# Translating Core > Use when producing meaning-faithful, natural, culturally appropriate translations for any language translation before applying product or language specialists. - Skill: `brunomiguens/translating-core` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add brunomiguens/translating-core` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/brunomiguens/translating-core/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: BrunoMiguens (https://skillmd.com/u/brunomiguens) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/brunomiguens/translating-core --- # Translating Core ## Overview Translate the source's meaning and intended effect, not its syntax. Treat facts, protected spans, approved terminology, locale choices, and structural constraints as invariants while making the target read as original writing. ## Capabilities - `core-translation` - `terminology` - `cultural-adaptation` - `structural-fidelity` ## Context Analysis Read the complete source and neighboring context before drafting. Establish: - audience, purpose, medium, and desired action - source and target language plus full locale when known - form of address, institutional or personal voice, courtesy, directness, and surface-specific register conventions - glossary, style guide, protected terms, and project decisions - verified existing target-product evidence and its approved scope - semantic groups such as related assessment items, event families, multi-field messages, and repeated concepts - required structure and non-translatable spans Resolve a missing choice from context when the evidence is strong. Ask one focused question when locale, audience, or register ambiguity would materially change the translation; otherwise state the narrow assumption in decision notes. ## Fidelity Invariants Preserve every claim, fact, relationship, emphasis, qualifier, obligation, and uncertainty. Add no explanation or promise that the source does not contain. Do not omit repeated content merely because it seems redundant. Before delivery, compare source and target for: - names, numbers, dates, currency, units, and factual polarity - placeholders, identifiers, links, markup, code, and commands - quoted or protected text and deliberately mixed-language content - headings, lists, paragraphs, and other required counts or order Keep protected terms exactly unchanged, including capitalization. Keep non-translatable spans byte-for-byte unchanged when the brief requires exact preservation. ## Terminology Apply approved glossary entries consistently, using any grammatical treatment the glossary permits. Resolve conflicts by following explicit user requirements, then the approved project brief, glossary, and style guide. When no approved entry exists, consult translation memory and structurally aligned, verified target-product copy before inventing a term. Treat existing copy as usage evidence, not automatic authority: reject stale, semantically different, known-defective, and unverified in-scope targets. Prefer the term that preserves the source concept and product event across related units, then adapt its grammatical realization to each surface. Before drafting a recurring or high-impact unapproved term, determine whether it materially affects domain meaning, legal meaning, participant roles, or the truth of an answer. Return such an unresolved term to the orchestrator for a standalone terminology decision rather than propagating a literal draft. Ordinary low-impact choices may proceed as explicit drafts. Record only newly inferred choices as `draft`; never present them as approved or silently add them to the glossary. Include the source term, chosen target, scope, and a short rationale when the choice is not self-evident. Do not repeat approved glossary entries as new decisions. ## Naturalness Write idiomatic target-language sentences with natural information order, rhythm, cohesion, and register. Recreate idioms, humor, metaphors, and calls to action by their intended effect rather than word-for-word form. Adapt cultural references only as far as needed to preserve that effect, without changing facts or brand intent. Use the requested locale's vocabulary, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and conventions. Avoid source-language calques and accidental mixed language unless a span is protected or the locale normally retains it. For each event or state, identify the participants and roles before choosing the target construction: who initiated the action, what changed, who received or owns the result, and whether the source describes an action, outcome, or state. The target may use active, passive, impersonal, reflexive, or nominal wording differently from the source, but it must not transfer agency or responsibility to another participant. Treat register as several coordinated choices rather than one formal/informal switch. Keep form of address, institutional or personal voice, courtesy, directness, and surface convention consistent with the approved context. A formal product does not automatically need frequent direct address, and a friendly product does not authorize added familiarity. ## Related Units Translate semantic groups together when units jointly express one concept: question stems with their answer choices, email subjects with previews and bodies, lifecycle or transaction families, and repeated or paraphrased product events. Preserve the truth, role, and conceptual terminology of the group while allowing each unit to use grammar and wording natural for its surface. Do not force identical target strings merely because the source repeats a word. ## Structure Preservation Preserve the source topology unless the brief explicitly permits restructuring: the same headings, paragraphs, list items, table cells, link targets, tags, placeholders, code spans, and identifiers. Translate only human-readable text inside a structured artifact. Never repair, rename, normalize, or execute protected syntax while translating. If natural target grammar conflicts with an exact structural constraint, satisfy the constraint and flag the affected segment in concise notes rather than corrupting the artifact. ## Output Contract Return the requested translated artifact first, without commentary inside it. The caller's artifact-only or exact-schema request suppresses decision notes, alternatives, headings, quotation wrappers, presentation fences, and other explanatory material. Preserve wrappers that belong to the source or requested artifact; do not add wrappers merely to present the answer. Separate artifact content from input transport. Decode data framing before translation: a quoted JSON-string carrier, escaped representation, or enclosing data fence does not make that carrier part of the translation. Reapply only the output framing explicitly requested by the caller. Add concise decision notes only when they are requested or the caller permits supporting notes and there are draft terminology choices, material assumptions, or unresolved constraints. Keep approved input decisions out of the notes. Use this compact form when notes are needed: ```text Decision notes - draft terminology: → — - assumption: - unresolved: ``` Do not add process narration, unsolicited alternatives, or unrelated advice.