Language Configuration

Each target language can have specific translation rules that are automatically included in Claude’s prompts. These rules handle language-specific typography, punctuation conventions, and stylistic guidelines.

Supported languages¶

Current rules¶

Chinese (Simplified) — zh-cn¶

• Use proper full-width Chinese punctuation marks (，：。！？) not ASCII punctuation (,.!?) in prose text

Farsi — fa¶

• Use proper Persian punctuation marks (، ؛ ؟) without any RTL directionality markup

• Keep technical terms and code examples in English/Latin script

• Use formal/academic Persian style appropriate for educational content

How rules are applied¶

Language rules are appended to every translation prompt as numbered rules after the standard instructions. For example, when translating to zh-cn, Claude’s prompt includes:

CRITICAL RULES:
1. Preserve all MyST Markdown formatting...
2. DO NOT translate code, math, URLs...
...
9. Use proper full-width Chinese punctuation marks (，：。！？) not ASCII punctuation

Rules apply to all translation modes: UPDATE (incremental sync), NEW (full file), and RESYNC (drift recovery).

Using unsupported languages¶

Any language code can be used as a target-language — it doesn’t need to be pre-configured. If no configuration exists, the action uses the language code as-is with no additional rules. You can still provide a glossary for terminology consistency.

Adding a new language¶

To add rules for a new language, edit src/language-config.ts:

export const LANGUAGE_CONFIGS: Record<string, LanguageConfig> = {
  'zh-cn': { /* ... */ },
  'fa': { /* ... */ },

  // Add new language:
  'ja': {
    code: 'ja',
    name: 'Japanese',
    additionalRules: [
      'Use proper Japanese punctuation marks (、。「」)',
    ],
  },
};

Each language configuration has:

• code — Language code (matches the target-language input)

• name — Human-readable language name

• additionalRules — Array of rules appended to translation prompts

After adding a language configuration, you should also:

1. Create a glossary file at glossary/{code}.json (see Glossary)

2. Add test cases for the new language

3. Rebuild the action (npm run build && npm run package)