Localization policy audit (2026-11)

Scope

This audit covers every plugin under packages/plugins that reads resolved content or emits generated pages. It records the locale source, the behavior before the change, the expected behavior, the root cause, and the tests that cover the fix.

The shared policy is implemented in Core:

ContentManifest.localization (defaultLocale, locales, fallbackLocale)
resolvePageLocale(manifest, pathname)
selectLocalizedEntries(entries, { mode, locale, fallbackLocale })
queryContentEntries({ filter: { locale } })
localizedPagePath() / localizedPagePaths()

current is the default for listing plugins. fallback resolves per translation identity. all never deduplicates. A site without manifest.localization keeps the previous behavior.

Root cause of the Timeline duplicate rows

timeline/index.ts built its page from manifest.discoverableEntries without reading a page locale, and it emitted only one path (/timeline). On the documentation site, both docs/plugins/foo.md and docs/plugins/foo.ja.md are discoverable, have the same frontmatter date, and often the same English title. They were therefore rendered as two rows with the same date and title. The l10n plugin had already resolved their language and URL, but no listing plugin consumed that information.

The same missing page-locale context affected Archive, Related Posts, Backlinks, Recent Posts, Taxonomy, Series, Glossary, Garden Explorer, Dataview, and Bases. Search already stored language on each item, but the modal did not scope queries to the current document language.

Plugin inventory

Plugin	Locale source	Before	After	Root cause	Test
Timeline	page locale + `manifest.localization`	one page, all discoverable entries	one page per locale, `localeMode` default `current`, fallback badge	no locale context or localized page paths	`packages/plugins/timeline/test/timeline.test.ts`
Archive	page locale + `manifest.localization`	all entries; locale only formatted labels	per-locale archive paths, locale-filtered collections	locale option was display-only	`packages/plugins/archive/test/archive.test.ts`
Recent Posts	`SiteProvider.language`	all discoverable dated notes	current page language via `getRecentPosts({ locale })`	component did not pass page language	`packages/plugins/recent-posts/test/recent-posts.test.ts`
Related Posts	entry language	scored every language	candidate pool scoped by `localeMode`	no language filter before ranking	Core policy tests + existing `related.test.ts`
Backlinks	entry language	every discoverable incoming note	current-language incoming notes	no language filter	`packages/plugins/backlinks/test/backlinks.test.ts`
Search	document `lang` + item `language`	indexed every language and searched all	current-language by default, explicit `lang:` still available	modal ignored the page language	`packages/plugins/search/test/search.test.ts`
Taxonomy (tags/folders)	page locale + `manifest.localization`	one index for every language	per-locale term paths and indexes	terms built from the global manifest	`packages/plugins/taxonomy/test/taxonomy.test.ts`
Series	page locale + `manifest.localization`	one list and landing pages for every language	per-locale list/landing pages, locale-scoped navigation	members were not filtered by language	Core policy tests + existing `series.test.ts`
Glossary	page locale + `manifest.localization`	one page for every language	per-locale glossary pages	no locale context	Core policy tests + existing glossary tests
Folder Pages	entry language	already emitted per-language folders	unchanged	already correct	existing folder-pages tests
Navigation	`SiteProvider.language`	already filtered with `selectEntriesByLanguage`	unchanged	already correct	existing navigation tests
Docs Navigation	current entry language	already filtered	unchanged	already correct	existing docs tests
Garden Explorer	page locale + `manifest.localization`	one `/explore` page with all nodes	per-locale `/explore` pages, `localeMode` default `current`	no locale context	Core policy tests + existing garden-explorer tests
Dataview	entry language	queried every discoverable note	per-entry locale policy, `localeMode`	query view was global	Core policy tests + existing dataview tests
Bases	entry/page locale	queried every discoverable note	per-entry/page locale policy, `localeMode`	query view was global	Core policy tests + existing bases tests
Local Graph	graph neighbors	keeps cross-language links	unchanged by design	graph is the Obsidian-compatible relationship surface	existing local-graph tests
Breadcrumbs	entry path	no language coupling	unchanged	already language-neutral	existing tests
Hover Preview	slug lookup	no language coupling	unchanged	already language-neutral	existing tests
Vault Heatmap	dates	aggregates every language	unchanged by design	a vault-wide activity aggregate; not a per-page listing	existing tests
SEO	entry language	already uses public location language	unchanged	already correct	existing SEO tests

Excluded plugins

The following plugins were reviewed and excluded because they do not select or rank content entries, do not emit content listings, or operate only on the current page or asset:

Rendering/syntax: alias, attachment, autocardlink, calculator, canvas, chartjs, citations, code-annotations, code-enhance, code-tabs, d2, diff, discord-embed, excalidraw, flashcards, frontmatter-transformer, gallery, graphviz, hard-breaks, highlight, icons, image-compare, image-optimizer, kanban, lightbox, map, markmap, marp, media, mermaid, mermaid-pele, meta-bind, obsidian-markdown, og-image, pdf, permalink, plantuml, properties, qr-code, quality, rename, responsive-image, rich-embed, share, shortcodes, sidenotes, source-files, svg-optimizer, text-fragment, toc, ux, vega-lite, wavedrom, webmention.
Infrastructure/operations: analytics, deploy, diagnostics, article-metadata, daily-notes, excalibrain, query, recent-posts (component), core, honox, spa, theme packages.

Publication boundary

All changed listings continue to read manifest.discoverableEntries before any locale selection. selectLocalizedEntries only filters entries that are already discoverable, so draft, future scheduled, and private content cannot leak through a locale path. PublicContentView remains the only browser-facing view.

Cache and incremental build

No new cache key was invented. Page types that depend on the whole entry set keep { type: "global" }, which is conservative but correct for translation membership changes. Localization is part of manifest.localization, which is included in the existing manifest fingerprint. There is no cross-locale output reuse because each localized page has its own pathname and output descriptor.