I wanted to tell my girlfriend something real in Farsi — not phrasebook real, actually real — and every translation tool gave me one answer with no indication of whether it was formal, casual, intimate, or strange. That's how konid started.

The tool returns 3 options for anything you want to say, ordered casual to formal, with the register of each option explained and the cultural nuance between them spelled out. It also plays audio pronunciation through your speakers directly (node-edge-tts, no external API key). Supports 13+ languages including Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Hindi.

The part worth writing about here is the MCP setup. I built konid as an MCP server, which means the same installation runs across every client that speaks the protocol.

claude mcp add konid-ai -- npx -y konid-ai

That one command wires it into Claude Code. Same server works in Cursor, VS Code Copilot, Windsurf, Zed, and JetBrains — add it once in whichever IDE you live in. For ChatGPT users, Developer mode + the endpoint https://konid.fly.dev/mcp connects it as a ChatGPT app. I also use it in Claude Cowork for non-code contexts, like drafting messages I actually want to send.

The practical effect: I'm not context-switching to a separate app or tab. I ask in whatever environment I'm already in. When I'm writing a work email in a language I'm still learning, the translation stays in my editor, with the nuance note right there. I read it, pick the right register, and actually absorb something about why one phrasing lands differently than another.

A literal translator gets you through the task. Seeing three options with context is what teaches you the language.

MIT licensed. github.com/robertnowell/konid-language-learning