3d. Tone Calibration

• Match formality per profile (DACH defaults to Sie for B2B, du for B2C lifestyle; FR defaults to vous; JA shifts register sharply by audience).
• Ensure consistent formal or informal address throughout the entire document.
• Match local content-style conventions.

3e. Legal and Regulatory Context

• Map legal references by issue and jurisdiction. Keep the original law when the claim is specifically about US compliance. Only substitute when the local law addresses the same issue, such as CCPA to DSGVO in DE, RGPD in FR, LGPD in BR, LFPDPPP in MX, Ley 1581 in CO, or Ley 25.326 in AR.
• Add local compliance notes where they help the reader.
• Remove irrelevant foreign regulatory references.

3f. Brand Example Swaps (Quick Map)

Profiles in ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../blog-translate/references/cultural-adaptation.md provide substitution tables. Common examples:

These rows are starting points, not equivalences. Substitute a local body or law only after confirming it covers the same issue as the source claim, and flag legal and regulatory edits for review by someone qualified in that market. This skill does not give legal advice.

Phase 4: Quality Verification

• All critical adaptation targets addressed.
• Tone is consistent throughout.
• No remaining foreign-origin markers.
• Statistics have valid sources (original or localized).
• CTAs match cultural expectations.
• Formal or informal address is consistent end to end.
• Content still supports the same argument as the original.
• SEO elements remain optimized beyond keyword placement: localized title and meta, heading intent, slug, alt text, internal-link anchors, same-language canonical, hreflang compatibility, and schema inLanguage.
• Word count is within the expected ratio for the language pair.

Phase 5: Save and Report

1. Save the localized version. Default: write a reviewed copy as {slug}-localized.{ext}. Only overwrite the translated file when the user asks for overwrite; before overwriting, create a timestamped backup and show a diff summary. Resolve every output path inside the project root and reject traversal, symlinked paths, or writes outside that root.

2. Delivery contract (standalone runs only). When invoked by blog-multilingual (orchestrated mode), skip the delivery contract; blog-multilingual runs it once per locale on the final text. Orchestrated mode is signaled by the literal line Mode: orchestrated at the top of the invocation. When this skill runs standalone, it is the last text change for the locale, so run the canonical sequence once on the final localized file before reporting complete. Resolve BLOG_SCRIPT_DIR="${CLAUDE_BLOG_SCRIPTS_DIR:-${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts}", reject it unless absolute, and never use the current project's scripts/ directory. Create a per-locale delivery staging directory beneath the output root, copy the final file there under its lowercase localized slug, then:

   • Resolve every draft marker ([INTERNAL-LINK, [IMAGE, [CHART): none may remain. Reuse the source hero by copying it as hero.<ext> into the staging directory; a new locale-specific hero is a paid call and needs the blog-image cost and consent gate first.
   • Run python3 "$BLOG_SCRIPT_DIR/blog_render.py" --md <localized-file> --out-dir <locale-delivery-dir>.
   • Run python3 "$BLOG_SCRIPT_DIR/blog_preflight.py" --draft <locale-delivery-dir> --init-review-nonce and pass the printed nonce to a fresh blog-reviewer invocation against the rendered locale HTML. The reviewer returns text; save it verbatim to <locale-delivery-dir>/review.md.
   • Run python3 "$BLOG_SCRIPT_DIR/blog_preflight.py" --draft <locale-delivery-dir> --strict --slug <localized-slug>.
   • Require 90+/100, zero P0, matching nonce, final BLOCKING: false, and all other gates. After ANY later change to the file, hero, HTML, or PDF, re-render, re-init the nonce, and re-review (max 3 iterations). On failure, retain the file as draft-blocked and report the diagnostic instead of calling localization complete.

3. Present the summary only after the locale passes (in orchestrated mode, return the summary to blog-multilingual, which reports pass or draft-blocked after its own run):

   ## Localization complete: [Title]
   
   ### Target locale: [locale-code] ([locale-name])
   
   ### Adaptations made
   | Type | Count | Examples |
   |------|-------|----------|
   | Brand examples | [N] | Walmart -> MediaMarkt |
   | Statistics | [N] | US survey -> DACH survey |
   | CTAs | [N] | "Buy now" -> "Jetzt entdecken" |
   | Tone adjustments | [N] | Casual -> Sie |
   | Legal references | [N] | CCPA -> DSGVO |
   | Cultural references | [N] | Thanksgiving -> Weihnachtsgeschaeft |
   
   ### Cultural fit score
   - Naturalness: [1-10]
   - Market relevance: [1-10]
   - Tone match: [1-10]
   - Overall: [N]/30
   
   ### Remaining recommendations
   - [Optional adaptations not applied]
   
   ### Delivery contract
   - Score: [N]/100 (or "deferred to blog-multilingual" in orchestrated mode)
   - P0: zero
   - Nonce: verified
   - Preflight: [report path]
   

   The "Cultural fit score" is the model's own editorial judgment, not a measurement; present it as such.

Error Handling

Cross-References

• Pre-step (translation): /blog translate <file> --to <code>
• QA across language versions: /blog locale-audit <directory>
• One-command pipeline: /blog multilingual <topic> --languages <codes>