diff --git a/src/global.zig b/src/global.zig
index b9af5983d..c93b35fa0 100644
--- a/src/global.zig
+++ b/src/global.zig
@@ -172,6 +172,11 @@ pub const GlobalState = struct {
         // hereafter can use this cached value.
         self.resources_dir = try internal_os.resourcesDir(self.alloc);
         errdefer if (self.resources_dir) |dir| self.alloc.free(dir);
+
+        // Setup i18n
+        if (self.resources_dir) |v| internal_os.i18n.init(v) catch |err| {
+            std.log.warn("failed to init i18n, translations will not be available err={}", .{err});
+        };
     }
 
     /// Cleans up the global state. This doesn't _need_ to be called but
diff --git a/src/os/i18n.zig b/src/os/i18n.zig
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d6124cac5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/os/i18n.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+const std = @import("std");
+const build_config = @import("../build_config.zig");
+
+pub const InitError = error{
+    InvalidResourcesDir,
+    OutOfMemory,
+};
+
+/// Initialize i18n support for the application. This should be
+/// called automatically by the global state initialization
+/// in global.zig.
+///
+/// This calls `bindtextdomain` for gettext with the proper directory
+/// of translations. This does NOT call `textdomain` as we don't
+/// want to set the domain for the entire application since this is also
+/// used by libghostty.
+pub fn init(resources_dir: []const u8) InitError!void {
+    // Our resources dir is always nested below the share dir that
+    // is standard for translations.
+    const share_dir = std.fs.path.dirname(resources_dir) orelse
+        return error.InvalidResourcesDir;
+
+    // Build our locale path
+    var buf: [std.fs.max_path_bytes]u8 = undefined;
+    const path = std.fmt.bufPrintZ(&buf, "{s}/locale", .{share_dir}) catch
+        return error.OutOfMemory;
+
+    // Bind our bundle ID to the given locale path
+    _ = bindtextdomain(build_config.bundle_id, path.ptr) orelse
+        return error.OutOfMemory;
+}
+
+// Manually include function definitions for the gettext functions
+// as libintl.h isn't always easily available (e.g. in musl)
+extern fn bindtextdomain(domainname: [*:0]const u8, dirname: [*:0]const u8) ?[*:0]const u8;
+extern fn textdomain(domainname: [*:0]const u8) ?[*:0]const u8;
+pub extern fn gettext(msgid: [*:0]const u8) [*:0]const u8;
+pub const _ = gettext;
diff --git a/src/os/main.zig b/src/os/main.zig
index cb9355931..7c961ea13 100644
--- a/src/os/main.zig
+++ b/src/os/main.zig
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ const resourcesdir = @import("resourcesdir.zig");
 pub const args = @import("args.zig");
 pub const cgroup = @import("cgroup.zig");
 pub const hostname = @import("hostname.zig");
+pub const i18n = @import("i18n.zig");
 pub const passwd = @import("passwd.zig");
 pub const xdg = @import("xdg.zig");
 pub const windows = @import("windows.zig");