/translate-content

name: translate-content
description: "Translate marketing content with automatic service routing per language pair, quality scoring across five dimensions (length ratio, formatting, key terms, placeholders, completeness), and a brand-voice check on the result; flags idioms, wordplay, and emotional CTAs for transcreation with 2-3 scored creative options plus back-translations. Triggers on \"/digital-marketing-pro:translate-content\", \"translate this landing page into German\", \"localize this email for India\", \"transcreate our slogan\", \"does the translated version keep our brand voice\". Reads the brand profile's do-not-translate terms, glossary, and formality preferences; executes via connected translation MCP servers."
argument-hint: "[target-language]"

/digital-marketing-pro:translate-content

Purpose

Translate marketing content with capability-first service routing and quality assurance. For each target language the router names what the language family needs from a translation service (native script-aware models for Indic targets, formality registers for European, segmentation and script mixing for CJK) and resolves a concrete service at run time — from the brand's recorded preference or from translation MCP servers the user has already connected. When nothing resolves, translation proceeds through the harness's own multilingual capability with mandatory quality scoring — no product is ever named from memory, and none is required. Brand voice, formatting, and key terminology are preserved throughout.

Beyond literal translation, this command analyzes content for elements that require transcreation rather than translation: idioms, wordplay, humor, emotional calls-to-action, and cultural references. When these are detected (or when the user explicitly requests transcreation), it produces multiple creative options with intent-preservation scoring, ensuring the emotional impact and marketing effectiveness carry across languages. Every translation is quality-scored and brand-voice-checked before delivery.

Input Required

The user must provide (or will be prompted for):

• **Content to translate**: Text inline, file path, or pasted content block. Can be a single piece (headline, email, ad copy) or a structured document (landing page, email template with sections)
• **Target language(s)**: One or more target languages — accepts language codes (hi, de, ja, fr-CA, pt-BR) or plain names (Hindi, German, Japanese, Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese). Multiple targets can be specified for batch translation
• **Source language**: Optional — the language of the original content. Auto-detected via language-router.py if omitted
• **Transcreation flag**: Optional — set to `true` to force transcreation approach on all content, regardless of content analysis. Useful when the user knows the content is highly creative or culturally sensitive
• **Do-not-translate terms**: Optional — specific terms, product names, or brand elements that must remain in the source language. Overrides any do-not-translate list already defined in the brand profile
• **Formality level**: Optional — `formal` or `informal`, for languages with formal/informal registers (German Sie/du, French vous/tu, etc.). Passed to the resolved translation service when it supports register control; otherwise enforced in the translation instructions and verified in review. If omitted, defaults to brand profile preference or formal
• **Glossary entries**: Optional — term pairs (source: target) to enforce specific translations for key terminology. Supplements any brand-level glossary

Process

1. **Load brand context**: Read `~/.claude-marketing/brands/_active-brand.json` for the active slug, then load `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/profile.json`. Extract language configuration — `do_not_translate` term list, `translation_preferences` (preferred services per language pair, formality defaults, glossary), and `locale_formatting` rules (date formats, number separators, currency symbols). Load compliance rules for target markets from `skills/context-engine/compliance-rules.md`. Check for guidelines at `~/.claude-marketing/brands/{slug}/guidelines/_manifest.json` — if present, load voice-and-tone rules (these inform brand voice scoring of the translation). Check for agency SOPs at `~/.claude-marketing/sops/`. If no brand exists, ask: "Set up a brand first (/digital-marketing-pro:brand-setup)?" — or proceed with defaults. 2. **Detect source language**: If the source language was not specified, run `python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/language-router.py" --action detect --text "{content_or_path}"` to identify the source language with confidence score. Report the detected language to the user for confirmation if confidence is below 95%. 3. **Route to a translation capability**: For each target language, run `python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/language-router.py" --action route --source "{source_lang}" --target "{target_lang}" --brand {slug}`. The result names the `capability_kind` and `service_criteria` for the language family and resolves a concrete service ONLY from the brand's recorded preference (`basis: brand-preference`) or the user's connected translation MCP servers (`basis: connected-servers`; with multiple candidates, pick the one best matching the criteria and offer to record the choice via /digital-marketing-pro:language-config). Report the resolved service and its basis to the user. If `basis: unresolved`, say so plainly and follow the payload's resolution ladder — never name a service from memory and never instruct installing one. 4. **Analyze content for transcreation needs**: Scan the source content for elements that resist literal translation — idioms and colloquialisms, wordplay or puns, humor and sarcasm, emotional CTAs and slogans, cultural references and analogies, rhyme or rhythm patterns, double meanings. If the transcreation flag is set or the content contains significant transcreation-requiring