# D015 - Defer Content Translation

> D015 - Defer Content Translation: a note from the Obsidian vault behind https://saifsiddiqui.in.

Canonical URL: https://saifsiddiqui.in/hi/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/ (this is its markdown representation; the same URL serves HTML to browsers)
Other languages: en: https://saifsiddiqui.in/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/ · kn: https://saifsiddiqui.in/kn/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/ · ur: https://saifsiddiqui.in/ur/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/ · te: https://saifsiddiqui.in/te/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/ · ar: https://saifsiddiqui.in/ar/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/ · hi-Latn: https://saifsiddiqui.in/hi-latn/brain/d015-defer-content-translation/

**Type:** decision  
**Status:** accepted  
**Created:** 2026-07-17  
**Tags:** decision, i18n, sequencing

## D015: Defer bulk content translation to a final pass

**Context:** Having Fable translate large content (About, case studies, section copy, brain notes) into 6 locales mid-build burns a lot of tokens for little value, the audience reads English anyway, and translation is a build-time script's job, not Fable's.

**Decision:** Through **all build phases, author content in English only.** Non-English locales **fall back to English** key-by-key (already the wired behavior). Run the **full content translation as the final step**, via the build-time AI script from [D007 - Build-time AI Translation](/brain/d007-build-time-ai-translation/) (cheap, outside Fable), then per-locale review ([D006 - i18n Seven Languages and RTL](/brain/d006-i18n-seven-languages-and-rtl/)).

**Do NOT touch** the i18n scaffold or the small UI-chrome strings already translated in [Phase 0 - Foundation](/brain/phase-0-foundation/) (nav, switcher, theme labels), those stay.

**Why:** token efficiency; keeps Fable focused on building, not translating; English reaches the whole target audience in the meantime; translation stays a deterministic, reviewable build-time artifact.

**Trade-offs:** non-English visitors see English body content until the final pass, acceptable and reversible. See [Roadmap](/brain/roadmap/) (translation pass added pre-launch).

**Confirmed (chose A):** Fable never hand-translates in *any* scenario (context bloat + poor quality), so the token worry is moot regardless. The deferral is purely about translating *final* copy once instead of re-translating changing copy every phase. An early translation pass can be run **on demand** at any checkpoint (it's the build-time script, not Fable), but the default is the single end-of-build pass.

## से लिंक किया गया

- [D017 - Defer External Service Activation](/hi/brain/d017-defer-external-service-activation/)
- [Open Questions](/hi/brain/open-questions/)
- [Phase 1 - Content MVP](/hi/brain/phase-1-content-mvp/)
- [Phase 5 - Contact and Polish](/hi/brain/phase-5-contact-and-polish/)
- [Portfolio Brain](/hi/brain/portfolio-brain/)
- [Roadmap](/hi/brain/roadmap/)

सभी नोट्स: [/hi/brain/](/hi/brain/)

---

Mohd Saif, Product Engineer. I build solutions, not dead software.
Email: saifmd238@gmail.com · GitHub: https://github.com/Saif-09 · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohd-saif-134076141/ · Résumé (PDF): https://saifsiddiqui.in/resume

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- [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt): the complete text of every page in one fetch
- [/agents.md](/agents.md): when to use this site, and how to query it
- [/sitemap-index.xml](/sitemap-index.xml): every URL, in seven languages