iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 17/07/2026

It's in the paper, so I guess it's official now! See you soon, Manitoba! It's been a minute... #5pinbowling #Manitoba #Westman

A black and white newspaper article from The Minnedosa Tribune "Passing the torch: Minnedosa Bowl begins its next chapter as owners Alan and Debbie Tarn hang up their bowling shoes." There are two photos of the couples: me and Joe on the left, and the outgoing owners of the bowling centre Debbie and Alan on the right. The article describes the 65 year history of the bowling centre, the legacy of the outgoing owners, and Joe and I as "the successors."

Includes the anecdote from Joe, "I joked on Facebook that someone needed to buy the place so that I wouldn't."

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 09/05/2026

It's Global Big (bird) Day! An excuse to go hang out in one of my favourite spots before the baseball game. (And, no day is complete without some blue jays!)

The same beach, without me blocking the view.There are tall green trees in the background, but the four ground is mostly red sand and brown grasses.

A view more inland of the marsh from slightly above. There are various pools of water of various depths leading in from the shore.

A blue jay looking into the camera, head slightly turned in a playful manner. It's sitting on a thin branch of a tree that doesn't yet have leaves, although there is greenery in the background.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 23/04/2026

That thing where your crows wonder why you'll rush outside to photograph the eagles flying overhead, but don't pay specific attention to them. After four "hello"s, I came out with peanuts. (This is an older video, but we have regular "Hello Crows" in the backyard.)

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 18/04/2026

Why no, I have no idea why LumaFusion keeps crashing on my Android tablet.

Screenshot of the LumaFusion video editing app showing a dozen seperate tracks, each with several small audio clips making a patchwork of clips and empty spaces. Most individual clips show icons indicating per-clip editing (volume, effects) to more finely control the resulting audio output at every moment.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 03/04/2026

I haven't made the time yet to write about contributing *a cappella* to open source, but at least I now have another example to use when advocating for the opportunities for and importance of contributions beyond code! (Should open source projects have *jingles*??)

A large tablet running a video editing app, showing 5 individual tracks of me singing a different vocal line being stitched together to create one video with 5 headshots. Also on the table in front is an index card with a crudely handwritten musical arrangement of the short song.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 14/03/2026

Done! And, fun fact: thanks for being my very last community docs PR merged to Astro Docs, and giving me one last chance to send a "First Time Contributor" alert. 🫡🥲

Discord app screenshot of me replying to our automated Docsbot account that posts whenever an Astro Docs PR is merged. The bot has posted "Merged! Raymond Camden: Update route caching documentation for production mode (#13404)". My reply is our standard 🚨 FIRST-TIME CONTRIBUTOR ALERT 🚨 with a personalized message: "Welcome to Team Docs, Raymond Camden! We are `caching` in on your contribution! 🪙" The message has a few custom server emoji reactions: Houston partying with light sticks, partying Houston, and an Astro-themed 💯.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 10/03/2026

OK, not the *main* story of the day... but, the v6 major upgrade guide was a BIG part of Team Docs life for months. A lot of us worked on it. I hope it works for you when you upgrade! (And if it doesn't... well, that's just an opportunity to contribute yourself!) docs.astro.build/en/guides/up...

A screenshot of our Discord "Docsbot" that posts a celebratory message every time a docs pull request is merged. It displays a random icon/emoji, which hilariously happens to be our custom :notworsethanwhatwehadbefore: (NWTWWHB!) icon, then lists the PR author, title, and number with a "Thank you" to everyone else credited with a commit, review, or comment on the PR:

Merged! Sarah Rainsberger: Astro v6.0 (#12322)

Thanks ellielok, Florian Lefebvre, Matt Kane, Armand Philippot, Junseong Park, Louis Escher, kato takeshi, knj, Yan, Chris Swithinbank, florian-lefebvre, ArmandPhilippot, ocavue, Erika, Felix Schneider, HiDeoo, OliverSpeir, Matthew Phillips, Emanuele Stoppa, Henri Fournier, bjohansebas, KTrain, Houston (Bot), anaxite, JusticeMatthew, ascorbic, Ntale Swamadu, alexanderniebuhr, delucis, CyberFlame, Rafael ヤスヒデ須藤, Julien Cayzac, Justin Francos, Lieke, Phaneendra, Shinya Fujino, Will, yanthomasdev & trueberryless for helping! ✨

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 28/02/2026

Adding the "Tips & Tools" section for the Astro newsletter today, and you can really see the (helpful!) difference @npmx.dev provides when checking out NPM packages! (Notably, vulnerabilities and "versions behind" warnings in dependencies.)

