Translation workflow — visual diagrams

End-to-end visual guide: source → translate → review → publish → ship, with per-state actions, quality gates, and a guided Get-to-CDN checklist.

Translations move through five stages. Each stage has its own quality gate and its own place in the dashboard. This page shows the flow, the gates, and what to click when something is stuck.

The flow at a glance

Per-language readiness — what the numbers mean

The Quality & Review tab shows five counters per language. Each tells you exactly which gate is blocking you from publishing that language:

Column	What it counts	How it gets unstuck
Filled	Translations present and non-empty	AI translate, or edit cell manually
Empty	Keys with no value for this language	AI translate, manual entry, or remove the key
Stale	Translations where the source changed after the target	"Refresh stale" — rewrites only stale rows
Unapproved	AI/human writes pending review	Approve per-cell, or bulk-approve in Quality panel
Errors	Quality-check violations	Quality panel → Issues → fix or dismiss

'Ready' is a lie when unapproved > 0

The panel shows ready when errors === 0 and empty === 0. With the default policy ( review: ai_only), AI translations still need approval before they ship to the CDN. Check the Unapproved column before publishing.

First-time setup checklist

Push source for en — 100% filled is required for any publish.
Add target languages in project settings. They appear as empty columns in the editor.
Translate all missing from the editor toolbar (per language) or Translate all languages for parallel runs.
Review the Unapproved count — open the Quality tab, bulk-approve AI generations, or edit per cell.
Publish a version (e.g. production). Approved keys ship to the CDN tag.
Ship by pointing your app at the tag (version: production). Floating tags update on the next reload.

Stale lifecycle

When the source string for a key changes, every other language is marked stale and a stale_target quality issue is raised. Until you refresh, the old translation may be wrong (different numbers, new features).

Review modes

The default review policy decides whether a write blocks publishing:

Mode	Behavior	When to use
off	No review required; everything publishes	Internal tools, prototypes
ai_only	Only AI-generated writes need approval	Production with human spot-check
selected	Only listed languages need review	Mixed markets, gradual rollout
production	Only the production tag needs review	Strict staging → prod gates
all	Every write needs approval	Regulated content

Status glossary

Origin: human, ai, memory (TM hit), sync, import, restore, system. Decides whether review policy applies.
Revision: every write appends one. History drawer shows the chain.
Approved: a revision was reviewed and pinned as the active shipping revision. approvedRevisionId === currentRevisionId.
Stale: source changed since this translation was written; AI or human refresh recommended.
Block: quality-check failure preventing publish (configurable in project quality settings).

Get-to-CDN banner

The catalog editor shows a sticky banner above the AI toolbar that lists everything still blocking publish, in the exact order you need to fix it. The banner now has a single Next button for the current blocker; Review filters the catalog to unapproved keys for that language. Click Next to advance, then the banner repaints on the next poll.

How the steps are ordered

Source ready - is the reference language 100% filled?
Per target language - empty keys (block) and stale rows (warn; block only if your blockPublishOn policy says so)
Review pending - AI writes that the project's review policy requires approval for
Publish - aggregate blocker check across every step

Why a banner, not a wizard

The banner never blocks you. You can keep working in the editor while blockers are visible - when you fix something (translate, refresh stale, approve) the banner updates on the next poll (5 seconds while blockers exist, 30 seconds once ready).

Customising actions

The banner dispatches lexisync:action CustomEvents on window with a small payload object. The catalog editor listens and forwards to existing flows (runAiTranslate, bulk approve, publish). You can install your own listener to redirect actions to a different UI without touching the banner itself.