When localizing a theme do I create the .mo and .po

.po and .mo files are created by the translator himself, and then contain the actuall translation, so if you do not supply a translation with your theme then you don’t need them.

.pot file is basically a template for the .po file. you can easily generate it with tools like poedit but IMO it is no more then a “nice to have” as part of the theme as any translation tool will be able to generate it from your source. I would say go with the recommendations of the theme repository about the inclusion of the .pot file. If it is not required there, then you can safely omit it.

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