d-transcreate

name	d-transcreate
description	Faithful translation and transcreation workflow for books, long-form documents, technical material, fiction, scripts, and mixed-format source files. Use when Codex needs to translate, localize, adapt, or quality-check a substantial document with terminology research, style control, glossary management, continuity tracking, chunking, and optional parallel subagents.

D Transcreate Skill

Canonical workflow: core/d-transcreate.md

Use this skill to translate or transcreate long documents with controlled terminology, consistent voice, and durable state across context windows.

Quick Start

1. Read core/d-transcreate.md for operating principles and the 7-phase workflow.
2. Follow the phase sequence: Intake → Scan → Research → Plan → Translate → Coordinate → QA.
3. Persist all artifacts (brief, glossary, style sheet, manifest, summaries) as workspace files.

Operating Principles

• Preserve meaning, intent, register, structure, and factual accuracy before surface fluency.
• Translate literally only when literal wording carries the intended effect.
• Prefer natural target-language prose when idioms, humor, slogans, dialogue, or cultural references need adaptation.
• Never silently invent, omit, simplify, or reorder source meaning.
• Mark uncertainty with a concrete note and a proposed resolution path.
• Do not copy existing copyrighted translations — use lawful samples only to infer terminology, register, and structural conventions.
• Keep reusable decisions in artifacts (files on disk), not in chat history.

Core Workflow (Summary)

Phase	Action	Key Artifact
1. Intake	Identify source, target, audience, mode, quality bar	Translation Brief
2. Scan	Whole-document inventory before any translation	Source Map
3. Research	Mine terms, research style, build glossary	Glossary + Style Sheet
4. Plan	Create Context_Plan, segment by semantic boundaries	Context_Plan + Chunk Manifest
5. Translate	Multi-pass per chunk: draft → compare → revise → update	Chunk outputs
6. Coordinate	Create Subagent_Dispatch_Plan, dispatch (if parallel), merge, voice pass	Merged output
7. QA	Run all QA gates before delivery	QA Report

Subagent Roles

When the platform supports parallel execution, the following roles may be dispatched:

1. Transcreate Coordinator — final authority on glossary, style, voice, continuity, and merge.
2. Terminology Researcher — mines and proposes terms; never writes global glossary directly.
3. Style Researcher — researches target-language conventions; proposes style rules.
4. Chunk Translator — owns one chunk through the multi-pass cycle.
5. Continuity Reviewer — checks cross-chunk consistency and story/domain continuity.
6. Fidelity Reviewer — checks source faithfulness (omissions, additions, distortions).
7. Formatting Reviewer — checks structural and formatting integrity.

See core/prompts/ for full role definitions.

Workflow Reference Files

• core/workflows/long-document.md — full staged workflow for books and large documents.
• core/workflows/terminology-research.md — term mining, source priority, d-research integration.
• core/workflows/fiction-continuity.md — story bible, reveal timing, character voice.
• core/workflows/technical-domain.md — domain map, acronyms, units, standards.
• core/workflows/qa-gates.md — the 8 QA gates.
• core/workflows/context-management.md — context budget, chunk loading, resume procedure.
• core/workflows/subagents.md — readiness gate, role dispatch, parallel rules.

Artifact Schemas

• core/schemas/translation-brief.md
• core/schemas/source-map.md
• core/schemas/glossary.md
• core/schemas/style-sheet.md
• core/schemas/story-bible.md
• core/schemas/domain-map.md
• core/schemas/chunk-manifest.md
• core/schemas/chunk-summary.md
• core/schemas/context-plan.md
• core/schemas/subagent-dispatch-plan.md
• core/schemas/unresolved-issues.md
• core/schemas/qa-report.md

Orchestration Contract

Before chunking, create a Context_Plan (core/schemas/context-plan.md) to record context budget and chunk-size limits. Before dispatching any worker role, create a Subagent_Dispatch_Plan (core/schemas/subagent-dispatch-plan.md).

If Codex does not support real parallel subagents, execute the same role contract sequentially while preserving the artifact handoff rules. See core/workflows/subagents.md for the sequential fallback procedure.

Default Deliverables

For a substantial translation task, produce or maintain these artifacts in the workspace:

• Translation Brief
• Source Map
• Glossary
• Style Sheet
• Story Bible (fiction) or Domain Map (technical/legal/medical)
• Context Plan
• Chunk Manifest
• Subagent Dispatch Plan (when delegating work)
• Chunk Summaries
• Unresolved Issues Log
• QA Report

For short tasks, apply the same logic mentally and return only the translated text plus any necessary notes.

Context Management

• Never load the full source document into context unless it genuinely fits with room for QA.
• Per chunk, load only: brief, glossary slice, style rules, story bible/domain map excerpt, previous + next chunk summaries, current source chunk, and relevant unresolved issues.
• After completing a chunk, write a compact summary and unload the raw source.
• On context reset, re-open the chunk manifest first, then brief, style sheet, glossary, and current chunk source.

See core/workflows/context-management.md for the full resume procedure.