Extension silently fails to activate when locale folder contains non-locale subdirectories (e.g. namespace directories)

[gkn1234]

Scenario

I'm working on a Nuxt 4 project using @nuxtjs/i18n 10.1.0. My translations are organized by namespace — each feature area has its own subdirectory under i18n/locales/:

i18n/locales/
├── en.json              ← global keys
├── zh.json
├── home/
│   ├── en.json          ← $t('home.gallery.collection')
│   └── zh.json
├── workspace/
│   ├── en.json          ← $t('workspace.export.title')
│   └── zh.json
├── assets/
├── config/
├── dialog/
├── error/
├── generate/
├── guide/
├── ...                  ← ~20 namespace directories in total

My .vscode/settings.json:

"i18n-ally.localesPaths": ["i18n/locales"],
"i18n-ally.namespace": true,
"i18n-ally.pathMatcher": "{namespace?}/?{locale}.json",
"i18n-ally.keystyle": "nested"

Problem

After installing i18n Ally v2.13.1, the extension appears activated (icon shows in Activity Bar), but:

• Sidebar shows 0 keys in use
• No inline translation annotations in .vue files
• Output panel stops at 🚀 Initializing loader "..." with no further output — no error, no warning

The extension fails completely silently.

Investigation

1. Checked Output panel (i18n Ally) — log stops abruptly after 🚀 Initializing loader, missing expected subsequent lines like 📂 Directory structure:, 📂 Loading locales under, ✅ Loading finished

2. Opened Developer Tools (Cmd+Shift+P → Developer: Toggle Developer Tools) → Console shows:

   Activating extension 'lokalise.i18n-ally' failed: Invalid language tag: home.
   

3. Traced through the source code — the crash occurs in LocaleLoader.guessDirStructure():

   const positives = dirnames
     .map(d => Config.tagSystem.lookup(d))

   Config.tagSystem.lookup() calls Intl.getCanonicalLocales() internally. When it encounters a directory named home (which is not a valid BCP47 language tag), Intl.getCanonicalLocales('home') throws RangeError: Invalid language tag: home.

   This exception is not caught anywhere in the call chain (guessDirStructure → init → initLoader → update → updateRootPath), causing the entire extension activation to fail.

Root cause

Same as #701 (reported Dec 2021, still open). The guessDirStructure() method assumes all subdirectory names under localesPaths are either valid locale codes or will be handled gracefully. In reality, namespace-based directory structures (which is a common pattern and even documented in the i18n Ally wiki) produce directory names like home, assets, dialog that are not valid BCP47 tags.

Suggested fix

Wrap the lookup call in a try-catch so invalid tags are treated as non-locale directories (which is the correct behavior for the "guess" logic):

const positives = dirnames
  .map((d) => {
    try {
      return Config.tagSystem.lookup(d)
    } catch {
      return undefined
    }
  })

Workaround

Explicitly set "i18n-ally.dirStructure": "file" to skip guessDirStructure() entirely.

Environment

• i18n Ally: v2.13.1
• VS Code: latest
• OS: macOS (Darwin 25.2.0)
• Framework: @nuxtjs/i18n 10.1.0 (Nuxt 4 / Vue 3)

[fazcube]

The configuration "i18n-ally.dirStructure": "file" solved my problem. Thank!!!.