The “Create Entry” buttons are not customizable

[jimblue]

Bug description

I’ve followed the instructions provided by the doc to customize the “Create Entry” buttons, but unfortunately, it’s not working as expected.

How to reproduce

Here’s the content of my lang/en/messages.php file:

<?php

return [
    'pages_collection_create_entry' => 'New Page',
    'photos_collection_create_entry' => 'New Album',
    'stories_collection_create_entry' => 'New Story',
    'videos_collection_create_entry' => 'New Video',
    'locations_taxonomy_create_term' => 'New Location',
    'topics_taxonomy_create_term' => 'New Topic',
];

Environment

Environment
Application Name: local-test
Laravel Version: 12.52.0
PHP Version: 8.5.3
Composer Version: 2.9.5
Environment: local
Debug Mode: ENABLED
URL: local-test.test
Maintenance Mode: OFF
Timezone: Europe/Paris
Locale: en

Cache
Config: NOT CACHED
Events: NOT CACHED
Routes: NOT CACHED
Views: CACHED

Drivers
Broadcasting: null
Cache: redis
Database: sqlite
Logs: stack / single
Mail: smtp
Queue: redis
Session: redis

Storage
public/storage: LINKED

Statamic
Addons: 2
Sites: 1
Stache Watcher: Enabled (auto)
Static Caching: Disabled
Version: 6.3.3 PRO

Statamic Addons
rias/statamic-redirect: 4.1.2
statamic/seo-pro: 7.0.3

Installation

Fresh statamic/statamic site via CLI

[jackmcdade]

Seems to be working here — where specifically are you seeing it not work?

[jimblue]

Hey Jack,

Here are a few screenshots for your reference:

[jackmcdade]

Are you sure you're editing the right file? Because those work for me 🤔

[jimblue]

Yes, I’ve triple-checked.
That’s correct, right?

[jackmcdade]

Yuuup that looks right. 🤔 That's so weird. I can't think of why this wouldn't be working.

[jimblue]

I’ve done a deep dive into why the collection create label isn't translating correctly. It appears the dynamic translation key is being generated, but it’s missing from the loaded translation array in the Laravel Translator.

1. The Entry Point

In vendor/statamic/cms/src/Entries/Collection.php, the $key is generated correctly as:
statamic::messages.stories_collection_create_entry

However, __($key) returns the key string itself, indicating a translation failure.

2. Trace into Laravel Translator

I tracked the execution to Illuminate\Translation\Translator::getLine(). When the Control Panel loads, I logged the state of the translator:

• Namespace: statamic
• Group: messages
• Item: stories_collection_create_entry

3. The Evidence

The $this->loaded array for the statamic::messages group contains plenty of standard keys (like activate_account_notification_subject, asset_container_intro, etc.), but stories_collection_create_entry is absent from the array entirely.

Log output for the loaded messages group:

[2026-02-27 03:02:24] local.DEBUG: item: stories_collection_create_entry  
[2026-02-27 03:02:24] local.DEBUG: line:  // Empty/Null
[2026-02-27 03:02:24] local.DEBUG: lang: Array
(
    [activate_account_notification_body] => ...
    [asset_container_blueprint_instructions] => ...
    // ... (stories_collection_create_entry is missing here)
)

Conclusion

The logic in Collection::createLabel() expects this key to be available for translation, but the translation loader isn't picking up these dynamic collection-specific keys. It seems they are either not being registered in the filesystem or the merger is skipping them.

[jimblue]

I kept digging and I think I found the root cause. It's a standard Laravel namespace resolution thing.

Collection::createLabel() builds a namespaced key: statamic::messages.{handle}_collection_create_entry

The statamic:: prefix tells Laravel's FileLoader::loadNamespaced() to resolve translations from:

1. The hint path → vendor/statamic/cms/lang/en/messages.php
2. The namespace override → lang/vendor/statamic/en/messages.php

But lang/en/messages.php (as documented) lives in the app's default (*) namespace, which isn't checked for statamic:: keys. That's standard Laravel behavior for vendor package translations.

I confirmed this locally:

// With lang/en/messages.php only:
__('statamic::messages.stories_collection_create_entry')
→ "statamic::messages.stories_collection_create_entry"  // ❌

// After moving to lang/vendor/statamic/en/messages.php:
__('statamic::messages.stories_collection_create_entry')
→ "New Story"  // ✅

@jackmcdade Could you check if you happen to have a lang/vendor/statamic/ directory on your test project? (Perhaps from running php artisan vendor:publish --tag=statamic-translations at some point?) That would explain why it works on your end — the override file would be in the correct namespace path.

If that's the case, the docs at Collections > Labels might just need to be updated to point to lang/vendor/statamic/en/messages.php instead of lang/en/messages.php.

[jimblue]