Translation lifecycle

Every translation value has a status that tracks review, not delivery. Whether a value is live on the CDN is decided separately, by the deploy’s status filter.

Statuses

Status	Meaning
Not Translated	No value exists for this (key, language) pair, or the value was cleared
Needs Review	A value exists and has not been approved
Translated	A value exists and has been approved

Source-language values are not special. A key created in the dashboard stores its source copy as Needs Review, the same as any target value.

State machine

flowchart LR
  Start(("new key"))
  NT["Not Translated"]
  NR["Needs Review"]
  T["Translated"]

  Start --> NT
  NT -->|"any save: editor, API, MT, TM"| NR
  NR -->|"any save"| NR
  T -->|"any save"| NR
  NT -->|"import"| T
  NR -->|"import"| T
  NR -->|"status badge (review permission)"| T
  T -->|"status badge"| NR
  T -->|"cleared"| NT
  NR -->|"cleared"| NT

Saving a value always lands it in Needs Review. Only an import or an explicit status change reaches Translated.

Action	End status
Anyone types a value and saves	Needs Review
Batch machine translation	Needs Review
Translation memory auto-apply on key creation	Needs Review
REST API upsert without a status	Needs Review
File import or comvi push	Translated
Status badge, or Status → Mark as Translated	Translated
Status badge, or Status → Mark as Needs Review	Needs Review
Clear Translations	Not Translated

Reaching Needs Review

Every write that carries a value and no status lands in Needs Review, whoever makes it. Role does not change this: a Manager’s edit lands in Needs Review, the same as a Translator’s.

Reaching Translated

Two paths reach Translated. A status change, by clicking the badge on a value or selecting keys and using Status → Mark as Translated, needs review permission, which Editor and above have. An import writes every non-empty value as Translated, credited to the importing user, without review.

Import skips review

A file import, including a comvi push, marks everything approved on the way in. If your process depends on someone approving each string, review before the import, or select the imported rows afterwards and use Status → Mark as Needs Review.

Reaching Not Translated

Clear Translations in the selection bar empties the value and resets the status in one step. Removing a language is different: its values are archived with their statuses intact, and adding the language back restores them as they were.

Deploys read statuses, never write them

flowchart LR
  DB[("Translation values<br/>with statuses")]
  Deploy{"Deploy<br/>(status filter)"}
  Bundle["JSON bundles<br/>per (language, namespace)"]
  CDN["CDN edge"]

  DB --> Deploy
  Deploy -- "filter: Translated" --> Bundle
  Bundle --> CDN

A deploy reads the current values, filters by status, bundles them and uploads. It never writes a status back.

Once Content Deploy is enabled, every write schedules a deploy about 5 seconds later, a continuous stream of writes is flushed at least every minute, and Deploy Now on Settings → Content Deploy runs one immediately. Filter by Status on the same page decides what the bundle holds. Tick Translated to ship only approved copy: a value can then sit at Needs Review in the editor while the previously approved version stays on the edge. With every box unchecked, all three statuses ship, and a draft reaches the edge about 5 seconds after you save it. See CDN settings.

Next steps

Roles & permissionsWho can edit, review and deploy.

Content Deploy / CDNHow a deploy turns statuses into JSON on the edge.

Import & exportWhat an import does to statuses.

Translator and reviewer workflowA two-stage flow built on these statuses.