By adding localization to your project, you can customize the display of the labels and descriptions in the Looker UI based on a user's locale, and you can also localize certain parts of LookML dashboards. See the Localizing your LookML model documentation page for information on setting up your model for localization.
Use the localization_settings parameter to enable localization for your project and to specify how your project handles localization:
The default_locale parameter specifies the default locale strings file that defines which strings in your model are localized. Enter the exact name of the file (case-sensitive) without the file extension. For example, if the strings file is named en.strings.json, you would specify default_locale: en. See the Localizing your LookML model documentation page for information on how the locale strings files work.
The localization_level parameter specifies whether strings with no translation are allowed in your model:
Set the localization level to strict if you want the Looker IDE to return a LookML validation error for any labels or descriptions that aren't defined in the default locale strings file.
Set the localization level to permissive to allow labels and descriptions that aren't defined in the default localization strings file.
See the Localizing your LookML model documentation page for more information on the localization level settings.
Example
In a manifest file, specify that the default locale is "en", and that localization has a permissive policy, so that it's allowed to have a label or description that isn't localized:
project_name: "flights"
localization_settings: {
default_locale: en
localization_level: permissive
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[],[],null,["# localization_settings\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\nUsage\n-----\n\n```\nlocalization_settings: {\n localization_level: permissive\n default_locale: en\n}\n```\n\nDefinition\n----------\n\nBy adding localization to your project, you can customize the display of the labels and descriptions in the Looker UI based on a user's locale, and you can also localize certain parts of LookML dashboards. See the [Localizing your LookML model](/looker/docs/2512/model-localization) documentation page for information on setting up your model for localization.\n\nUse the `localization_settings` parameter to enable localization for your project and to specify how your project handles localization:\n\n- The `default_locale` parameter specifies the default locale strings file that defines which strings in your model are localized. Enter the exact name of the file (case-sensitive) without the file extension. For example, if the strings file is named `en.strings.json`, you would specify `default_locale: en`. See the [Localizing your LookML model](/looker/docs/2512/model-localization#strings) documentation page for information on how the locale strings files work.\n- The `localization_level` parameter specifies whether strings with no translation are allowed in your model:\n\n - Set the localization level to `strict` if you want the Looker IDE to return a LookML validation error for any labels or descriptions that aren't defined in the default locale strings file.\n - Set the localization level to `permissive` to allow labels and descriptions that aren't defined in the default localization strings file.\n\n See the [Localizing your LookML model](/looker/docs/2512/model-localization#localization_level) documentation page for more information on the localization level settings.\n\nExample\n-------\n\nIn a manifest file, specify that the default locale is \"en\", and that localization has a permissive policy, so that it's allowed to have a label or description that isn't localized: \n\n project_name: \"flights\"\n\n localization_settings: {\n default_locale: en\n localization_level: permissive\n }"]]