Screenshot of an NPM package (Astro Markdown Runtime) on npmjs.org, showing basic information about a package such as its README, installation instructions, weekly downloads, size and more. It looks *fine*, and is easy to read.

Screenshot of the same Astro Markdown Runtime NPM package listing at npmx.dev which shows much of the same information, but also includes a caution banner warning that there are vulnerabilities and listing out all the package's dependencies, including a caution that the `astro` dependency is 13 versions behind.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 20/02/2026

What do full-service Astro Docs PR reviews look like? Shout-out to @astro.build core maintainer @armand.philippot.eu for knowing when a (simple?) 1-line docs change has far greater effects that ripple throughout. Check out the before and after!

A screenshot of a GitHub PR proposing 1 line change (updating the type of a property) on a single page.

Screenshot of the summary of the current changes in the PR: 7 files changed, 377 lines of code added and 400 lines of code removed.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 17/02/2026

We use Preact as the example island UI framework in the Astro Docs tutorial! 💜⚛

Screenshot of a page of the Astro Docs tutorial "Build your first Astro island" including a "Get ready to..." page intro which explains that in this lesson, you will add Preact to your Astro project and include Preact components as Astro islands on your home page.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 09/02/2026

"The most anti-fascist espresso machine is the one that already exists." The best thing I've read about fascism and the current state of things in a while, coming at you from a coffee blog. The whole post is a great read! coffeegeek.com/opinions/sta...

The most anti-fascist espresso machine is the one that already exists. Buy a used Gaggia or Rancilio and repair it. Deny the corporations a new sale and keep the tax revenue out of the administration’s hands. Support companies like Baratza that sell you spare parts and provide how-to videos on repairs, and boycott the ones that glue their machines shut. Disposable tech is a tool of control. Repair is an act of rebellion.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 28/01/2026

OK, did everyone eat their Wheaties or what, because I'm compiling new integrations/plugins built for @astro.build this month and ... there are still 20 left to go in my inbox!

A very zoomed out screenshot of the draft of the Tips & Tools section of the Astro What's New monthly blog post showing a list with approximately 40 items.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 16/01/2026

Just gonna be sad for a little while. But life goes on, and still super excited for 2026!

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 10/01/2026

In celebration of the holiday reorg/backup of my nature and birding pics, and doing so in a way that makes my photos easier to access from all my devices, here are two approving swans. 🦢🪶 #BirdPhotography #birding #birds

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 11/12/2025

Attacked. But also, thank you KaraoKeys. 💜 #AltoProblems

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 10/12/2025

I don't have the "Part 2" graphic yet, but @florian-lefebvre.dev and @jbrains.ca will be at it again, next week! Come hang out with the @astro.build community and get a peek at what it takes to *maintain* and *improve* the existing codebase... so we can more easily deliver you shiny new features!

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 10/11/2025

I made the @reactadvanced.gitnation.org marketing email! You want to be a part of the very first React Advanced conference in **Canada**, don't you?? Attend in person (Toronto), or remotely: reactadvanced.com/canada/

A grid of six speakers ("Our stars:") including well-known speakers such as Wes Bos and Josh Comeau but also somehow me, with a link to check out more speakers.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 17/10/2025

React Advanced is coming to Canada for the first time... join me! 50+ talks, deep technical insights, and networking with core contributors, community leaders, and application engineers. Use my 10% speaker discount SARAHGUEST to grab your spot at reactadvanced.com/canada/ #ReactAdvancedCanada

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 11/10/2025

Thanks for having me, @viteconf.org ! It was so nice to meet so many people and have great conversations. (And if you're still in AMS, come to happy hour this evening!) AstroConf when??? Who's in??? (Photo credit: @thebobbyawesome.bsky.social )

Photo taken from the audience perspective of me standing on stage behind a podium and title slide projected on the screen behind me ("Making Meaningful Contributions to Open Source Projects")

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 05/10/2025

In today's edition of "birds or baseball, does it really matter?" 🪶⚾ A juvenile blue jay (pink flexible mouth for easy feeding; slightly lighter colouring, more greyish on the back) for the rookie pitcher Yesavage "built for" taking on the Yankees today. If this doesn't scream LFG... #BlueJays

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 04/10/2025

A little something for everyone, whether you're following the #BlueJays hashtag for birds or baseball! 🪶⚾ One of my favourite action snaps, and appropriate for the energy of the playoff game today! Let's go Blue Jays!!

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 02/10/2025

OK, I think if you're filming a promo for your talk at an upcoming tech conference held in *Canada*, it's entirely appropriate to go all out! #BlueJays

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 30/09/2025

This isn't a ploy to get you to read, subscribe, check for, or open the newsletter... Just sobbing that the exact moment I hit "Publish," Buttondown crashed on me. 😭 So... maybe enjoy this month's The Astro Post? Blog posts and RSS forever, baby! astro.build/blog/whats-new-septembe…

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 23/09/2025

That means @astro.build docs are now powered by @cloudflare.social in more ways than one! 😂 (From the swag prize pack I won at @cfedev.bsky.social 's TheJam[dot]dev 2025!)

