Translator and reviewer workflow

Translators write, reviewers approve, and the CDN carries only approved values. Three settings make the split real: the Translator role, the Editor role, and the Content Deploy status filter.

Every save in the editor sets a value to Needs Review, whoever saves it, and machine translation output lands the same way. Editing a Translated value drops it back to Needs Review. Approval is a separate action on the status badge. See Translation lifecycle.

Set up

1. Invite translators as Translator. They can create and edit values and use machine translation. They cannot set Translated, touch keys or namespaces, or import or export. See Team management.

2. Invite reviewers as Editor. Review permission belongs to Editor, Manager and Owner. Viewer is read-only and cannot review.

3. Restrict people to their languages (optional). Set Restrict to languages on the invite, or later from the member’s role dialog. A German translator then sees and edits only de.

4. Filter Content Deploy to Translated. Open Settings → Content Deploy and tick Translated only under Filter by Status. The filter starts empty, and empty deploys every status.

5. Notify reviewers (optional). A webhook on translation.created and translation.updated posts to a channel when a translator saves. See Webhooks.

Imports skip the review stage

A file import and a comvi push both write Translated directly and record the importing user as reviewer. Review before the import, or select the imported rows and use Status → Mark as Needs Review afterwards.

Daily flow

Translator. Open Translations, filter to your language and Not Translated, and work down the list. The side panel offers machine translation and translation memory matches. Save with Cmd/Ctrl + Enter; Tab and Shift + Tab move between languages.

Reviewer. Filter to your language and Needs Review. Read each value and correct it if needed, which saves it as Needs Review again. Approve by clicking the status badge and choosing Translated. For a run of rows that are all fine, tick their checkboxes and use Status → Mark as Translated in the selection bar; the same menu has Mark as Needs Review to send work back. The badge is not clickable while a value is Not Translated.

Content Deploy runs about 5 seconds after the last change, and at most one minute after the first one in a busy stretch, so approved values reach the CDN within a minute or so.

Machine translation with review

1. Filter to the language and Not Translated, then tick the rows.

2. Click Translate in the selection bar. Machine translation is metered per month, so check the current limits before a large batch.

3. Review. Every machine translation lands as Needs Review, so the whole batch waits in the reviewer’s filter.

After approval

Any edit to a Translated value sends it back to Needs Review and out of the deploy filter until someone approves it again. To ship a fix immediately, an Editor makes the edit and then sets the status back to Translated: two actions, and the second is the one that puts the value back on the CDN.

What to avoid

• Giving translators the Editor role to unblock them. Editor carries review permission, so the boundary is gone.
• Leaving the deploy status filter empty. Empty ships everything, drafts included.
• Importing into a project you review in. Imports write Translated without asking.
• Making reviewers Viewers. Viewer is read-only and cannot change a status.

Next steps

Translation lifecycleThe full status state machine.

Team managementRoles and language restrictions.

Machine translationFill drafts for review.

Content Deploy / CDNThe status filter and auto-deploy timing.