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What is Aquilla?

Aquilla is a web-first scripture translation platform. It gives translators, reviewers, and project leads a real-time, collaborative editor for translating texts — running entirely in the browser at aquilla.app, with no install required. For a visual tour of the product, see the Aquilla homepage.

Aquilla is the successor to Codex, the older VS Code extension. If you’ve used Codex, you’ll recognise the paired source-and-target editing model — but Aquilla rebuilds it around live collaboration, in-browser audio, an AI copilot, and built-in quality checks.

  • Translate side by side. Every text is broken into cells — small, paired units (a verse, a heading, a footnote). You see the source on one side and type your translation on the other.
  • Work together, live. When a teammate is editing a cell, you see it happen in real time — including who’s working where, so two people don’t collide on the same line.
  • Get AI help. An AI copilot can draft a suggested translation and produce a back-translation so you can check that the meaning carried across.
  • Use your voice. Listen to any cell read aloud with in-browser text-to-speech, or record audio and have it transcribed — all without a server round-trip.
  • Keep quality high. Built-in checks flag likely problems, a terminology system keeps key words consistent, and reviewers validate cells until a project is confidently complete.

Aquilla is built for translators and reviewers in language communities — people doing scripture translation, localized publications, and terminology work. The design assumes:

  • Non-technical users. Aquilla borrows its polish from tools like Linear and Notion, not from a code editor. There’s no command line and no jargon to learn.
  • Shared and lower-spec devices. Many translators work on modest hardware, sometimes shared between team members.
  • Patchy connectivity. Your edits are saved locally first and sync when the connection is healthy, so a brief network drop won’t lose your work.

A few ideas shape the whole product. They’re worth knowing up front:

  • There is no “Save” button. Aquilla saves continuously. Your edits become durable records the moment you move on from a cell — there’s nothing to commit, push, or publish. See Editing cells.
  • Quality is a signal, not a gate. Aquilla surfaces health and decay markers to show where attention is needed, but it never blocks you from working. See Decay markers.
  • One source of truth. Once a project lives in Aquilla, Aquilla is the single source of truth for it. Projects imported from Codex flow in one direction. See Migrating from Codex.