legal-translation
Translate legal documents from any language into English while preserving .docx formatting and translating track changes and headers/footers. Use this skill whenever the user asks to translate a legal document, contract, deed, agreement, or any formal legal text into English. Also trigger when the user mentions translating .docx files that contain legal content, or asks for a "format-preserving translation" of a legal document. This skill covers all legal SaaS and more. Even if the user just says "translate this contract" or "translate this into English", use this skill if the document is lega
npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill en-uk-legal-translation-wouter-van-den-berg --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
What it does
Translate legal documents from any language into publication-quality English while preserving all original .docx formatting (fonts, styles, headers, tables, numbering, etc.).
How it works
The skill specifies translating legal documents into UK English, preserving .docx formatting and track changes, headers/footers. It treats translation of a legal document as a sequential, document-wide process, applying formatting-preserving translation to all paragraphs, including those inside tables or nested structures. It enforces a per-document, stepwise pipeline (Steps 1 through 11) with hard gates such as a 35-paragraph batch cap and per-step validation, ensuring each paragraph’s complete text is translated and en_runs are populated where defined. It requires reading designated step documents before performing each step and validating translations before applying them to the original document. It operates with the sole provided tool: claude-code.
When to use it
Use this when the user asks to translate a legal document, contract, deed, agreement, or any formal legal text into English, or mentions translating .docx files containing legal content, or asks for a "format-preserving translation" of a legal document. Translation should proceed in UK English by default.
What it can touch
The skill allows interaction with claude-code as its declared tool to perform translation tasks.
Caveats
Hard rules enforce one document at a time, a ≤35 paragraph per batch limit, and mandatory per-step validation and lexicon handling. The translation process includes reading step files in full before execution and ensuring complete validation coverage at Step 5. It requires per-document refresh and compaction-resume discipline, with no parallelization unless explicitly requested by the user.
# Legal Document Translation Skill Translate legal documents from any language into publication-quality English while preserving all original .docx formatting (fonts, styles, headers, tables, numbering, etc.). ## Pre-step checkpoint — read this whole file before doing anything This skill's discipline depends on you actually reading SKILL.md, not just having it loaded in context. Before performing any step (Step 1 through Step 11), post a single short confirmation line in chat: **"Understanding of skill discipline is confirmed, now initiating translation process."** (use this exact wording). Do NOT print the technical details (Hard Rules location, validator names, step files) — the user does not want a wall of internal-state text. The act of writing the confirmation line is what proves you are at the right place; keep it terse. If, while you are about to type the line, you realise you cannot from memory name (a) where the Hard Rules block lives, (b) which validators auto-invoke from `apply_translations_textmatch.py` (there are four), or (c) the file containing the step you are about to perform — **STOP**, `Read('SKILL.md')` again slowly, then post the one-line confirmation. Internal
- Pre-step checkpoint — read this whole file before doing anything
- Compaction-resume trigger — treat as session start
- Do not ask the user — these are absolute defaults
- Multi-document workflow
- IMPORTANT: Single-document workflow — no agent parallelisation
- The golden rule: original-as-base with text matching
- Architecture overview
- Hard rules. Non-negotiable. Enforced by the skill's gates.
- Mandatory reading order
- Lexicon priority — cross-language reference wins on cross-language conventions
- Pipeline overview
- Anti-drift safeguards
- Why text matching matters
- Table-nested paragraphs (signature blocks, schedules, form fields)
python <skill-path>/scripts/reorder_definitions.py \
What does the legal-translation skill do?
Translate legal documents from any language into English while preserving .docx formatting and translating track changes and headers/footers. Use this skill whenever the user asks to translate a legal document, contract, deed, agreement, or any formal legal text into English. Also trigger when the user mentions translating .docx files that contain legal content, or asks for a "format-preserving translation" of a legal document. This skill covers all legal SaaS and more. Even if the user just says "translate this contract" or "translate this into English", use this skill if the document is lega
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills --skill en-uk-legal-translation-wouter-van-den-berg --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From lawve-ai/awesome-legal-skills, a repository with 618 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.