Scriveno translates your manuscript into any language while preserving your voice. The translation pipeline handles glossary management, translation memory, cultural adaptation, quality verification, and multi-language publishing -- from setup to finished translated editions.
This guide covers the full pipeline: how translation works, translating your manuscript, managing terminology, verifying quality, and publishing in multiple languages.
Scriveno translates through the in-context translator agent (agents/translator.md), not an external translation API. The agent itself handles literary nuance, sacred-text registers, and cultural adaptation that machine-translation services miss. It applies your voice profile, maintains glossary compliance, and can do formal or dynamic equivalence translation. Every unit is translated by the translator agent in fresh context with your STYLE-GUIDE.md loaded.
DeepL and Google Cloud Translation are documented as possible future integration targets, not current behavior. Scriveno does not call either service today; if an automated machine-translation path is added later, this guide will describe how it plugs in.
The translator agent works unit by unit in fresh context (just like the drafter), ensuring consistent quality and glossary compliance across the entire manuscript.
Configure the language you want to translate into:
/scr:translate --add-language fr
This adds French to your project's target languages in .manuscript/config.json. You can add as many languages as you need.
Check your configured languages anytime:
/scr:translate --languages
Before translating, set up a glossary for consistent terminology:
/scr:translation-glossary fr
Scriveno scans your manuscript for character names, place names, invented terms, titles, recurring phrases, and cultural references, then generates suggested translations. Review and edit the glossary before starting translation -- the translator agent treats glossary entries as law.
Translate your manuscript:
/scr:translate fr
Scriveno translates one atomic unit at a time (scene, chapter, passage), each in fresh context with your STYLE-GUIDE.md, glossary, and translation memory loaded. You see progress per unit:
Translated chapter 1, scene 1: 1,247 -> 1,389 words (1.11x)
Translated chapter 1, scene 2: 980 -> 1,102 words (1.12x)
To translate all configured languages:
/scr:translate --all
To resume from a specific unit (after interruption or revision):
/scr:translate fr --from chapter-3-scene-1
Run back-translation to check for meaning drift:
/scr:back-translate fr
This translates the French text back to English and shows a side-by-side comparison with drift annotations. See the Quality Verification section for details.
Glossaries ensure that character names, place names, and invented terms are translated consistently throughout the manuscript. The translator agent checks the glossary for every unit -- inconsistent terminology across a translated manuscript destroys reader trust.
Glossaries are stored as readable markdown tables at .manuscript/translation/GLOSSARY-{lang}.md.
/scr:translation-glossary fr
Scriveno extracts terms from your manuscript and generates an initial glossary with suggested translations. Terms are organized by category:
| Category | What It Covers |
|---|---|
character_name |
Character names, nicknames, aliases |
place_name |
Locations, realms, geographical features |
invented_term |
Made-up words, neologisms, world-specific vocabulary |
title_honorific |
Titles, ranks, forms of address |
recurring_phrase |
Phrases that appear multiple times with specific meaning |
cultural_reference |
Setting-specific cultural elements |
brand_name |
Proper nouns, organization names |
How character names are handled depends on your name_handling setting in .manuscript/config.json:
keep_original-- Names stay in their original form. Transliterations are added in parentheses on first occurrence if the target language uses a different script.transliterate-- Names are transliterated into the target language's script (e.g., Marcus becomes in Japanese).localize-- Names are given culturally equivalent forms (e.g., John becomes Jean in French).
Add a single term:
/scr:translation-glossary fr --add "chronoshifter" --translation "chronodecaleur" --category invented_term
Bulk import terms:
/scr:translation-glossary fr --import
Review the glossary for missing terms and inconsistencies:
/scr:translation-glossary fr --review
The review mode scans your manuscript for terms that should be in the glossary but are not, and flags potential inconsistencies like similar terms that might confuse the translator.
Translation memory (TM) stores aligned source-target segment pairs from completed translations. When the translator agent works on a new unit, relevant TM segments are loaded into its context so it can reuse approved translations for recurring descriptions, dialogue tags, and narrative patterns.
