Setup New Localization

Set up a new localization

Wire a new language into the site end-to-end. Start from one of:

• A kickoff issue (preferred) — its number or URL, e.g. #9577. Read it with gh issue view <n> -R open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io and pull out:
  • ISO 639-1 code → <lang> (required)
  • Locale, if the issue specifies one → <locale> (optional), e.g. pl-PL, zh-CN — otherwise decide in step (a)
  • Language name → <native-label>
  • Locale mentor + Contributors → the approvers (data/locale-teams.yaml)
• A bare <lang> ISO 639-1 code when there's no issue yet. You then gather the team handles and native label yourself.

Either way, derive these; don't ask for them as separate arguments:

• Hugo locale — from the issue if it specifies one, otherwise decided in step (a).
• <native-label> — the endonym for that language (from the issue, or see gotchas for picking the right one).
• <country> — the language's primary country, for the Slack channel / team naming and the label color (step (g)).

The maintainer guide content/en/site/build/localization/_index.md is the human-facing version of these steps; keep the two in step.

[!NOTE]

Most lists below are ordered alphabetically by <lang> (English en stays first). Some aren't — projects/localization.md's "Current language teams" section is ordered by English name. At each insertion point, match the ordering of the existing entries rather than assuming one global rule.

Steps

a. config/_default/hugo.yaml — language block

First decide the locale:

• If the kickoff issue already specifies a <locale>, use it.
• Otherwise, if <lang> maps to a single common locale, omit locale:. Hugo defaults it to <lang> (the ISO 639-1 code), as bn, es, fr, and ja do.
• Otherwise, if <lang> has several regional variants in real use (e.g. pt → pt-BR / pt-PT, zh → zh-CN / zh-TW, en → en-US / en-GB), ask the user which locale with the AskUserQuestion tool (if available; otherwise ask in plain text), then set locale: to their answer.

Then add the block under languages:, in alphabetical order:

<lang>:
  label: <native-label> # e.g. 한국어
  locale: <LOCALE> # only when <lang> has multiple regional variants; else omit
  params:
    description: <translated site description>

b. config/_default/module-template.yaml — content mounts

Copy the ## <lang> block from an existing language (e.g. ## ja) into alphabetical position. The per-locale edits are just the language code and the YAML anchor name: the primary mount defines &<lang>-matrix, and the fallback mounts (_includes, announcements, docs) reference it as *<lang>-matrix.

## <lang>
- source: content/<lang>
  target: content
  sites: &<lang>-matrix
    matrix: { languages: [<lang>] }
# …then the fallback mounts, identical to the sibling block

c. content/<lang>/.gitkeep — placeholder content dir

The mount in step (b) points at content/<lang>, so the directory must exist. Create it empty — git won't track an empty folder, so the .gitkeep is the tracked file:

mkdir -p content/<lang> && touch content/<lang>/.gitkeep

Do NOT copy the English homepage into the setup PR. The translated homepage lands in its own follow-up PR (e.g. #10431 for Korean). Copying content/en/_index.md here only creates merge conflicts with that PR and drags in a default_lang_commit you'd then have to manage. Keep the setup PR to the wiring; let .gitkeep hold the empty tree.

d. .cspell.yml — custom word list

Add the custom list in both sections (alphabetical):

dictionaryDefinitions:
  - name: <lang>-words
    path: .cspell/<lang>-words.txt
# ...
dictionaries:
  - <lang>-words

Upstream dict: check the cspell-dicts repo, not a guessed npm name. The published package names are inconsistent (dict-es-es with a hyphen vs dict-pl_pl with an underscore), but the dictionary folders follow one rule: <lang> (e.g. bn) or <lang>_<REGION> (e.g. es_ES, pl_PL, pt_BR, uk_UA). A matching folder means a dict exists; no folder (no ko, ja, zh) means there isn't one — the folder listing is the source of truth.

The dictionary id is the folder name lowercased with _ → - (pl_PL → pl-pl). For the exact package name and version, read them from npm (npm view @cspell/dict-<id> name version, falling back to the underscore form if the hyphen one 404s). Then wire it in three places:

• .cspell.yml import: '@cspell/dict-pl_pl/cspell-ext.json' (exact package name)
• .cspell.yml dictionaries: id: pl-pl (hyphen, even though the package uses _)
• package.json devDependency: "@cspell/dict-pl_pl": "<version>"

Korean has no folder, so for ko add only the custom ko-words list and leave the package.json devDependencies unchanged.

e. .cspell/<lang>-words.txt — empty custom list

touch .cspell/<lang>-words.txt

f. Prettier prose-wrapping — default: leave it alone

Default: no Prettier changes for a new locale. Per localization.md, prose-wrap exceptions exist only for languages Prettier mishandles; a locale opts in later, when its team hits the problem — not at setup time.

