Build in Public: January 2026 Recap
January is usually a slow month. Not this year. I spent it heads-down shipping features, writing tests, and preparing two products for public launch. Here's the recap.
Laravel Translations v2: Stable
The free package has been stable since the December release. The feedback loop has been great — real users finding real edge cases that I wouldn't have caught in testing.
Key improvements shipped this month:
- Better search — Translations are now searchable across all groups with instant filtering
- Bulk operations — Select multiple translations and delete, export, or reassign them
- Improved import performance — Large language files (1000+ keys) now import 3x faster thanks to batch inserts
The test suite is at 33 test files and growing. Every bug report gets a regression test before the fix.
Translations Pro: Early Access
The Pro package entered early access this month. A small group of users is testing the AI translation, quality checks, and revision history features.
What's Working Well
- AI translations — Users are translating entire applications in minutes instead of days. The glossary-aware context is getting positive feedback.
- Revision history — Being able to see who changed what, and roll back if needed, has been a favorite for teams.
- Quality checks — The automatic validation catches placeholder mismatches and HTML tag issues that humans miss.
What Needs Work
- Analytics dashboard — The translation coverage stats need better visualization. The data is there, but the charts aren't telling the story well enough yet.
- Hardcoded string detection — The React scanner has some false positives with JSX expressions. Working on better filtering.
kit: Getting Close
kit had the most progress this month. The focus was on three areas:
Admin Panel
The admin panel got a complete UI overhaul. User management, impersonation, billing overview, and content management are all working. The React components use the same shadcn/ui library as the rest of kit, so everything feels consistent.
Notification System
All 9 channels are tested and working:
| Channel | Tests |
|---|---|
| 31 | |
| In-app (database) | 28 |
| WebSocket | 22 |
| Slack | 24 |
| Discord | 19 |
| Teams | 18 |
| Telegram | 21 |
| SMS (Twilio) | 17 |
| Webhooks | 23 |
The notification preferences UI lets users pick which channels they want for each notification category. Digest batching groups multiple notifications into a single message.
Documentation Module
The docs module now supports three search drivers: Algolia, Meilisearch, and Typesense. Markdown content is indexed on save, and search results include highlighted excerpts. This was a satisfying one to build — the search feels fast and accurate.
Numbers This Month
- 47 commits across all three projects
- 189 new tests written
- 0 production incidents (knock on wood)
- 12 early access users on Translations Pro
February Goals
- Launch Translations Pro to general availability
- Ship the kit onboarding module (fixing the redirect flow bug)
- Start the kit public beta
- Write documentation for all kit modules
The messy middle is getting less messy. Two products are approaching launch-ready, and the third is already live and stable. February is going to be a good month.