLocale = 'en'

    // --- YOUR DETECTION LOGIC ---

    // Example 1: By domain
    const host = headers['host']
    if (host?.includes('example.de')) {
      detectedLocale = 'de'
    }
    // Example 2: By custom header
    else if (headers['x-country'] === 'JP') {
      detectedLocale = 'ja'
    }
    // Example 3: By Accept-Language header
    else if (headers['accept-language']?.includes('de')) {
      detectedLocale = 'de'
    }

    // --- APPLY THE LOCALE ---
    setLocale(detectedLocale)
  },
})

How It Works

1. Plugin runs first (order: -10) — detects locale from headers, domain, or other sources
2. setLocale() updates both useState('i18n-locale') and cookie — ensures immediate visibility to all subsequent plugins
3. i18n plugin (order: -5) reads the locale and loads correct translations
4. Server redirect plugin (order: 10) uses the locale for redirect decisions on SSR
5. Client route middleware (i18n-redirect) applies redirects on SPA navigation when the URL locale does not match preference

🌐 Strategy-Specific Behavior

useI18nLocale().setLocale() works with all strategies. The redirect behavior depends on the strategy:

Redirect behavior

Strategy	Effect of setLocale('de')
no_prefix	Renders in German, no URL change
prefix	302 → /de/ (server-side redirect)
prefix_except_default	302 → /de/ if de ≠ default; no redirect if de = default
prefix_and_default	No redirect (both / and /de/ are valid)

Important notes:

• Cookie-based locale detection is disabled by default (localeCookie: null)
• Set localeCookie: 'user-locale' to enable cookie persistence
• If the cookie/state value is not in the locales list, it falls back to defaultLocale

🏢 Advanced: Domain-Based Detection

For multi-domain setups where each domain serves a different locale:

import { defineNuxtPlugin, useRequestHeaders } from '#imports'

export default defineNuxtPlugin({
  name: 'i18n-domain-loader',
  enforce: 'pre',
  order: -10,

  setup() {
    const { setLocale } = useI18nLocale()
    const headers = useRequestHeaders(['host'])
    const host = headers['host'] || ''

    let detectedLocale = 'en'

    if (host.endsWith('.de') || host.includes('german.')) {
      detectedLocale = 'de'
    } else if (host.endsWith('.fr') || host.includes('french.')) {
      detectedLocale = 'fr'
    } else if (host.endsWith('.jp') || host.includes('japanese.')) {
      detectedLocale = 'ja'
    }

    setLocale(detectedLocale)
  },
})

🔄 Advanced: Respecting User Preference

If users can manually switch language, respect their choice over auto-detection:

import { defineNuxtPlugin, useRequestHeaders } from '#imports'

export default defineNuxtPlugin({
  name: 'i18n-smart-loader',
  enforce: 'pre',
  order: -10,

  setup() {
    const { getLocale, setLocale } = useI18nLocale()

    // If user already has a preference (from cookie), respect it
    if (getLocale()) {
      return
    }

    // Otherwise, detect locale from headers
    const headers = useRequestHeaders(['accept-language'])
    let detectedLocale = 'en'

    const acceptLanguage = headers['accept-language'] || ''
    if (acceptLanguage.includes('de')) {
      detectedLocale = 'de'
    } else if (acceptLanguage.includes('ja')) {
      detectedLocale = 'ja'
    }

    setLocale(detectedLocale)
  },
})

⚙️ Server-Only or Client-Only Plugins

Use Nuxt filename conventions to control where your plugin runs:

• Server-Only: i18n-loader.server.ts — runs only during SSR (recommended for header-based detection)
• Client-Only: i18n-loader.client.ts — runs only in the browser (for localStorage or DOM-based detection)

TIP

For locale detection that relies on server headers (x-country, accept-language, host), always use a server-only plugin. Headers are not available on the client.

✅ Summary

Feature	Description
useI18nLocale().setLocale()	Updates useState + cookie atomically; works with all strategies
useI18nLocale().getLocale()	Returns current locale from state or cookie
useI18nLocale().getPreferredLocale()	Returns preferred locale (validated against locales list)
Plugin order: -10	Ensures your plugin runs before i18n initialization
enforce: 'pre'	Runs in the "pre" plugin group

Do NOT:

• Use useCookie('user-locale') directly — useI18nLocale() manages cookies internally
• Use useState('i18n-locale') directly — use useI18nLocale().setLocale() instead
• Set order >= -5 — your plugin must run before the i18n plugin