obsidian-localize-update

Business

Sync recent English source changes into an existing obsidian-help locale — creating stubs for new pages, translating untranslated stubs, and retranslating manually flagged files. Use this skill whenever the user wants to update, sync, or refresh an existing locale translation in obsidian-help, catch up a locale with EN changes, or re-translate specific pages.

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Sync recent English source changes into an existing locale.

The working directory is the obsidian-help repo root. If the user hasn't specified a locale code (e.g. fr, de), ask for it before proceeding.

Context

The en/ directory is source of truth. Translated files have no special frontmatter marker. Stubs (created by sync-locale for new EN pages) have localized: false — this is the only use of the localized field. To force a re-translation, add needs-retranslation: true to a file's frontmatter manually.

Pipeline

Start each step with --dry-run so the user can review before committing.

Step 1 — Sync structure from EN

Picks up new EN files (creates stubs), removes deleted pages, and cleans up empty legacy folders. Does NOT touch already-translated content.

npx tsx scripts/sync-locale.ts <locale> --dry-run   # preview
npx tsx scripts/sync-locale.ts <locale>             # apply

Step 2 — Translate stubs + flagged files

For stubs (localized: false): full translation from scratch.

For manually flagged files (needs-retranslation: true): full re-translation.

npx tsx scripts/translate-locale.ts <locale> --dry-run   # preview
npx tsx scripts/translate-locale.ts <locale>             # translate

After translation, localized and needs-retranslation are removed from frontmatter.

Step 3 — Validate

npx tsx scripts/check-links.ts <locale>          # broken wikilinks
npx tsx scripts/check-terms.ts <locale>          # unofficial terminology
npx tsx scripts/check-terms.ts <locale> --fix    # auto-correct terminology

Step 4 — Rebuild publish.js

en/publish.js is the source of truth. Each locale's publish.js = switcher + its own publish.strings.js. Rebuild after any change to en/publish.js or a locale's strings file.

npx tsx scripts/build-publish-js.ts [locale ...]   # omit locale to rebuild all

Step 5 — Publish

ob publish --path <locale> --all --yes

Diff-based updates (working from a base commit)

When the user provides a base commit, inspect the diff first before deciding what action to take:

git show <commit> --stat          # what files changed
git show <commit>                 # exact line-level changes

Categorize each changed EN file by the nature of its changes, then act accordingly:

Change type	Action
Wikilink/anchor fix only (target or anchor changed, display text unchanged)	Apply the same link fix surgically to each locale file — do NOT retranslate
Display text of a wikilink changed (e.g. "notes" → "data")	Apply surgically: update both anchor and display text using the locale's `headings.txt` for the correct translation
EN page renamed (wikilinks now point to a different file)	Update wikilinks in locale files to point to the locale equivalent of the new EN filename
Prose/content changed	Flag affected locale files with `needs-retranslation: true`, then run translate-locale
New page added	sync-locale creates a stub; translate-locale translates it
Page deleted	sync-locale removes the locale file

Never use needs-retranslation: true for wikilink-only changes. Re-translating an entire file to fix a link destroys existing translation work.

When applying surgical link fixes: find the locale equivalent file by matching the permalink field, then apply the exact diff pattern to that file.

Common scenarios

A new EN page was added → sync-locale creates a stub, translate-locale translates it.

An EN page was deleted → sync-locale deletes the locale file.

A specific page needs re-translation → add needs-retranslation: true to its frontmatter, then run translate-locale.

EN wikilinks/anchors corrected → inspect each change, apply surgically to locale files. Check if the old pattern actually appears in locale files before assuming it does.

EN nav order changed → run sync-nav-order.ts for affected locales.

EN publish.js changed → run build-publish-js.ts to rebuild all locale publish.js files.

Locale UI strings need updating → edit <locale>/publish.strings.js, then rebuild with build-publish-js.ts.

Key flags

Command	Flag	Effect
`sync-locale`	`--dry-run`	Preview without writing
`translate-locale`	`--dry-run`	Preview without calling LLM
`translate-locale`	`--limit N`	Process N files at a time
`translate-locale`	`--file path`	Retranslate a specific file
`translate-locale`	`--fix-links`	Rewrite stale wikilink targets
`translate-locale`	`--translate-descriptions`	Batch-translate `description` fields
`localize-nav-order`	`--dry-run`	Preview path translations without applying
`build-publish-js`	`--dry-run`	Preview without writing

Notes

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY must be set, or scripts/llm-config.json must exist
Always run check-links before publishing
If EN files were renamed, update filenames.txt and re-run sync-locale to move locale files to their new paths
publish.js is excluded from sync-locale — it is generated by build-publish-js.ts
Active locales are defined in scripts/locales.json — this is the single source of truth. Do not edit en/publish.js or publish-all.ts directly.