A selfie of me holding up a HUGE Cloudflare travel coffee mug (to my head, to show that it is larger than my head, for comparison!) My fingers are clearly struggling to even grip it.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 14/09/2025

Yes, for example, this is my Mastodon app in Dex mode. (Note, it doesn't have a landscape mode, so I'm always using it in a smaller sized "portrait" window on my tablet. I don't know if not building a tablet mode just makes the display simpler)

A social media app header and navigation sitting entirely below Samsung Dex bar to control window actions.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 12/09/2025

Thank you! In multiview, it's perfect. It might have been like this before, but there's a little content hidden in Dex mode (because that puts a horizontal control bar across the top of apps) just fyi. But the update fixed the sidebar/content column display issues, even in Dex! 🥳

Depending on the app's width in Dex, the bar may cut the app menu Items off in the middle

A particular window width where the Samsung Dex bar entirely hides the app's top menu items ... such as the button so I can post this reply!

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 10/09/2025

Hi! The latest update doesn't seem to play nicely with my tablet in landscape mode. It's mostly okay in portrait mode, but since this is a 14 in Samsung Galaxy Tab ultra, it's not often in portrait mode. 😂

The feed is entirely visible, but no navigation bar across the top.

Tablet mode in landscape , but the feed won't show when the viewport is narrowed. The left navigation doesn't shrink to accommodate.

Another issue with cropping in tablet landscape mode. The right pain for the timeline overflows, and the pinned lists and columns at the top are slightly cut off.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 09/08/2025

Zero regrets since I set my lock screen shortcuts to immediately start recording for bird sound identification, and the camera. (I barely know how to find the actual phone app. I've long since removed it from any screen.)

Screenshot of a phone lock screen with 2 app icons, one in each button corner: a flying bird (Merlin app) and camera.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 28/07/2025

I am not joking when I talk about my "evil devices"...

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 03/07/2025

How I relax with some alone time while Joe bowls, after the chaos of launch week, blog post & newsletter, and prepping for tomorrow's release. (4 bars is a pretty good haul for one night. 😅)

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 29/06/2025

I mean, if you don't read the monthly blog post, do you even Astro?? (Alternatively known as, the danger of letting a completist answer the question, "What's new this month?")

A table of contents for the Astro monthly blog post that includes: updates from mission control, latest releases, Astro Adopters, Weird Wide Web, Cosmic Canvas, Community Updates, Astro in the news, migration stories, how-to articles and more, Watch Party, Tips & Tools, Themes & Templates, Showcase, Starlight in the Wild.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 28/05/2025

So hypothetically, if we started streaming Talking and Doc'ing on YouTube, would anyone attend/watch later... #documentation

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 24/05/2025

Perhaps ill-advisedly, Sarah spends Saturday morning on the internet...

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 22/05/2025

Another Thursday means another Talking and Doc'ing, including: 🕵 crowdsourcing some Starlight user testing (cue Sarah's Lab of Evil Devices!) 🪺 prepping for an experimental feature to "leave the nest" and become stable, and what this means for docs 8am ET / 14:00 CEST astro.build/chat

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 03/05/2025

Updating my personal site content and once again distracted by Starlight's built-in "I'm feeling lucky" random theme colour generator so... new light theme! 😂 Rep'ing blue jays and Starlight. (Also, which past version of me wrote the line, "High tech. Low alto." and can I buy her a drink?)

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 26/04/2025

Surprised by a shore bird, as one is. Unusual enough to prompt me to add a photo to my observation as proof, and then I checked: turns out indeed "Greater Yellowlegs" is a Community Target*! 🎯 (*Not yet reported this month, but has been observed around this date in the past, so not unpossible.)

eBirding this month summary for my local area with various statistics and categories like New species seen this month.

Shows a list of Community Target birds with their date last observed and a frequency graph showing when they are expected throughout the year. It includes the bird I saw: Greater Yellowlegs, last observed on Oct 6, 2024.

A screenshot of my submitted birding checklist, showing 9 different species observed in a list, but one additionally includes a thumbnail of photo I took of the Greater Yellowlegs.

