Building an AI Blog Auto-Translator

1. Why Automate Blog Translation

Running a blog in both Korean and English expands your audience. But manually translating each post means:

• 30 minutes to 1 hour of extra work per post
• Code blocks, links, and frontmatter easily break
• Translation quality is inconsistent

In this post, we share how to build a pipeline that automatically translates blog posts with a single command in Claude Code.

2. The Core Challenge: Preserving Markdown Structure

Regular translators break the structure when translating markdown files:

Things that must NOT be translated:

• Code blocks -- Variable names, function names must never be translated
• Image paths -- /static/images/... must stay as-is
• MDX components -- <Component /> tags must be preserved
• Frontmatter structure -- YAML format maintained, only title/summary translated

Things that SHOULD be translated:

• Title and summary
• Body text
• Image alt text

3. Implementation

3.1 Translation Prompt

The key is giving the AI precise rules:

Translate this Korean MDX blog post to English.

RULES:
1. Translate ONLY the text content (paragraphs, headings, lists)
2. Translate frontmatter title and summary fields
3. DO NOT translate:
   - Code blocks (``` ... ```)
   - Inline code (`...`)
   - Image paths (/static/images/...)
   - MDX component tags
   - HTML comments
   - URLs
4. Keep the same markdown formatting (##, **, -, etc.)
5. Keep the same frontmatter structure (date, tags, category unchanged)
6. Maintain technical accuracy for programming terms
7. Use natural, fluent English — not literal translation

3.2 Leveraging the File Structure

This blog automatically shows a language toggle button when files with the same filename exist in the en/ and ko/ folders:

data/blog/
├── ko/my-post.mdx   ← Korean original
└── en/my-post.mdx   ← English translation (auto-generated)

The translation script leverages this structure:

1. Detect new posts in the ko/ folder
2. Translate with AI
3. Save with the same filename in the en/ folder

3.3 Running in Claude Code

When registered as a skill in Claude Code, it runs with a single command:

# Run full translation
/translate

# Translate a specific post
/translate my-post

4. Improving Translation Quality

4.1 Technical Term Consistency

Programming terms should either be left untranslated or translated consistently:

Terms left untranslated: API, SDK, JSON, REST, GraphQL, Docker
Consistently translated: smart contract, gas fee

4.2 Matching Tone

The tone of the Korean post should be maintained in the English version. Technical blogs typically use a friendly yet professional tone.

4.3 Review Checklist

Things to check after automatic translation:

• Are code blocks intact?
• Do links work?
• Are technical terms accurate?
• Are expressions natural and contextually appropriate?

5. Summary

Once set up, translation is done with a single command every time you write a post. The cost of running a multilingual blog drops to nearly zero.