Ensure Localization

Use this shared procedure for customer-facing localization. The caller supplies the goal, scope, and permitted edits; PR or workflow context is not required.

Product consistency

Keep terminology consistent within each locale and across RESW and localization YAML for the same product. Grammar may vary with context, but established product keywords should not alternate between unrelated translations.

Language-quality acceptance

For every scoped customer-facing value in a real non-English locale, the final text must actually be in that locale's target language. Copying the English source or leaving a provisional English fallback is not a repair, even when all six checks pass. English locales, source-authoritative locks, and legitimate identical names or technical terms are allowed exceptions; translate the unlocked surrounding words.

Caller context

The caller owns repository or PR context, trusted revisions, skip policy, automation allowlists, and safe-output rules. This skill owns only the reusable file-based localization procedure.

Resources

• File checker: ./scripts/localization_checks.ps1

Supported files

The skill applies to localization resources regardless of their location. The checker supports .resw and flat locale .yml files; other YAML structures need an appropriate parser, not conversion merely to satisfy this checker.

Discover source and target files using the caller's context and existing layout. In this repository, en-US files and direct resource files are common source authorities; these are conventions, not mandatory checker paths.

Do not edit source-authority files just to make translations pass.

Source-authoring guidance

• Add translator context when wording is ambiguous or depends on UI usage, such as a noun versus a command. Explain the meaning and placeholder roles; avoid boilerplate comments for obvious strings.
• Use {Locked} when the whole value must remain literal, and {Locked="token"} for invariant parts such as product names, protocol names, commands, or paths. Use locale-scoped locks only when the exception genuinely applies to those locales; do not exempt entire pseudo-locales by default.
• Put guidance in the resource's <comment> for RESW or its associated YAML comment. Preserve annotations in target files where the format requires them.
• When source edits are not permitted, report missing or contradictory source guidance instead of silently changing source files or inventing meaning. Mechanical checks preserve declared locks; they cannot decide which annotations a new string needs.

Six checks

Example commands:

pwsh .github/skills/ensure-localization/scripts/localization_checks.ps1 -Check Test-ResourceSyntax -File <file>
pwsh .github/skills/ensure-localization/scripts/localization_checks.ps1 -Check Test-ResourceEncoding -File <file> [-OriginalFile <original-file>]
pwsh .github/skills/ensure-localization/scripts/localization_checks.ps1 -Check Test-RequiredKeys -SourceFile <source-file> -TargetFile <target-file> [-KeysJson '["key1","key2"]']
pwsh .github/skills/ensure-localization/scripts/localization_checks.ps1 -Check Test-PlaceholderParity -SourceFile <source-file> -TargetFile <target-file> [-KeysJson '["key1","key2"]']
pwsh .github/skills/ensure-localization/scripts/localization_checks.ps1 -Check Test-LockedContent -SourceFile <source-file> -TargetFile <target-file> [-Locale <locale>] [-KeysJson '["key1","key2"]']
pwsh .github/skills/ensure-localization/scripts/localization_checks.ps1 -Check Test-PseudoLocale -SourceFile <source-file> -TargetFile <target-file> -Locale <pseudo-locale> [-KeysJson '["key1","key2"]']

The script writes one JSON bundle to stdout and exits with the actual status mapping:

• 0 → PASS
• 20 → FIXABLE
• 30 → BLOCKED
• 64 → INVALID_INPUT

Batched checks

For larger scopes, use one pwsh process per batch: dot-source localization_checks.ps1 once and call its public functions directly with native PowerShell arguments. Assess the actual returned statuses and findings; do not fabricate results or generate another checker.

Run initial checks before repairs and rerun the affected checks after repairs. For a read-only review, reuse successful check results instead of repeating the same batch. Inspect summaries and non-PASS findings rather than printing every bundle into the model context. No separate aggregate checker-report file is required.

The agent owns scope completeness and language judgment. Mechanical checks support that assessment; they cannot establish that every affected resource was discovered or that a translation is correct.

