capture-translate

capture-translate

Scrape an article from localhost, then produce a translation alongside the original capture.

Flow

1. Scrape first. Invoke scrape-article (or scrape-authenticated if the user indicates the page is behind auth). Use the saved markdown + frontmatter as the source — do not re-fetch just to translate.
2. Detect or confirm source language. Default assumption: source is Hebrew. If frontmatter language disagrees or the user specified otherwise, use that.
3. Pick target language. Default target is English (en). User can override (--to es, "translate to French", etc.).
4. Translate.
5. Save translation to <capture-root>/translations/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD--HHMM--<slug>--<src>-<tgt>.md. Resolve <capture-root> per reference/save-location.md (project-local preferred; global fallback).

Translator choice

Default: Claude (inline). For the user's typical volume (one article at a time), Claude translating directly in-conversation gives the best quality with zero extra deps. This is the right choice for most calls.

Optional: LibreTranslate (local server). For bulk or scripted runs, a locally-running LibreTranslate instance is a good fit — keeps the request local and avoids sending content to external APIs. Install notes:

pip install libretranslate
libretranslate --host 127.0.0.1 --port 5000 --load-only en,he,ar,es,fr,de,ru

Call:

curl -s -X POST http://127.0.0.1:5000/translate \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"q":"<text>","source":"he","target":"en","format":"text"}'

Pick LibreTranslate over Claude only when:

• The user is running this in a loop/batch.
• The user explicitly asks for it.
• The article exceeds a length where inline translation becomes unwieldy.

Otherwise use Claude.

Output format

Stacked (block-per-section), not side-by-side, for readability in plain markdown viewers:

---
source_url: <url>
source_capture: <path to the original article file>
source_language: he
target_language: en
translator: claude | libretranslate
translated_at: <ISO now>
title_source: <original title>
title_target: <translated title>
---

# <translated title>

> Source: <url>
> Original title: <original title>

<translated body as markdown, same structure as source>

---

## Original (Hebrew)

<original body>

Preserve structure

• Keep heading levels, list/quote structure, paragraph breaks.
• Do not translate code blocks, URLs, email addresses, or numbers.
• Preserve Hebrew proper nouns in parenthetical transliteration only when disambiguation helps (people, place names the English reader won't know).

After saving

Report: path, translator used, source/target languages, word counts for both versions.

Do not

• Do not translate without first capturing the original — we always want both.
• Do not send article text to hosted translation APIs (Google/DeepL) from this skill. The user's localhost-only posture is deliberate.
• Do not paraphrase or editorialize — translate faithfully.