The TM is stored at .manuscript/translation/translation-memory.json.
- Sacred texts -- Canonical terms and liturgical phrases must be translated identically every time
- Series -- Character names, place names, and invented terms need consistency across volumes
- Technical writing -- Terminology consistency is essential for clarity
After completing a translation, build the TM from your approved translations:
/scr:translation-memory fr --build
Scriveno aligns source and target segments at the paragraph and sentence level, assigns confidence scores (1.0 for exact alignment, down to 0.3 for fuzzy matches), and deduplicates.
/scr:translation-memory fr # Show stats (or build if none exists)
/scr:translation-memory fr --build # Build/rebuild from completed translations
/scr:translation-memory fr --stats # Show segment counts and coverage
/scr:translation-memory fr --export # Export as TMX for external CAT tools
/scr:translation-memory fr --clear # Clear TM for a language (with confirmation)
The TMX export produces industry-standard Translation Memory eXchange format compatible with SDL Trados, MemoQ, OmegaT, and other computer-assisted translation tools.
Translation handles words. Cultural adaptation handles meaning. Scriveno flags culturally sensitive content that needs deliberate attention beyond a faithful unit-by-unit rendering.
/scr:cultural-adaptation fr
The cultural adaptation review scans your translated text across 9 categories:
| Category | Severity | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Idiom | High | "Break a leg" translated literally instead of using a target-language equivalent |
| Humor | High | Jokes relying on source-language wordplay or cultural knowledge |
| Politeness | High | Wrong T-V distinction (tu/vous), inappropriate honorific levels |
| Custom | Medium | Holidays, greeting conventions, dining etiquette |
| Measurement | Medium | Imperial units preserved without metric conversion |
| Currency | Medium | Dollar amounts without localization context |
| Name order | Medium | Family name first/last conventions (important for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hungarian) |
| Food | Low | Cultural food references (Thanksgiving turkey, fish and chips) |
| Punctuation | Low | Quotation mark style, decimal separators, spacing conventions |
Filter by severity or scope to a specific unit:
/scr:cultural-adaptation fr --severity high
/scr:cultural-adaptation fr --unit chapter-2-scene-1
/scr:cultural-adaptation fr --report
The --report flag generates a standalone report at .manuscript/translation/{lang}/CULTURAL-ADAPTATION-REPORT.md.
Back-translation is the primary quality verification tool. It translates the translated text back to the source language and shows a side-by-side comparison with drift annotations.
/scr:back-translate fr
- Scriveno reads the translated text (without looking at the original)
- Translates it back to the source language
- Compares the back-translation with the original
- Annotates each segment with a drift marker
| Marker | Meaning |
|---|---|
| [OK] | Meaning preserved -- wording may differ but intent is the same |
| [DRIFT: meaning shift] | Factual content, intent, or implication changed |
| [DRIFT: tone shift] | Emotional register changed (more formal, less urgent, different mood) |
| [DRIFT: omission] | Something from the original is missing |
| [DRIFT: addition] | Something not in the original was added |
- 90%+ OK -- Excellent fidelity. Minor drifts are expected and acceptable.
- 75-89% OK -- Good fidelity with notable drift areas. Review flagged segments.
- Below 75% OK -- Significant drift. Consider re-translating problem units.
Scope to a specific unit or generate a full report:
/scr:back-translate fr --unit chapter-3
/scr:back-translate fr --report
Scriveno handles right-to-left and CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) scripts throughout the pipeline.
