A practical CI/CD workflow for continuous localization

Version source copy like code

Keep UI copy, documentation and marketing pages in the repository with stable message keys. A pull request contains source changes; the pipeline uses keys and content hashes to detect additions, edits and removals so unchanged content is never translated again.

Generate incremental translation jobs

After each commit, run extraction and static checks, then send pending entries to TranslateHub in batches. Include source and target languages, glossary version and content type, and persist the job_id for retries and traceability.

translate:
  changed: 42
  locales: [zh-CN, ja-JP]
  glossary: checkout-v3

Make review a release gate

When a job finishes, reviewers should work against the same source diff. Require human approval for high-risk pages and sampled review for low-risk content. Merge checks should pass only when placeholders, links, HTML tags and required locale files are valid.

Release with a rollback path

Bind each locale bundle to a source commit and record the engine, glossary and reviewer. Roll out one locale or page group first, monitor 404s, fallback events and conversions, and roll back the locale bundle without reverting the entire product release.

Pipeline stages

1. Extract and validate source message keys.
2. Hash content and create incremental jobs.
3. Run glossary, placeholder and format checks.
4. Trigger human review by risk level.
5. Build locale bundles, canary release and record metrics.