Oma Translation

Translation - Context-Aware Localization

Scheduling

Goal

Translate, review, or adapt multilingual content faithfully and naturally while preserving the parts that must remain exact: placeholders, code, links, formatting, terminology, and file structure.

Intent signature

• Translate, localize, review a translation, adapt copy, or create a glossary/style guide.
• Update target-language files after the source changed.

When to use

• UI strings, error messages, locale files, documentation, reports, marketing copy, and prose.
• Review of existing translations for accuracy, register, terminology, or naturalness.

When NOT to use

• i18n infrastructure, locale registration, or key extraction -> use the relevant development skill.
• Date/pluralization APIs or other code-level localization -> use the owning code-domain skill.

Expected inputs

• Source text, target language or locale, content type, and requested output mode.
• Existing locale files, glossary, surrounding context, and optional author sample.
• Placeholder and formatting constraints when the source is structured.

Expected outputs

• Natural target-language text or evidence-backed review findings.
• Exact preservation of placeholders, code spans, links, headings, list structure, and locale keys.
• Translator notes only for meaningful ambiguity or necessary cultural explanation.

Dependencies

• Target profile: resources/lang/{code}.md, if one exists.
• resources/translation-rubric.md for substantive content or review.
• references/_shared/core/anti-ai-prose.md and resources/anti-ai-patterns.md together when prose needs style review.
• Existing siblings and glossary when translating into a project.

Control-flow features

• Branches by UI batch versus prose, profile availability, locale variant, ambiguity, and review mode.
• Loads only the target profile and references required for the content type.
• Edits files only when the user asked for file changes.

Structural Flow

Entry

1. Identify source, target locale, content type, and whether this is translate, review, or diff-sync.
2. Preserve exact tokens first: placeholders, code, URLs, keys, and structural markers.
3. Load the target profile if available; read sibling translations when the target is in a project.

Scenes

1. PREPARE: Resolve locale, output mode, target audience, and protected syntax.
2. ACQUIRE: Read the target profile, relevant siblings, glossary, and source context. For prose or review, load the rubric; for style review, load the shared prose diagnostics and translation exceptions together.
3. REASON: Determine meaning, register, terminology, cultural references, and any ambiguity. Decide whether an idiom should be interpreted, substituted, or retained.
4. ACT: Write natural target-language text. Match established project patterns without adding meaning, opinion, or personality.
5. VERIFY: Check protected syntax and structure. For substantive text, check meaning, terminology, register, and target-language naturalness against the rubric.
6. FINALIZE: Return the requested text, patch, or review with only supported findings.

Transitions

• A profile exists -> load it; its target-language rules take precedence over shared guidance.
• A locale variant is required -> resolve it before drafting.
• No profile exists -> use shared guidance and note that limit once; do not borrow another language's rules.
• A short independent UI string with established siblings -> use protected-syntax and sibling checks; the full prose review is optional.
• Long prose, documentation, marketing copy, mixed tables/code, or review mode -> use the rubric.
• Ambiguous meaning that changes the result -> ask one targeted question or flag the choice.
• Diff-sync -> modify only source-touched equivalents, located by headings and surrounding context, not line number.

Failure and recovery

Exit

• Success: the text is faithful, natural, structurally safe, and checked in proportion to content risk.
• Partial: unresolved ambiguity or missing context is stated without inventing an answer.

Language profile loading

Resolve the BCP 47 primary subtag and load one matching profile when present:

Profiles define typography, register, and target-language checks. Shared guidance explains common risks. A profile wins if they conflict. Add a new profile from resources/lang/_template.md only when the task is to extend this skill.

Translation method

1. Read for meaning, intended effect, domain terms, and protected syntax. Identify figurative wording as interpret, substitute, or retain. Do not add a new metaphor or remove an intentional one without a reason.
2. Choose register from the source, target audience, and sibling translations. Apply translation_voice from .agents/oma-config.yaml only as a rhythm/formality preference: formal, balanced (default), or interpreter. It never overrides meaning or target norms.
3. Reconstruct in the target language. Change word order, split or merge sentences, and omit implied subjects only when the target language calls for it.
4. Preserve author style only where it belongs: prose, dialogue, adaptation, or explicitly user-authored documentation. Match observable rhythm and diction, never add facts, stance, jokes, first person, or stronger emotion.

Verification

Always check:

• Every placeholder, code span, identifier, URL, and locale key is unchanged.
• Headings, links, table rows, list nesting, and code blocks retain their structure.
• The target follows its profile's typography and register rules.
• Existing siblings are matched when they establish terminology or UI style.

For substantive content and review mode, also check the rubric: meaning, naturalness, terminology, register, cultural fit, and emotional force. Use anti-AI patterns as a diagnostic, not a demand to make prose decorative or to remove intentional source style.