RTL languages (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu) receive special handling:
- Text direction -- Export commands pass the Pandoc
dirvariable (dir=rtl); the Typst interior templates read thatdirvariable to orient text - Template adjustments -- The Typst interior templates honor RTL: the book template reverses inside/outside margins for RTL binding, and the stageplay template flips its binding margin and page-number alignment. The chapbook and picturebook templates set text direction from the
dirvariable. - Font requirements -- RTL exports need fonts with Arabic/Hebrew glyph support. Scriveno uses system-available fonts by default; specify custom fonts in
.manuscript/config.json - Punctuation -- Quotation marks use the appropriate convention (e.g., French-style guillemets for Arabic)
CJK languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) receive:
- Line breaking -- CJK-aware line breaking rules (no break within words, proper kinsoku shori for Japanese)
- Font handling -- CJK exports use appropriate CJK fonts with correct glyph coverage
- Spacing -- No inter-word spaces (CJK convention), proper spacing between CJK and Latin characters
- Quotation marks -- Corner brackets are used by default
Scriveno auto-detects script direction from the language code:
- RTL:
ar,he,fa,ur,yi,ps,sd - CJK:
zh,ja,ko - LTR: All other languages
No manual configuration needed -- the translation and export commands apply the correct settings automatically.
After translating, export your manuscript in all target languages and formats:
/scr:multi-publish --languages fr,de,ja --format epub
Multi-publish handles everything needed for translated editions:
- Localized front matter -- Translated title page, copyright page (with translation credit), dedication, and table of contents
- Localized back matter -- Translated author bio, acknowledgments, and auto-generated translator's note
- Language-specific formatting -- Correct quotation marks, punctuation spacing, number formatting, and text direction
- Per-language output -- Each language gets its own directory:
.manuscript/output/translations/{lang}/
/scr:multi-publish --languages fr,de # Specific languages, interactive format selection
/scr:multi-publish --all-languages # All configured languages
/scr:multi-publish --format pdf # Specific format for all languages
/scr:multi-publish --all-languages --all-formats # Everything
For KDP or IngramSpark packages in translated editions, multi-publish creates language-specific packages with translated metadata and localized cover specifications.
For hands-off translation of one or more languages, autopilot runs the complete 6-phase pipeline without asking questions:
/scr:autopilot-translate --languages fr,de,ja
The autopilot pipeline per language:
- Glossary -- Creates the glossary if it doesn't exist
- Translate -- Translates all units with fresh-context-per-unit
- Translation Memory -- Builds TM from completed translations
- Cultural Adaptation -- Flags culturally sensitive content
- Back-Translate -- Runs back-translation quality verification
- Multi-Publish -- Exports in all available formats
/scr:autopilot-translate --all-languages # Translate all configured languages
/scr:autopilot-translate --languages ar --skip-publish # Translate without exporting
/scr:autopilot-translate --languages fr --skip-adaptation # Skip cultural adaptation
/scr:autopilot-translate --resume # Resume interrupted pipeline
Autopilot tracks progress in STATE.md so you can resume where you left off after interruption. Each language is independent -- if Arabic completed phases 1-3 and French completed 1-5, resuming picks up each language at its next phase.
Sacred texts receive special translation handling with additional controls for theological precision:
- Translation philosophy -- Choose between formal equivalence (word-for-word), dynamic equivalence (thought-for-thought), paraphrase (modern accessibility), or interlinear (scholarly word-by-word alignment)
- Canonical alignment -- Match vocabulary to a canonical translation (KJV, NRSV, Sahih International, etc.)
- Preserved source terms -- Terms like YHWH, hesed, dharma, or taqwa are never translated -- they appear in the source language with transliteration and footnotes
- Liturgical preservation -- Maintains rhythmic and musical qualities for passages meant to be read aloud or chanted
Configure sacred translation settings as top-level keys in .manuscript/config.json. The most relevant keys are tradition, translation_philosophy, canonical_alignment, preserve_source_terms, and transliteration_style. Existing projects with a nested sacred object are still accepted as legacy input, but new projects use the top-level shape. For full details on sacred text work types, voice registers, and exclusive commands, see the Sacred Text Guide.
- Getting Started -- Installation and first project
- Command Reference -- Full list of translation commands
- Publishing Guide -- Exporting and publishing your manuscript