loom-i18n

# Internationalization (i18n) ## Overview Designing software to adapt to languages/regions without code changes (i18n), then adapting it per-locale (l10n). Covers translation architecture, ICU pluralization, `Intl`-based formatting, RTL/bidi, and libraries (i18next, react-intl/FormatJS, gettext). ## First: Check for an L10N.md Charter Before writing or translating any string, check the project root for `L10N.md`. When it exists, it is the project's authoritative localization charter — read it in full and let it override the generic guidance in this skill wherever the two conflict. Derive from it: - **Project context** — the domain the product operates in (financial, technological, medical, …). Domain dictates terminology register and tone: "credit" means one thing in a banking app and another in a game, and a payments product cannot afford a casual mistranslation of a regulated term. - **What to translate directly and what not** — the charter's do-not-translate list: brand and product names, trademarks, legal or regulated terms, technical identifiers. Never translate an entry on that list, even when a natural target-language equivalent exists. - **Branding and glossary** — approved per-locale renderings of recurring product terms. Reuse them verbatim; inventing a second translation for an established term fragments the product's voice across locales. Only the **root** `L10N.md` is read. Some projects nest per-area charters (`server/L10N.md`) or per-locale overrides (`L1...