1.2 – Your first bilingual site

1. Order the content

The simplest way is two language folders:

content/
  de/
    index.md
    kaffee.md
  en/
    index.md
    coffee.md

Other ways — file suffixes, a frontmatter field — are in chapter 2.

2. Install the plugin

npx quartz plugin add github:boxi-os/quartz-multilanguage

3. Add the entry

plugins:
  - source: github:boxi-os/quartz-multilanguage
    enabled: true
    order: 65
    options:
      languages:
        - { code: de, native: Deutsch, locale: de-DE }
        - { code: en, native: English, locale: en-US }
      defaultLanguage: de
    layout:
      position: header
      group: toolbar

One entry is enough. The plugin is several things at once — what, is under 1.3; the configuration notices none of it.

4. Look at it

npx quartz build --serve

The switcher sits at the top right. A click leads from de/kaffee to en/coffee — provided the two are linked. With identical base paths that happens by itself; de/kaffee and en/coffee are named differently, though, and that needs a hint in the frontmatter:

---
title: Kaffee
translationKey: kaffee
---

The same line in en/coffee.md, and the two belong together. Chapter 3 shows the three ways there.

When something is off

What you see	What causes it
No switcher	Only one language configured — or the page has no translation and switcher.missing: hide is set.
The switcher goes to the start page	The pages are not linked. That is the normal case with missing: home.
Every page counts as German	detection finds nothing — check the folder names, or defaultLanguage.
<html lang> is wrong	locale is missing from the language entry; without it the code is used.