Validate Translation

Validate Translation

Validate that a translated string preserves required structural elements from the original and meets quality requirements.

Inputs

• original_text: The source text (commonly English).
• translated_text: The translation under review.
• targetlanguagecode: BCP 47 code (e.g. es, fr, de, zh-CN).

Output

{
  "valid": true,
  "issues": [],
  "warnings": []
}

• valid: false if any blocking issue exists, else true.
• issues: Blocking problems that must be fixed.
• warnings: Non-blocking concerns to review.

Validation Checks

1. Placeholder Preservation (blocking)

Patterns to detect in both texts:

| Pattern | Regex | |---------|-------| | Double braces | \{\{[\w.]+\}\} | | Single braces | \{[\w]+\} | | Dollar braces | \$\{[\w]+\} | | Printf | %[sdif] | | Percent braces | %\{[\w]+\} | | Double brackets | \[\[[\w]+\]\] | | Numbered tags | `` |

Rules:

• All placeholders from original must appear in translation.
• No new placeholders may be introduced.
• Syntax must be preserved exactly ({{name}} ≠ {name} ≠ {{ name }}).
• Placeholder names are case-sensitive ({{Name}} ≠ {{name}}).

2. Empty/Whitespace (blocking)

Translation is not empty or whitespace-only.

3. Untranslated Markers (blocking)

Detect: TRANSLATE_ME, TODO, [TODO], FIXME, XXX, UNTRANSLATED, NEEDS_TRANSLATION, TBD.

4. Still in English (warning)

If original === translated, original has 3+ words, and target is not English → warn.

Exceptions (no warning):

• Single-word strings (could be proper nouns or technical terms).
• URLs, emails, identifiers.
• Mostly placeholders.

5. Length Ratio (warning)

Compare len(translated) / len(original) against language family expectations:

| Language | Min | Max | |----------|-----|-----| | German | 0.8 | 1.5 | | French | 0.9 | 1.4 | | Spanish | 0.9 | 1.4 | | Italian | 0.9 | 1.4 | | Portuguese | 0.9 | 1.4 | | Russian | 0.8 | 1.5 | | Chinese | 0.3 | 0.8 | | Japanese | 0.4 | 1.0 | | Korean | 0.5 | 1.0 | | Arabic | 0.8 | 1.4 | | Hebrew | 0.7 | 1.2 | | Hindi | 0.9 | 1.5 | | Thai | 0.8 | 1.3 | | Default | 0.5 | 3.0 |

Skip if original is <10 characters, mostly placeholders, or a single word.

6. Character Encoding (blocking)

Detect: replacement character � (U+FFFD), mojibake patterns (e.g. é for é), null \x00, non-\n/\t control characters.

7. HTML Entity Preservation (warning)

 , &, <, >, ", &#…; in original should appear in translation (or be intentionally rendered).

8. Newline/Trailing Whitespace (warning)

Newlines and trailing whitespace/punctuation should be preserved.

Severity

| Blocking (valid = false) | Warning (valid = true) | |-----------------------------|--------------------------| | Missing/extra/modified placeholder | Identical to source | | Empty translation | Unusual length ratio | | Untranslated marker present | Missing HTML entity | | Invalid encoding | Formatting/newline difference |

Examples

Valid

original:   "Hello {{name}}, you have {{count}} messages."
translated: "Hola {{name}}, tienes {{count}} mensajes."
target:     es
→ {valid: true, issues: [], warnings: []}

Missing placeholder

original:   "Welcome {{name}}!"
translated: "¡Bienvenido!"
target:     es
→ {valid: false, issues: ["Missing placeholder: {{name}}"], warnings: []}

Untranslated

original:   "Save changes"
translated: "Save changes"
target:     de
→ {valid: true, issues: [], warnings: ["Translation appears identical to source"]}

Multiple issues

original:   "Delete {{count}} items permanently"
translated: "[TODO] Supprimer {count} éléments"
target:     fr
→ {valid: false,
   issues: ["Contains untranslated marker: [TODO]",
            "Placeholder syntax modified: {{count}} → {count}"],
   warnings: []}

Implementation Notes

1. Be permissive: when uncertain, warn rather than block.
2. Placeholder order may legitimately change for grammar — only check presence.
3. Whitespace inside placeholders matters: {{ name }} ≠ {{name}}.
4. Idiomatic adaptation may legitimately produce length outside expected ratios.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: ericfitz
• Source: ericfitz/skills
• License: Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.