marsonshine/ms.microservice/baoyu-translate

Translator

Three-mode translation skill: quick for direct translation, normal for analysis-informed translation, refined for full publication-quality workflow with review and polish.

Script Directory

Scripts in scripts/ subdirectory. {baseDir} = this SKILL.md's directory path. Resolve ${BUN_X} runtime: if bun installed → bun; if npx available → npx -y bun; else suggest installing bun. Replace {baseDir} and ${BUN_X} with actual values.

Preferences (EXTEND.md)

Check EXTEND.md existence (priority order):

# macOS, Linux, WSL, Git Bash
test -f .baoyu-skills/baoyu-translate/EXTEND.md && echo "project"
test -f "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/baoyu-skills/baoyu-translate/EXTEND.md" && echo "xdg"
test -f "$HOME/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-translate/EXTEND.md" && echo "user"

# PowerShell (Windows)
if (Test-Path .baoyu-skills/baoyu-translate/EXTEND.md) { "project" }
$xdg = if ($env:XDG_CONFIG_HOME) { $env:XDG_CONFIG_HOME } else { "$HOME/.config" }
if (Test-Path "$xdg/baoyu-skills/baoyu-translate/EXTEND.md") { "xdg" }
if (Test-Path "$HOME/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-translate/EXTEND.md") { "user" }

EXTEND.md Supports: Default target language | Default mode | Target audience | Custom glossaries (inline or file path) | Translation style | Chunk settings

Schema: references/config/extend-schema.md

First-Time Setup (BLOCKING)

CRITICAL: When EXTEND.md is not found, you MUST run the first-time setup before ANY translation. This is a BLOCKING operation.

Full reference: references/config/first-time-setup.md

Use AskUserQuestion with all questions (target language, mode, audience, style, save location) in ONE call. After user answers, create EXTEND.md at the chosen location, confirm "Preferences saved to [path]", then continue.

Defaults

All configurable values in one place. EXTEND.md overrides these; CLI flags override EXTEND.md.

Modes

Default mode: Normal (can be overridden in EXTEND.md default_mode setting).

Style presets — control the voice and tone of the translation (independent of audience):

Custom style descriptions are also accepted, e.g., --style "poetic and lyrical".

Auto-detection:

• "快翻", "quick", "直接翻译" → quick mode
• "精翻", "refined", "publication quality", "proofread" → refined mode
• Otherwise → default mode (normal)

Upgrade prompt: After normal mode completes, display:

Translation saved. To further review and polish, reply "继续润色" or "refine".

If user responds, continue with review → polish steps (same as refined mode Steps 4-6 in refined-workflow.md) on the existing output.

Usage

/translate [--mode quick|normal|refined] [--from <lang>] [--to <lang>] [--audience <audience>] [--style <style>] [--glossary <file>] <source>

• <source>: File path, URL, or inline text
• --from: Source language (auto-detect if omitted)
• --to: Target language (from EXTEND.md or default zh-CN)
• --audience: Target reader profile (from EXTEND.md or default general)
• --style: Translation style (from EXTEND.md or default storytelling)
• --glossary: Additional glossary file to merge with EXTEND.md glossary

Audience presets:

Custom audience descriptions are also accepted, e.g., --audience "AI感兴趣的普通读者".

Workflow

Step 1: Load Preferences

1.1 Check EXTEND.md (see Preferences section above)

1.2 Load built-in glossary for the language pair if available:

• EN→ZH: references/glossary-en-zh.md

1.3 Merge glossaries: EXTEND.md glossary (inline) + EXTEND.md glossary_files (external files, paths relative to EXTEND.md location) + built-in glossary + --glossary file (CLI overrides all)

Step 2: Materialize Source & Create Output Directory

Materialize source (file as-is, inline text/URL → save to translate/{slug}.md), then create output directory: {source-dir}/{source-basename}-{target-lang}/. Detect source language if --from not specified.

Full details: references/workflow-mechanics.md

Output directory contents (all intermediate and final files go here):

Step 3: Assess Content Length

Quick mode does not chunk — translate directly regardless of length. Before translating, estimate word count. If content exceeds chunk threshold (default 4000 words), proactively warn: "This article is ~{N} words. Quick mode translates in one pass without chunking — for long content, --mode normal produces better results with terminology consistency." Then proceed if user doesn't switch.

For normal and refined modes:

3.1 Long Content Preparation (normal/refined modes, >= chunk threshold only)

Before translating chunks:

1. Extract terminology: Scan entire document for proper nouns, technical terms, recurring phrases
2. Build session glossary: Merge extracted terms with loaded glossaries, establish consistent translations
3. Split into chunks: Use ${BUN_X} {baseDir}/scripts/chunk.ts <file> [--max-words <chunk_max_words>] [--output-dir <output-dir>]

• Parses markdown AST (headings, paragraphs, lists, code blocks, tables, etc.)
• Splits at markdown block boundaries to preserve structure
• If a single block exceeds the threshold, falls back to line splitting, then word splitting

1. Assemble translation prompt:

• Main agent reads 01-analysis.md (if exists) and assembles shared context using Part 1 of references/subagent-prompt-template.md — inlining content background, merged glossary, and comprehension challenges
• Save as 02-prompt.md in the output directory (shared context only, no task instructions)

1. Draft translation via subagents (if Agent tool available):

• Spawn one subagent per chunk, all in parallel (Part 2 of the template)
• Each subagent reads 02-prompt.md for shared context, translates its chunk, saves to chunks/chunk-NN-draft.md
• Terminology consistency is guaranteed by the shared 02-prompt.md (glossary + comprehension challenges from analysis)
• If no chunks (content under threshold): spawn one subagent for the entire source file
• If Agent tool is unavailable, translate chunks sequentially inline using 02-prompt.md

1. Merge: Once all subagents complete, combine translated chunks in order. If chunks/frontmatter.md exists, prepend it. Save as 03-draft.md (refined) or translation.md (normal)
2. All intermediate files (source chunks + translated chunks) are preserved in chunks/

After chunked draft is merged, return control to main agent for critical review, revision, and polish (Step 4).

Step 4: Translate & Refine

Translation principles (apply to all modes):