Translation Draft Writer

What it does

Translates the full post, title, body, and meta description, into the requested target language while preserving formatting, links, and any shortcodes or blocks, and flags idioms or culturally specific references that may need a native speaker's adjustment rather than a literal translation. Always outputs the draft as pending review, since machine-assisted translation should get a human check before publishing.

Install

This skill isn't packaged in an installable registry. It's a plain SKILL.md file you can copy directly. Copy it from the SKILL.md tab and save it at the path for your assistant:

Use it in your AI assistant

Claude Code

.claude/skills/translation-draft-writer/ (or ~/.claude/skills/translation-draft-writer/ for all projects)

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

.github/skills/translation-draft-writer/

OpenAI Codex

.codex/skills/translation-draft-writer/

Cursor

.cursor/skills/translation-draft-writer/ (or ~/.cursor/skills/translation-draft-writer/ globally)

Compatibility

Any WordPress site running a multilingual plugin such as WPML, Polylang, or TranslatePress, or a manual translation workflow; works without one too, output is just plain translated text.

The complete SKILL.md for this skill:

---
name: translation-draft-writer
description: Use when a user wants a first-pass translation of a post for a multilingual site, or asks to "translate this post" or "draft a translation".
---

# Translation Draft Writer

## When to use
A post needs to go out in another language and the user wants a solid first-pass translation drafted for a native or fluent speaker to review, not a finished, publish-ready translation.

## Procedure
1. Translate the title, body content, and meta description into the target language, preserving paragraph structure, links, and any shortcodes or block markup unchanged.
2. Keep proper nouns, brand names, and code snippets untranslated unless the site's existing localized content already translates them.
3. Flag any idiom, cultural reference, or joke in the source that doesn't translate directly, and offer a localized alternative rather than a literal rendering.
4. Check that the translated meta description still fits typical search snippet limits for the target language.
5. Mark the output clearly as a draft pending native-speaker review, not ready to publish as-is.

## Guardrails
- Never publish a translation directly, always leave it for a native or fluent speaker to review before it goes live.
- Don't translate legally or medically sensitive claims without flagging them for extra scrutiny.