# gt: General Translation CLI tool: Lottie
URL: https://generaltranslation.com/en-GB/docs/cli/reference/formats/lottie-files.mdx
---
title: Lottie
description: Translate dotLottie animation files with the General Translation CLI. API reference for the Lottie file format.

---

The CLI translates text in binary dotLottie (`.lottie`) animation files and writes each result as a complete `.lottie` file. Lottie jobs include an asynchronous layout-processing phase, so they use the split stage-and-download workflow.

## Configuration [#config]

Add a `lottie` entry under `files` with an `include` array of glob patterns. Use the `[locale]` placeholder so the CLI can find source animations and save translated files for each target locale.

```json title="gt.config.json"
{
  "defaultLocale": "en",
  "locales": ["es", "fr"],
  "files": {
    "lottie": {
      "include": ["animations/[locale]/**/*.lottie"],
      "exclude": ["animations/[locale]/drafts/**"]
    }
  }
}
```

With this config, source animations come from `animations/en/`, and translated animations are saved under `animations/es/` and `animations/fr/`. See the [configuration reference](/docs/cli/reference/config#files) for the shared file keys.

## Translation workflow [#workflow]

Run [`gt stage`](/docs/cli/reference/commands/stage) to submit the animations, then run [`gt download`](/docs/cli/reference/commands/download) until every locale has finished:

```bash
npx gt stage
npx gt download
```

Translations that are still processing are skipped. Re-run [`gt download`](/docs/cli/reference/commands/download) later to retrieve them; the staged entry remains in `gt-lock.json` until every configured locale has been downloaded.

[`gt translate`](/docs/cli/reference/commands/translate) cannot complete an unstaged Lottie job in a single run. When `stageTranslations` is `false` and the config includes Lottie files, it exits with guidance to use [`gt stage`](/docs/cli/reference/commands/stage) and [`gt download`](/docs/cli/reference/commands/download).

## Expressions [#expressions]

Lottie files containing After Effects expressions are rejected because expressions contain executable JavaScript. Re-export the animation with the expressions removed or baked into keyframes, then stage it again.

## Fonts [#fonts]

Add a top-level [`fonts`](/docs/cli/reference/config#fonts) configuration if an animation uses fonts that may not be available during layout processing:

```json title="gt.config.json"
{
  "fonts": {
    "include": ["public/fonts/**/*.{ttf,otf}"]
  }
}
```

The CLI uploads matching fonts before queuing translation jobs. If a font cannot be synced, translation continues with fallback fonts and a warning is issued.

## Binary output [#binary]

The CLI internally represents `.lottie` files as base64, then decodes downloaded results back into binary files. Do not treat downloaded content as UTF-8 text or manually edit the intermediate base64 data.