home / skills / hiroro-work / claude-plugins / tr

tr skill

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This skill translates text between Japanese and English with auto-detect, offering high-quality or fast modes and language overrides.

npx playbooks add skill hiroro-work/claude-plugins --skill tr

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Files (1)

SKILL.md

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---
name: tr
description: Translate text between Japanese and English. Auto-detects source language. Use --hq for high-quality (sonnet), --fast for standard (haiku).
---

# Translate

Translate text using Claude subagents.

## Usage

```
/tr <text to translate>
/tr --to <lang> <text to translate>
/tr --from <lang> <text to translate>
/tr --hq <text to translate>
/tr --fast <text to translate>
```

## Options

- `--hq`: Force high-quality translation (sonnet model)
- `--fast`: Force standard translation (haiku model)
- `--to <lang>`: Specify target language (e.g., `zh`, `fr`, `ko`)
- `--from <lang>`: Specify source language (e.g., `ja`, `en`, `zh`)

## Configuration

Users can configure defaults in `translate.local.md`:

- **Project-level**: `.claude/translate.local.md` (takes precedence)
- **User-level**: `~/.claude/translate.local.md`

If both files exist, **project-level settings take precedence**.

```markdown
---
default_quality: hq      # or "fast" (default)
primary_language: ja     # Language to detect (default: ja)
secondary_language: en   # Default target when primary detected (default: en)
---
```

## Examples

```
/tr こんにちは
/tr Hello, how are you?
/tr Bonjour               # French → Japanese (default)
/tr --to zh Hello, world!
/tr --from ja Konnichiwa
/tr --from en --to ja Hello
/tr --hq この文章を翻訳してください
/tr --fast --to fr Hello, world!
```

## Execution

1. **Check for settings file**: Search for `translate.local.md` in the following locations:
   1. **Project-level**: `.claude/translate.local.md`
   2. **User-level**: `~/.claude/translate.local.md`

   Settings file resolution:
   - If both files exist, use project-level settings only (project-level takes precedence)
   - If only one file exists, use that file
   - If neither file exists, proceed with default settings

   Parse YAML frontmatter for settings:
   - `default_quality`: If `hq`, default to sonnet model
   - `primary_language`: Language to detect (default: `ja` for Japanese)
   - `secondary_language`: Target when primary detected (default: `en` for English)
   - If file is missing or invalid, use defaults: `fast` quality, `ja`/`en` languages

2. **Parse options**:
   - If `--hq` is present → use `tr-hq` agent (sonnet)
   - If `--fast` is present → use `tr` agent (haiku)
   - If both `--hq` and `--fast` → `--hq` takes priority
   - If neither → use default from settings (or haiku if no settings)

3. **Construct prompt for agent**: Build the prompt with settings and text
   - Priority: `--to`/`--from` options override settings file, which overrides defaults
   - If custom languages are configured, prefix with: `primary: <primary_language>, secondary: <secondary_language>`
   - If `--from <lang>` is specified, include: `--from <lang>`
   - If `--to <lang>` is specified, include: `--to <lang>`
   - Append the user's text to translate

4. **Invoke agent**: Use Task tool with the appropriate agent (`tr` or `tr-hq`)

5. **Return result**: The agent returns only the translated text

Overview

This skill translates text between Japanese and English with automatic source-language detection. It supports explicit source/target overrides and two quality modes: high-quality (sonnet) and fast (haiku). Use simple flags to control output quality and language direction for predictable results. The skill returns only the translated text for easy piping into other tools.

How this skill works

The tool checks for a local configuration file to determine default quality and preferred languages, with project-level settings taking precedence over user-level. CLI flags (--hq, --fast, --to, --from) override those defaults and select the appropriate translation agent. The skill builds a concise prompt including resolved settings and the input text, invokes the chosen agent, and returns the translated text only. If no settings exist, it defaults to fast quality and Japanese→English detection.

When to use it

Quickly translate short messages between Japanese and English.
Force a higher-literary translation for polished copy (--hq).
Get a fast, compact translation for chat or notes (--fast).
Override automatic detection when the source or target is known (--from / --to).
Integrate into scripts that need just the translated output (no extra metadata).

Best practices

Prefer --hq for creative, nuanced or formal prose and --fast for simple, literal translations.
Set a project-level .claude/translate.local.md for consistent defaults across a repo.
Use --from when input might be ambiguous to avoid wrong-target translations.
Keep input sentences focused; shorter, clear sentences yield more accurate translations.
Verify cultural or idiomatic content manually when accuracy is critical.

Example use cases

Translate a Japanese user message into natural English for customer support.
Produce a polished English marketing blurb from Japanese copy using --hq.
Rapidly translate chat text into Japanese with --fast for live conversation.
Override defaults in CI scripts to translate documentation snippets automatically.
Convert small multilingual snippets in automation pipelines and capture only the translated text.

FAQ

How does automatic detection choose target language?

It detects the source and maps primary_language to secondary_language from the local config or defaults (ja→en) when no explicit --to is provided.

What if both --hq and --fast are given?

--hq takes priority and selects the high-quality sonnet agent.