# Translations and AI assists

> Hand your translations to a translator as a CSV file, and connect your own Anthropic or OpenAI key so imports and grid filters get AI suggestions.

Source: https://www.speclatch.com/guide/members-settings-billing/translations-and-ai
Who: Admin. Plan: Growth plan and up.
Last verified: 2026-11-11

A translator without a login needs your words in a file, and the AI shortcuts on imports and grid filters need a key from your own AI provider. Both are set up once for the whole workspace. To type translations in the app or print in French or Spanish, see [Documents in other languages](/guide/documents/languages).

## Before you start

- Both come with the Growth plan and up, and with the trial.
- Translating needs the Admin, Engineering or Marketing role. Only the Admin role adds or removes the AI key.

## Send translations out as a file

An agency rarely wants a login, so send it a CSV file: every word of one table, or of your portal and templates, beside its English.

1. Open **Translations** in Settings.
2. Under *What to translate*, pick a table, or *Portal & document templates*.
3. Click **Export CSV**.
4. Send the file to your translator, who fills its *fr* and *es* columns.
5. With the same entry still picked, click **Import CSV** and choose the returned file.
6. Read the message, such as *12 updated · 30 unchanged*.

Rows match by *key*, in any order. A blank *fr* or *es* cell removes the translation that was there. If any row is wrong, such as a text over 4,000 characters, nothing changes and the message names the problem.

> **Saving the file from Excel.** In Excel, save it as *CSV UTF-8*, or accented letters arrive garbled. Semicolon-separated files from a French or Spanish Excel work too.

## How AI assists use your key

Each assist is one request to Anthropic or OpenAI, made with the key you save, so the provider bills the account that owns the key. Without a key, nothing is sent.

What a request carries:

- **Suggest with AI** on an import: the file's column headers, up to five sample values per column, and the names, types and units of the table's fields.
- A plain-language filter: your sentence, and the names, types, choices and units of the fields you can see. A field above your visibility isn't named, so it can't be filtered on.

Values stored in your records are not sent. On a pump table, the model learns that *Head at BEP* is stored in ft, but never sees a pump's head. What comes back is a draft: SpecLatch drops any suggestion that doesn't match a real field, an import still waits for your dry run, and a filter only changes what the grid shows.

## Add your key

1. In your Anthropic or OpenAI account, create an API key for SpecLatch and copy it.
2. In SpecLatch, open Settings, then **AI assists**.
3. Paste the key into the box beside *Anthropic* or *OpenAI*.
4. Click **Save key**. The box now shows only the key's last four characters.

![The AI assists page with no key saved: an empty box beside Anthropic and another beside OpenAI, each with a Save key button.](https://www.speclatch.com/guide/members-settings-billing/translations-and-ai-1.png)

*With both keys saved, SpecLatch uses the Anthropic one.*

SpecLatch stores the key encrypted and never shows it again. It isn't tested on save, so a mistyped key shows on the first assist: *Anthropic rejected the API key*. To change a key, click **Remove key**, confirm, and paste the new one. **Activity** records each change. On Starter, a key saved earlier stays listed with **Remove key**.

> **Tip:** A key used by SpecLatch alone shows the assists' cost in your provider's console, and revoking it breaks no other tool.

## Map an import with AI

On **Import**, after uploading a file, click **Suggest with AI** above the column list. It fills only unmapped columns, with a unit when the header names one, and labels each *AI suggested* for you to check. Either key works.

## Describe a filter in plain words

Any member can do this, Viewer included.

1. In a table's grid, click **Filter**.
2. In the first row, type what you want, such as *stainless pumps over 100 ft of head*.
3. Click **Build**.

![The grid's Filter menu with a sentence typed in its first row, a Build button beside it, and Add condition below.](https://www.speclatch.com/guide/members-settings-billing/translations-and-ai-2.png)

*The sentence becomes ordinary conditions, which you can edit like any other.*

They replace the menu's current conditions, and a line under the box names any part of the request the table's fields can't express.