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MPI Project Conventions

Agent Instructions

You are working on the Mindful Peace International Chinese-English Buddhist/Dharma translation project.

  • Before translating, load the mpi-translation and mpi-terms-search skills.
  • Before reviewing, load mpi-translation-review (self mode for your own translations, other mode for peer review).
  • The agent IS the model: do not call external translation APIs.
  • The workflow is not as rigid as the state machine below. The user may ask you to deviate from it. Be flexible when asked.

Skills

Skills in toolkit/skills/.

Available: mpi-translation, mpi-terms-search, mpi-translation-review, mpi-chinese-text-normalize, mpi-pptx-translate, mpi-pdf-to-docx-conversion.

Terms Database

See mpi-terms-search skill. Quick reference:

  • CLI: toolkit/terms-database/search.py <query> [limit]
  • Module: from search import search; search("空性", limit=5, src="DoT定稿")
  • Priority: DoT定稿 > 内部特色词 > 佛教术语 > 经论名

Directory Structure

translate-files/<topic>/<article>/
  source.dj      — Chinese original
  target.dj      — English translation (line count matches source)
  bilingual.dj   — interleaved (source line, blank, target line, blank)
                   Generated by `../../toolkit/scripts/gen-bilingual.py source.dj target.dj`;
                   do not edit or commit.

Put .docx output in /tmp/. Don't commit binaries. Generated files (bilingual.dj) are not committed either.


Translation State Machine

All translation work follows this deterministic workflow. Non-deterministic LLM work (drafting, reviewing) happens at the edges; the states and transitions are fixed.

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> idle
    idle --> translating: SOURCE_LOADED
    idle --> other_reviewing: BILINGUAL_LOADED
    translating --> bilingual_ready: TRANSLATION_DRAFTED
    bilingual_ready --> self_reviewing: BILINGUAL_GENERATED
    self_reviewing --> translating: SELF_REJECTED
    self_reviewing --> other_reviewing: SELF_APPROVED [peer review required]
    self_reviewing --> approved: SELF_APPROVED [no peer review]
    note right of self_reviewing
        peer_review_required flag decides the branch
    end note
    other_reviewing --> translating: PEER_REJECTED
    other_reviewing --> approved: PEER_APPROVED
    approved --> typesetting: TYPESET_REQUESTED
    approved --> done: COMPLETE
    typesetting --> done: TYPESET_COMPLETE
    done --> [*]

States:

State Meaning Output artifact
idle Waiting for source or an existing bilingual file.
translating Agent loads mpi-translation + mpi-terms-search skills and drafts target.dj. target.dj
bilingual_ready bilingual.dj generated from source.dj + target.dj. bilingual.dj
self_reviewing Self-review with unified ruleset (self mode). Edit target.dj. target.dj (edited)
other_reviewing Peer review with unified ruleset (other mode). Write review-comments.dj. review-comments.dj
approved Translation accepted. May typeset or finish.
typesetting Producing PDF/DOCX from approved bilingual content. .pdf / .docx
done Complete.

Workflow A: Translation(翻译)

Translate Chinese source into English. The agent IS the model — no external APIs. This workflow covers the state machine path idletranslatingbilingual_readyself_reviewing.

Source context

Before translating, the agent must understand the source's format and delivery context. If the source is a transcript of an oral talk, a book excerpt, a guided meditation script, a Q&A, a written article, or any other genre, that register shapes the translation. If this context is not clear from the file path or source content, ask the user before proceeding.

Input

Source text in .dj or .docx (Chinese only).

Deliverables

  • source.dj — extracted/cleaned Chinese
  • target.dj — English translation, line count matches source
  • bilingual.dj — interleaved (source line, target line adjacent, blank between pairs). Generated by ../../toolkit/scripts/gen-bilingual.py source.dj target.dj > bilingual.dj. Do not create or edit by hand; do not commit.
  • edit-suggestions.dj — terminology/consistency issues flagged for review

Rules

  1. Load mpi-translation and mpi-terms-search skills before starting.
  2. Search terms DB for key Buddhist terms.
  3. TOC: plain bullet lists, no link targets, no page numbers.
  4. Djot formatting:
    • Emphasis: *text* (single asterisks). Never ** (Markdown bold).
    • Comments: {% ... %}
  5. Preserve source formatting — don't add/remove emphasis.
  6. Translate in-response — never call external translation APIs.

