Nuxt Module

Options and Limits

Options

Options go under i18nKit in nuxt.config.ts. That block configures this module and nothing else — no kit policy is read from it. Policy lives in i18n-kit.config.ts or .i18n-mcp.json; see Where Configuration Lives.

Option	Type	Default	Effect
`enabled`	`boolean`	`true`	With `false`, the module does nothing: no artifact, no validation. The CLI falls back to adapter detection, exactly as without the module installed.
`failOnInvalidConfig`	`boolean`	`true`	With `false`, configuration problems are printed at their own level and the build continues. See What It Validates.

nuxt.config.ts

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['@nuxtjs/i18n', '@the-i18n-kit/nuxt'],
  i18nKit: {
    enabled: true,
    failOnInvalidConfig: true,
  },
})

There is no third option, and in particular no option for the artifact's path or filename: the CLI looks for <app>/.nuxt/i18n-kit.json without loading your Nuxt config, so a renamed or relocated artifact is simply not found.

Limits

The artifact is a build product. A checkout that has never built does not have one, and neither does a CI job that runs the kit before the build. That is the central limit, and it is why kit policy is deliberately not published here: anything reaching the CLI only through a build applies only after a build.

Everything the CLI can find wrong with an artifact is treated as a reason to fall back to loading the app through Nuxt — never as an error.

Situation	What the CLI does
No `.nuxt/i18n-kit.json`	Loads the app, with no message. This is the state of every project that has not built.
The file is not valid JSON	Warns `Ignoring <path>`, with the parse error, and loads the app
The file does not match the shape this CLI understands — including a `version` other than `1`, an empty locale table, or no layers	Warns `Ignoring <path>: not a shape this CLI understands`, naming the field and the reason, and loads the app
A `nuxt.config` of the app or of any layer the artifact describes is newer than the artifact	Warns that it has changed since generation, suggests `nuxt prepare`, and loads the app
The artifact describes layers but none with a locale directory	Warns `describes no locale directories`, and loads the app
A custom `buildDir`, or the file renamed	The CLI does not find it, so it loads the app as it would without the module

Falling back is not free: loading the app requires @nuxt/kit in the project and a nuxt.config.ts that evaluates in the environment the CLI is running in. When that fails, the Nuxt adapter reports it.

Staleness is judged by modification time against each nuxt.config the artifact names — the app's and every layer's. An unreadable timestamp is not treated as evidence of staleness, and a config the CLI cannot find is skipped. Editing a file that a nuxt.config reads, without touching the config itself, does not make the artifact look stale.

Two more limits, on the producer side:

The module publishes nothing without @nuxtjs/i18n. With no i18n block on the resolved Nuxt options, or with a block that resolves zero usable locales, it warns and writes no file. An empty locale table would leave the CLI unable to tell "no locales" from "not built".
JSON locale files only. localeFileFormat is published as json and the CLI accepts nothing else in the artifact.

The reliable arrangement in CI is to run nuxt prepare (or your normal build) before any kit command. Without it, commands still work — they load the app — so a pipeline that forgets loses speed, not correctness.

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What It Validates

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