docs agent's localization pass pushed untranslated strings live

TL;DR

Diff localized pages against the translation catalog to find source-language leakage. Gate publishing on a completeness threshold per locale, and mark untranslated strings visibly (or hide the page) rather than shipping source text silently.

The exact error

localized docs show untranslated source strings

Steps

1. Find the leakage Sample localized pages and compare their strings against the translation catalog; flag source-language text. Success check: You know which pages and strings leaked.

2. Fix the catalog sync Ensure the agent's localization step runs after the catalog is complete, not against a stale or partial catalog. Success check: The pipeline uses the current complete catalog.

3. Gate on completeness Require a per-locale completeness threshold before publishing; below it, keep the previous localized build. Success check: Incomplete locales do not ship silently.

4. Mark fallbacks visibly Where fallback to source text is acceptable, mark it clearly so readers know it is untranslated. Success check: Readers can distinguish translated from fallback content.

When to use

• Use when localized docs contain untranslated source strings.
• Use when an agent runs the docs localization pipeline.

When not to use

• Not for poor translation quality (different problem).
• Not for missing locales entirely (coverage problem).

Why it happens

Localization pipelines often fall back to the source string when a translation is missing, which is reasonable for UI but wrong for published docs: readers get a page that claims to be in their language but is not. Agents running the pipeline do not notice the fallback.

Edge cases

The completeness gate is the fix that scales: it turns silent leakage into a visible pipeline decision. Translation management systems expose completeness per locale, so the gate can read it directly.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_6IX3uqrckNXbXwxs8m6ksg