translate-skill-en

name	translate-skill-en
description	Translates an existing Agent Skill (SKILL.md and all bundled files) from one natural language to another. The translated skill is written in English and saved as UTF-8. Use this skill whenever a user wants to translate a skill, port a skill to another language, make a skill accessible to speakers of a different language, or create a language variant of an existing skill. Activate for phrases like: "translate this skill", "translate skill from X to Y", "make a German version of this skill", "port skill to French", "create a language variant", or "translate SKILL.md".
compatibility	Requires read access to the source skill directory or a raw URL. Output is UTF-8 encoded. No additional binaries required.
license	CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0
metadata	{"author":"roebi","spec":"https://agentskills.io/specification","instruction-language":"en","encoding":"utf-8"}

Translate Skill — Instructions in English, UTF-8 Output

Translates an existing Agent Skill from language A to language B. All instructions in this skill are written in English. Output files are UTF-8.

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When to use this skill

• User provides a SKILL.md (as file, URL, or pasted text) and a target language
• User wants a language variant of an existing skill
• User wants non-English speakers to benefit from an existing skill
• User wants to create translate-skill-<lang>-utf8 variants of this very skill

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What gets translated

Item	Action
SKILL.md frontmatter description	Translate to target language
SKILL.md body (all prose, headings, notes)	Translate to target language
references/*.md files	Translate each file
scripts/ comments and --help text	Translate inline comments and help strings
assets/ text files	Translate if plain text
Frontmatter name field	Do NOT translate — keep original slug
Code logic / variable names	Do NOT translate — translate comments only

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Step-by-Step Workflow

Step 1 — Identify source

• Accept: a file path, a raw GitHub URL, or pasted SKILL.md content
• If a URL is given, fetch it with web_fetch
• Read all bundled files in references/, scripts/, assets/ if present

Step 2 — Confirm parameters

Ask (or infer from context):

1. Source language — what language is the skill currently written in?
2. Target language — what language should the output be in?
3. Output skill name — default: append -<lang-code>-utf8 to original name
   • Example: translate-skill-en → translate-skill-de
4. Output location — where to write the translated skill directory?

Step 3 — Translate SKILL.md

Rules:

• Preserve all YAML frontmatter keys exactly
• Translate description value fully into target language
• Add or update metadata.instruction-language to reflect target language code
• Keep metadata.encoding: utf-8
• Translate all prose in the body
• Keep all code blocks, file paths, URLs, and command examples untouched
• Keep the name field untouched

Step 4 — Translate bundled files

For each file in references/, scripts/, assets/:

• Translate prose, comments, help text
• Leave code logic, variable names, command syntax untouched
• Save with identical filename in the translated skill directory

Step 5 — Write output

Create the translated skill directory:

<translated-skill-name>/
├── SKILL.md              # translated
├── references/           # translated (if present)
├── scripts/              # translated comments (if present)
└── assets/               # translated text assets (if present)

All files saved as UTF-8.

Step 6 — Validate

Check:

• name field unchanged
• No untranslated prose remaining in SKILL.md body
• Code blocks intact
• UTF-8 encoding confirmed (especially for non-Latin scripts)
• metadata.instruction-language updated

Step 7 — Present

Output the translated skill directory for download. Briefly summarize: source language → target language, files translated, any ambiguous terms that were left in source language with a note.

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Translation Quality Notes

• Prefer natural phrasing over literal word-for-word translation
• Technical terms (e.g. "skill", "agent", "SKILL.md", "frontmatter") may be kept in English if no natural equivalent exists — add a short note in parentheses
• Trigger phrases in the description should feel natural to a native speaker of the target language — rephrase idiomatically
• UTF-8 note: All target languages, including those with non-Latin scripts (Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, etc.), are supported via UTF-8 encoding

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Example invocations

"Translate this skill to German"
→ source: en, target: de, output name: <original>-de-utf8

"Create a French version of translate-skill-en"
→ source: en, target: fr, output name: translate-skill-fr-utf8

"Port this SKILL.md to Japanese"
→ source: en, target: ja, output name: <original>-ja-utf8

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Self-application: creating language variants of this skill

This skill can translate itself. To create translate-skill-de:

1. Use translate-skill-en as source
2. Set target language: German (de)
3. Output name: translate-skill-de
4. The resulting skill is identical in function, but all instructions are in German

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This skill follows the agentskills.io open specification.