Review

After translating, load mpi-translation-review (self mode) to check:

  • Full detection rules (three passes + R1R14 editorial polish)
  • Terminology consistency against terms DB
  • Grammar, fluency, calques
  • Missing content (mid-paragraph truncation)
  • Inconsistency (same term translated differently)

Workflow B: Proofread / Review(校对/审阅)

Both self-mode and other-mode review use the unified mpi-translation-review skill. The same detection rules apply to both. The only difference: self mode edits target.dj directly; other mode writes review-comments.dj with collaborative tone.

A third mode — Direct Edit Review — applies when the user explicitly says to edit the .dj files directly and skip any comments file.

B1: Self-Review(自审)

You translated it. You own the English. Load mpi-translation-review skill (self mode).

  1. Read source.dj + target.dj fully.
  2. Apply all detection rules (three passes + R1R14 editorial polish).
  3. Edit target.dj directly with patch (mode='replace').
  4. Record non-obvious choices in translation-findings.dj if needed.
  5. Regenerate bilingual.dj with ../../toolkit/scripts/gen-bilingual.py source.dj target.dj > bilingual.dj.
  6. Verify line counts: source.dj and target.dj must match.

B2: Other-Review(审他稿)

Someone else translated it (volunteer, etc.). Load mpi-translation-review skill (other mode).

  1. Read source.dj + target.dj fully.
  2. Apply all detection rules (three passes + R1R14 editorial polish).
  3. Do NOT edit target.dj — write review-comments.dj instead.
  4. Follow deliberation protocol: 随喜 first, questions not commands.
  5. Address translator by name.
  6. Ask the user whether to apply the findings. If yes, switch to Direct Edit Mode.

B3: Direct Edit Review(直接修改稿)

The user wants fixes applied directly, no separate comments file. This can follow a translation-review pass, or be a standalone polish pass.

  1. Read full target.dj + source.dj in one pass.
  2. Collect every issue using the full detection rules.
  3. Batch all fixes into one set of exact-string replacements. Apply with patch.
  4. Regenerate bilingual.dj with ../../toolkit/scripts/gen-bilingual.py source.dj target.dj > bilingual.dj.
  5. Verify line counts match.

Avoid iterative "find a few more, edit again" loops. If the user asks "anything else?" after a direct-edit pass, do one more full systematic read and batch again.


Djot

  • Comments: {% ... %}
  • Emphasis: *text* (single asterisks)
  • Dashes in English: --- em, -- en. Pandoc converts in docx output.
  • Preserve source formatting — don't add/remove emphasis

When editing .dj files, use patch (mode='replace') — not regex-based string replacement in execute_code. patch is safer, surfaces conflicts, and produces a diff you can review.

Typst Bilingual Template

For producing PDFs from bilingual Chinese-English articles:

  • Template: translate-files/lib/mpi-bilingual-template.typ
  • Example host: translate-files/从物品整理到心灵整理/mindful-organizing.typ
  • Design notes: references/typst-template-design.md
  • Produce rendered PDF files in: /tmp/

Scripts

Utility scripts in toolkit/scripts/ (fish for CLI wrappers, Python for data processing). Agents should write repetitive logic here and run via terminal rather than regenerating the same Python in execute_code each turn.

  • toolkit/scripts/docx2dj.fish <docx> — pandoc .docx → .dj alongside the original
  • toolkit/scripts/split-bilingual.fish <combined.dj> — split into source.dj (CN) + target.dj (EN)
  • toolkit/scripts/dj2docx.fish <target.dj> — pandoc .dj → .docx in /tmp/
  • toolkit/scripts/proofread-pdf.py <docx> <pdf> — word-level diff between manuscript and typeset PDF
  • toolkit/scripts/gen-bilingual.py <source.dj> <target.dj> — produce bilingual.dj on stdout; run as gen-bilingual.py source.dj target.dj > bilingual.dj
  • toolkit/scripts/gen-bilingual-<name>-<hash>.py — article-specific extraction from DOCX or source/target pairing
  • toolkit/scripts/compile-typst.fish <typ> — compile a Typst file to PDF

Article-specific scripts (including Typst compile helpers) should be placed in the article directory itself, named with a short hash: e.g. translate-files/<article>/compile-typst-<hash>.fish.