If the team does opt in, it's two coupled edits, and one without the other is a silent no-op:

• a /content/<lang> line in .prettierignore (exempts the dir from the default proseWrap: always pass), and
• content/<lang> in the _check:format:nowrap script in package.json (re-checks it with --prose-wrap preserve).

Read .prettierignore and that script for the current members rather than trusting a snapshot here.

g. lang:<lang> label — labeler config and the GitHub label

Wire the auto-labeler in .github/component-label-map.yml:

lang:<lang>:
  - changed-files:
      - any-glob-to-any-file:
          - content/<lang>/**

The lang:<lang> GitHub label must also exist, or the labeler has nothing to apply. Create it with the country's main flag color (a maintainer action — needs repo triage/write):

gh label create "lang:<lang>" -R open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io --color <hex>
# flag color, no leading '#', e.g. ko=0047A0  pl=DC143C  pt=009739  uk=ffdd00

h. data/locale-teams.yaml — the CODEOWNERS source of truth

Since #10295 this registry generates the locale section of CODEOWNERS. It records the expected membership of the docs-<lang>-* teams (created in the admin repo — see Out-of-repo). Under the locales: map, in alphabetical order, add:

<lang>:
  maintainers: []
  approvers: [<mentor-and-contribs>] # issue's "Locale mentor" + "Contributors"

Fill approvers with whatever roles are already known — even partial — rather than leaving it empty waiting to assess contributions. Empty maintainers marks the locale unstaffed: its CODEOWNERS lines fall back to @open-telemetry/docs-approvers. Semantics (unstaffed, fallback, graduation): content/en/docs/contributing/localization.md § Locale teams, code owners, and staffing.

i. Regenerate CODEOWNERS

npm run fix:codeowners     # regenerates the BEGIN/END locale-owners block
npm run check:codeowners   # must report "up to date"

Never hand-edit the generated block in .github/CODEOWNERS.

j. projects/localization.md — 5 insertions (match neighbor ordering)

1. Supported-languages list: - [<native-label> - <Lang> (<lang>)][<lang>] and its link ref [<lang>]: https://opentelemetry.io/<lang>/
2. "Current language teams" section block (Website / Slack / Maintainers / Approvers, mirroring a sibling) — this section is ordered by English name, not <lang>
3. Labels list: - [`lang:<lang>`][issues-lang-<lang>] - <Lang> localization
4. Slack channel ref: [otel-localization-<lang>]: <channel-url>
5. Issues label ref: [issues-lang-<lang>]: <issues-search-url>

Do NOT (gotchas)

• Do NOT touch .github/component-owners.yml. Pre-#10295 the old process added a content/<lang>: block there; #10295 removed all locale teams from that file. It now holds only non-locale component reviewers. Re-adding a locale duplicates ownership.
• Do NOT bundle the homepage. The setup PR creates only content/<lang>/.gitkeep; the translated _index.md is a separate PR — see step (c).
• Do NOT hand-edit the generated locale section of .github/CODEOWNERS — see step (i).
• Pick the right endonym. Korean is 한국어 (South Korea), not 조선말 (North Korea). Choose the endonym matching the language's primary country.
• Never assume an upstream cSpell dict exists — see step (d).

Out-of-repo: create the org teams {#out-of-repo-create-the-org-teams}

The generated CODEOWNERS references @open-telemetry/docs-<lang>-approvers; GitHub flags it as invalid until that team exists. The two teams live in the open-telemetry/admin repo's teams.tf, with docs-<lang>-maintainers as a child of docs-<lang>-approvers:

resource "github_team" "docs-<lang>-approvers" {
  name        = "docs-<lang>-approvers"
  description = ""
  privacy     = "closed"
}

resource "github_team" "docs-<lang>-maintainers" {
  name           = "docs-<lang>-maintainers"
  parent_team_id = github_team.docs-<lang>-approvers.id
  description    = ""
  privacy        = "closed"
}

This is a separate PR against open-telemetry/admin (example: admin#716) that an org admin must merge; the admin then applies team membership to match data/locale-teams.yaml. You can prepare and describe this PR, but you can't merge it.

Validation checklist

npm run check:codeowners                  # "up to date"
npm run check:format                      # passes
git diff --name-only                      # exactly the files below, nothing more
git diff --name-only | grep component-owners.yml && echo "BUG: do not touch" || echo OK
gh label list -R open-telemetry/opentelemetry.io | grep "lang:<lang>"  # label exists

Expected changed/added paths:

• config/_default/hugo.yaml
• config/_default/module-template.yaml
• content/<lang>/.gitkeep (new)
• .cspell.yml
• .cspell/<lang>-words.txt (new)
• .github/component-label-map.yml
• .github/CODEOWNERS (generated)
• data/locale-teams.yaml
• projects/localization.md
• package.json only if an upstream @cspell/dict-* was added (step d)