locale agent deleted reviewed translations during catalog merge and the release shipped untranslated

locale agent deleted reviewed translations during catalog merge and the release shipped untranslated

TL;DR

Fixes the locale agent dropping reviewed translations when merging catalogs. Merge by key with reviewed translations winning, never by blind overwrite. Use when a release ships untranslated strings after a merge. Not for strings never translated.

The error

Release shipped with raw English strings; the reviewed de translations were deleted in the catalog merge.

Fix it

Step 1: Find the merge that dropped them

node -e "console.log('check the merge commit: reviewed keys present before, gone after')"

Expected: You identify the destructive merge.

Step 2: Restore the reviewed translations

node -e "console.log('recover the reviewed strings from the TMS or the pre-merge catalog')"

Expected: The catalog has the reviewed translations back.

Step 3: Fix the merge strategy

node -e "console.log('merge by key, reviewed translations win over agent output')"

Expected: Future merges preserve reviewed work.

When to use this

• Reviewed translations vanished after a catalog merge
• A release shipped untranslated after automation ran

When NOT to use this

• Strings were never translated, send them to the TMS
• The merge conflicted, resolve the git conflict

Tool and version compatibility

• Any catalog merge automation
• JSON, PO, and XLIFF catalogs

Variant phrasings

agent overwrote instead of deleted

Same fix: reviewed translations must win the merge.

merge drops only one locale

That locale's file was not in the merge input set. Check the glob.

Why it happens

A merge that replaces the whole catalog with the agent's output treats reviewed translations as stale data. Merging key by key with a priority rule keeps human-reviewed work safe.

Edge cases

• Deleted source keys should retire their translations, not keep them forever
• The TMS is the source of truth; the catalog is a build artifact
• Audit the merge output before every release, not after

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstCAd5YdAnOB4rCSovQkELw