A zoomed in photo of a Greater Yellowlegs standing on a damp beach in low tide at the waters edge amid piles of sea kelp/grass. It's a medium-large bird with bright yellow legs that wades in shallow water, with a very long, thin bill. It's grey/brown with white speckles on its back and wings, but its head and underside are white with some grey/brown streaks.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 23/04/2025

Another Thursday, and another Talking & Doc'ing coming up! Tomorrow we'll review our docs "Discussions" from the GitHub repo and figure out which ones to promote to "issues", to tackle as our next big projects... Everyone is welcome to join the call in the Astro Discord! discord.gg/astro-lounge...

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 15/04/2025

Astro's been fine-tuning how we thank non-core contributors in our release blog posts. We now include anyone with a repo contribution since the last minor release... because that's everything that went into making *this* release happen and how we got here! This month, we added the docs repo. 💪📚🌐

A screenshot of a GitHub pull request "diff" screen view for "Thanks to all other contributors who helped make Astro 5.7 possible" showing the original content on the left in red with a list of 5 of contributors, and the changed content on the right in green that now lists a total of 23 contributors.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 12/04/2025

Weekend tinkering: Discovered that eBird helpfully uses its species codes to form each bird page's URL. So, updating my bird app with links to bird info, and to the location of the observation in Google Maps. (Also seems I should tag my Flickr photos with their species code!) #birding

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 12/04/2025

I asked Joe what happens now, and he said, "Now, you are free."

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 10/04/2025

And, nothing says you can't "make a theme your own." I mean, one of these things is not like the other... 😅

A grid of 12 website thumbnails under the heading "Sites: Starlight Blog is already being used in production. These are some of the sites around the web:" 11 of the websites are various versions of a dark black background and lighter black sidebar with occasional tiny splashes of different accent colours.

*My* site, however, is shades of deep red/brown burgundy with gold text.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 06/04/2025

Some dramatic poses in the backyard today. You *got* peanuts. Why the face? 📷🐦🪶 #birds

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 03/04/2025

A super fun (and productive!) Talking and Doc'ing today! Updated our Tailwind docs to help the v3/v4 transition, and in the process discovered a bug with the docs site itself... which we then fixed live. All with ~10 ppl joining in to see how the "docsage" is made, chat, help, & keep us company!

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 30/03/2025

Good morning! Today's the day I go through the 50+ videos I've found over the month to create the Watch Party list for the @astro.build March blog post. Why are you doing this to me so early, Adam?? I have to FOCUS! 😅 (cc @umbraco.umbracocommunity.social.ap.brid.gy )

Screenshot of a Zoom presentation with a minimal slide: Basic Astro Baking and a cartoon graphic of a large chocolate chip cookie. Adam Pendergast and the host are visible, and the video is called Content Delivery with Umbraco CMS | Umbraco Users Group India.

If you look closely, you can see that this is video 49 of 54 in a private YouTube playlist of mine called 2025-03-01 March Blog post.

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 22/03/2025

As an Oshawa-turned-Islander, I have always been strangely comforted by the fact that Monroe Republic never included PEI. I never thought I'd have to care for realz.

A map of the U.S. and some Canada, showing territories from the sci-fi television show "Revolution" that divide the US up into territories including California Common Wealth, Wasteland, Plains Nation, Texas, Georgia Federation, and Monroe Republic, which extends to the north east to include some of eastern/Atlantic Canada. It does not, however, include the small Prince Edward Island, which I have circled on the map as excluded, with a handwritten note: "No one bothered to take PEI."

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 13/03/2025

In case you wondered what some of the chats look like in our private @astro.build maintainer spaces: We see you ❤️'ing! We ❤️ you back!

Screenshot of a Discord post from me:

Random note that I'm seeing a lot of (maybe not new, but not "regular") people in general etc. reacting with full on :heart: emojis a lot, and I just think that's sweet! Yay us for creating that culture/vibe!

(Who would think to walk into a random tech forum/community and just be like hearting all over the place?)

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 27/02/2025

Falling under the category of "Ask me how I know..." (and also under the category, "OK, I know this bug report sounds wildly ridiculous and specific, but hear me out...") Anyway, in TOTALLY UNRELATED news, my dependencies are upgraded and my site builds again! 😄

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Sarah Rainsberger @sarah11918.rainsberger.ca · 27/02/2025

Had to zoom out to fit all of Starlight's now THIRTY built-in languages! 🤯 Thanks to our amazing volunteers who contribute the essential UI labels ("search", "on this page"...) to support docs for your global audience. I've said it before: if you want a vibrant community, welcome translators. 🌐

An object of (mostly) two-letter language codes with each of the following languages on its own line: cs, en, es, ca, de, ja, pt, fa, fr, gl, he, id, it, nl, da, tr, ar, nb, zh, ko, sv, ro, ru, vi, uk, hi, 'zh-TW': zhTW, pl, sk, lv, The final language "lv" is highlighted green because it is being added in this pull request.

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