Baoyu Translate

Translator

Three-mode translation skill: quick for direct translation, normal for analysis-informed translation, refined for full publication-quality workflow with review and polish.

User Input Tools

When this skill prompts the user, follow this tool-selection rule (priority order):

1. Prefer built-in user-input tools exposed by the current agent runtime — e.g., AskUserQuestion, request_user_input, clarify, ask_user, or any equivalent.
2. Fallback: if no such tool exists, emit a numbered plain-text message and ask the user to reply with the chosen number/answer for each question.
3. Batching: if the tool supports multiple questions per call, combine all applicable questions into a single call; if only single-question, ask them one at a time in priority order.

Concrete AskUserQuestion references below are examples — substitute the local equivalent in other runtimes.

Script Directory

Scripts in scripts/ subdirectory. {baseDir} = this SKILL.md's directory path. Resolve ${BUN_X} runtime: if bun installed → bun; if npx available → npx -y bun; else suggest installing bun. Replace {baseDir} and ${BUN_X} with actual values.

Preferences (EXTEND.md)

Check EXTEND.md in priority order — the first one found wins:

EXTEND.md supports: default target language, default mode, target audience, custom glossaries (inline or file path), translation style, chunk settings.

Schema: references/config/extend-schema.md.

First-Time Setup (BLOCKING)

CRITICAL: When EXTEND.md is not found, you MUST run the first-time setup before ANY translation. This is a BLOCKING operation.

Full reference: references/config/first-time-setup.md

Use AskUserQuestion with all questions (target language, mode, audience, style, save location) in ONE call. After user answers, create EXTEND.md at the chosen location, confirm "Preferences saved to [path]", then continue.

Defaults

All configurable values in one place. EXTEND.md overrides these; CLI flags override EXTEND.md.

Modes

Default mode: Normal (can be overridden in EXTEND.md default_mode setting).

Style presets — control the voice and tone of the translation (independent of audience):

Custom style descriptions are also accepted, e.g., --style "poetic and lyrical".

Auto-detection:

• "快翻", "quick", "直接翻译" → quick mode
• "精翻", "refined", "publication quality", "proofread" → refined mode
• Otherwise → default mode (normal)

Upgrade prompt: After normal mode completes, display:

Translation saved. To further review and polish, reply "继续润色" or "refine".

If user responds, continue with review → polish steps (same as refined mode Steps 4-6 in refined-workflow.md) on the existing output.

Audience presets:

Custom audience descriptions are also accepted, e.g., --audience "AI感兴趣的普通读者".

Workflow

Step 1: Load Preferences

1.1 Check EXTEND.md (see Preferences section above)

1.2 Load built-in glossary for the language pair if available:

• EN→ZH: references/glossary-en-zh.md

1.3 Merge glossaries: EXTEND.md glossary (inline) + EXTEND.md glossary_files (external files, paths relative to EXTEND.md location) + built-in glossary + --glossary file (CLI overrides all)

Step 2: Materialize Source & Create Output Directory

Materialize source (file as-is, inline text/URL → save to translate/{slug}.md), then create output directory: {source-dir}/{source-basename}-{target-lang}/. Detect source language if --from not specified.

Full details: references/workflow-mechanics.md

Output directory contents (all intermediate and final files go here):

Step 3: Assess Content Length