Reusable procedure

1. Read the exact original localization patch content against the caller-supplied immutable endpoints before choosing keys or counterpart files. Use: git diff --no-ext-diff --unified=3 <comparison-base> <immutable-head> -- <resource paths>. Supporting summaries such as git diff --stat, --name-only, --name-status, --numstat, git status, or a worktree-only git diff -- <file> are useful for discovery but are not sufficient to derive scoped keys, values, or review coverage. If the diff output is truncated, continue fetching the remaining hunks until you have read the full patch for every relevant resource file. Derive the precise added or updated source keys, values, and surrounding context from that exact patch; do not infer scope from file prefixes, neighboring samples, unchanged source lines, or PR summaries.
   • Source-authority add or update: expand to every shipped localized counterpart that should carry the affected file or keys, even when those target files are unchanged in the git diff.
   • Target-only edit: inspect that localized target against its source authority.
   • Source key or file removal: inspect obsolete shipped counterparts with ordinary git and file review. Handle removal or cleanup explicitly instead of claiming PASS because no file-pair check ran.
2. Map each localized target to its source-authority file. In this repository, .resw targets map to .../Resources/en-US/*.resw or direct .../Resources/*.resw, and WTA locale targets map to tools/wta/locales/en-US.yml.
3. Before translating changed terms, inspect existing translations in the same locale across both .resw files and tools/wta/locales/*.yml. Reuse established product terminology when the meaning and UI context match. If no repository precedent exists, prefer Microsoft localized terms and flag conflicting existing translations instead of inventing synonyms or rewriting unrelated strings.
4. Use -Keys only for native PowerShell function calls, or -KeysJson when invoking the checker script from the CLI. Optional key scoping exists to avoid fixing unrelated old debt, not to hide source additions that the procedure already put in scope. Omit the scope parameter entirely for a whole-file check.
5. Run Test-ResourceSyntax and Test-ResourceEncoding on every file you actually inspect.
6. For each localized target, run Test-RequiredKeys against the full scoped source-present change list, then run Test-PlaceholderParity, Test-LockedContent, and, for pseudo-locales, Test-PseudoLocale only for keys that are present in both the source-authority file and that target. If a scoped key is missing on either side, keep the Test-RequiredKeys finding and do not force the dependent checks across that absent entry. If the source key or file was removed, handle that cleanup with step 1's explicit review instead of treating the deleted source name as a scoped -Keys item. If no comparable keys remain for a scoped target pair, skip those dependent checks for that pair.
7. Same-repo repair: run the checks before editing, repair only localized targets, preserve the original patch-derived scope through the final rerun, recompute the comparable key subset from the final on-disk source/target files after every edit, include any newly translated source-added keys in that rebuilt comparable set, rerun the same relevant checks, then finish with one independent read-only review before requesting any branch write. Do not swap in a different guessed key set or reuse a stale pre-edit comparable subset after a missing key has been added.
8. Read-only review or fork guidance: stay read-only; cover every scoped target, including real locales, not only pseudo-locales. Assess actual target-language content rather than only key parity, parent-key lists, or checker bundles; reject obvious English sentences, stubs, and provisional fallbacks unless a declared exception applies. Report only the actual PASS, FIXABLE, BLOCKED, or INVALID_INPUT outcomes plus concise human review.

Gotchas

• The public checker API is file-only. Do not pass PR numbers, SHAs, repo names, comparison-base discovery, or workflow Mode values.
• Test-RequiredKeys can report missing entries and stale keys for a provided source/target file pair, but it does not discover which untouched locale files or deleted source-file counterparts must be inspected. The caller or agent must do that repository discovery.
• A clean working tree or a bare git diff -- <file> can hide the authored base-to-head change set you are supposed to review. Always inspect the full <comparison-base> <immutable-head> patch when deriving scope.
• Test-SourceUnchanged, Gate, and Validate are intentionally gone. Skip decisions such as “formatting-only, do not spend AI” belong to the caller/workflow.
• Test-ResourceEncoding is the only check that reasons about BOM preservation. Keep source-preservation and safe-write policy in the caller, and supply -OriginalFile whenever a comparison snapshot exists.
• When batching in one process, carry forward genuine pre-edit snapshot paths for existing files. If a file has no snapshot, omit OriginalFile rather than pointing it at the rewritten file.
• When the caller scopes keys, do not automatically reuse that same list for Test-PlaceholderParity, Test-LockedContent, or Test-PseudoLocale. Those APIs deliberately return BLOCKED when a scoped key is absent from the source or target file. Use the full scoped list for Test-RequiredKeys, then derive a comparable-only subset for the dependent checks.
• Do not put source-removed names into scoped -Keys just to chase stale target entries. That is explicit review-and-cleanup work from step 1. A source-absent scoped key is a genuine BLOCKED input, not a fixable stale entry.
• If the entire scoped source/target file pair was removed and no current file remains to feed the checker, materialize immutable pre-deletion snapshots for those exact files and run syntax and encoding checks on the snapshots. Treat the resulting bundles as historical evidence only, and separately use git inspection to confirm that the live tree really removed the files.
• After repairing a previously missing scoped key, recompute that comparable-only subset from the final on-disk files before the final rerun. A stale pre-edit empty comparable subset can incorrectly skip placeholder, lock, or pseudo-locale validation for the new translated source-added entry.
• If your tool output truncates the original patch, keep reading until every localization hunk has been seen. Never guess key scope from file names, prefixes, or partial excerpts.
• For in-process batching, use the dot-sourced public functions with a real PowerShell key array such as @('key1', 'key2'). -KeysJson is only for pwsh -File CLI calls.
• When you invoke localization_checks.ps1 from pwsh -File, use -KeysJson for scoped keys. -Keys key1,key2 is ambiguous at the CLI layer and is not the supported script interface.
• A source-only, blocked, or excluded-file result is not a successful repair. Comment or fail honestly instead of pretending PASS.