Iron Law

Never start a translation without specifying the style mode (literal/natural/creative).

Red Flags

• "I'll translate it word by word to be safe" → STOP, because literal translation is only appropriate in --style literal mode — the default is natural, which restructures for fluency.
• "Korean doesn't have an equivalent for this idiom, I'll keep it in English" → STOP, because creative mode adapts cultural references and natural mode finds idiomatic equivalents — only literal mode preserves source idioms.
• "I'll just pick a style as I go" → STOP, because the Iron Law requires specifying the style mode (literal/natural/creative) before starting — never begin without it.
• "The code block has comments, I should translate those too" → STOP, because code inside fences and backticks is never translated — only surrounding prose and comments outside code blocks may be translated in creative mode.
• "존댓말 and 반말 both work here" → STOP, because mixing speech levels within a single translation is forbidden — pick one level (default 해요체) and maintain it throughout.

Translate

Translate content between English and Korean (EN↔KO) while preserving formatting, voice, and technical accuracy.

When to Use

• The user asks to translate text, a document, or content between English and Korean
• Another skill needs bilingual output
• Any prompt like "번역해줘", "translate this", "영어로", "한국어로"

Workflow

1. Detect source and target languages from the prompt. If ambiguous, ask: "What is the target language — English or Korean?"
2. If .data/soul/SOUL.md exists, read ## Tone Rules to align translation voice with user preferences.
3. Load glossary if available: read references/glossary.md for technical term mappings. If the file doesn't exist, proceed without it.
4. Dispatch Smeargle (writer/opus) to produce the translation draft, passing source text, target language, style, format mode, glossary terms, and soul tone rules as context.
5. Dispatch Ditto (editor/opus) for QA review: verify accuracy, formatting preservation, natural phrasing, and glossary compliance.
6. Address all Critical and Major QA findings. Minor findings may be deferred.
7. Auto-save the result.

Options

Style Modes

Format Modes

Soul-Aware Voice Resolution

Voice is resolved in this priority order:

1. --style flag (explicit override — always wins)
2. ## Tone Rules in .data/soul/SOUL.md (personal preferences — merge with style)
3. Target language conventions as baseline

If .data/soul/SOUL.md exists, read its ## Tone Rules section and treat those rules as non-negotiable constraints on top of the selected style. Soul tone rules override language defaults but never override an explicit --style flag.

Formatting Preservation Rules

These elements MUST be preserved exactly in all modes:

• Markdown headings: #, ##, ### hierarchy maintained
• Code blocks: Never translate content inside ``` fences. Translate only surrounding comments if --style creative.
• Inline code: Never translate content inside backticks
• Tables: Preserve column count and alignment. Translate cell content only.
• Links: Preserve URLs. Translate link text only.
• HTML tags: Preserve tags. Translate inner text only.
• YAML frontmatter: Preserve keys. Translate values only when they are human-readable strings.
• Bullet/numbered lists: Preserve nesting depth and numbering scheme.
• Emphasis: Preserve **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~ markers around translated text.

Glossary Support

The glossary file maps technical terms bidirectionally:

| EN | KO | Notes |
|----|-----|-------|
| agent | 에이전트 | Do not translate as 대리인 in tech context |
| skill | 스킬 | Use 스킬 not 기술 for this project |
| hook | 훅 | Keep as 훅 in dev context |
| pipeline | 파이프라인 | |
| prompt | 프롬프트 | |

When a glossary entry exists, the mapped term MUST be used. When no glossary entry exists, use the most contextually appropriate translation.

If --glossary points to a custom file, load that instead of the default.

Language-Specific Rules

English → Korean

• Default speech level: 해요체 (polite informal). Override with soul tone rules if they specify a different level.
• Preserve technical terms in their original English when no established Korean equivalent exists (e.g., "CI/CD" stays "CI/CD").
• Numbers and units: keep Arabic numerals. Convert units only if --format adapt.

Korean → English

• Drop honorific markers unless --style literal.
• Convert Korean-specific cultural references to English equivalents in creative mode.
• Preserve Korean proper nouns in Revised Romanization unless a common English name exists.

Auto-Save

After QA (or after translation if --skip-qa), save the final content:

• Path: .captures/translate-{source}-to-{target}-{slug}-{YYYY-MM-DD}.md
• {slug} = topic lowercased, spaces to hyphens, max 40 chars
• Write the full content using the Write tool. Do NOT skip this step.
• Tell the user the saved path.

Gotchas

• Do not translate content inside code blocks or inline code.
• Do not guess the target language — detect from context or ask.
• Do not ignore glossary mappings when they exist.
• Do not skip QA unless --skip-qa is explicitly set.
• Do not flatten markdown structure in preserve mode.
• Do not mix speech levels (존댓말/반말) within a single translation.
• Do not translate proper nouns unless a glossary mapping exists.

Subagents

writer: { model: opus, constraint: "follow style mode, format mode, glossary, and soul tone rules" }
editor: { model: opus, constraint: "verify accuracy, formatting preservation, glossary compliance, and natural phrasing" }