Hi Han, Thank you for summarizing the options and the possible directions.
First, Option 2—extending Answer through a local coding agent, CLI, and Skills—is a very good direction to explore. It could support multilingual use cases as well as broader integrations between Answer and AI agents. We would be very happy to see your contribution. We can continue the discussion and refine the scope and technical design in the related issue. For current requests, I suggest that we first take an approach that is simple to implement and can be validated quickly. The existing AI Assistant can already help users ask in their preferred language and receive answers in that language, so there is already a usable entry point for cross-language retrieval and Q&A. For users creating questions and answers, we could add an AI translation button. After writing their content, a user could click the button to translate it into the site’s designated content language. For example, on a site where English is the primary content language, a question or answer written in German could be translated into English before submission. This approach has several benefits: - It is straightforward for users, who can draft content in their preferred language. - Questions and answers remain stored in one common language, which helps search, moderation, duplicate detection, and long-term knowledge sharing. - Answer already has an AI provider, model, and prompt configuration, so this should be relatively simple to implement and validate based on the existing AI capabilities. - Users should always be able to review, edit, or discard the translated text before submitting it. As a later improvement, we could add a “Translate” action on questions, answers, and comments. It would translate the currently displayed content into the user’s interface language for reading. The original content would remain the authoritative version, while the translation would be a reading aid. This could be a practical first step: address language normalization when content is created while using the existing AI Assistant for multilingual retrieval. We can then improve on-demand translation, caching, provider selection, and other details based on real usage and further discussion. Best regards, LinkinStar On Wed, Sep 9, 2026 at 11:11 PM Han Gao <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Christofer, > > Thanks for the clarification! I did some tests and here's something in my > mind. Welcome any feedback! > > There're several ways to achieve the goal 'ask in A language and return in > A, while most questions/answers are B or others'. > Option 1 - use current AI capabilities in Answer. > You can enable AI and chat in 'AI Assistant', then ask in your prefered > language. Generally, it'll translate and return in your language. e.g. I > asked in Chinese and returned in Chinese, and the question/answers were all > in English. *Screenshot is attached.* > > Option 2 - use local coding agent via CLI + SKILL (WIP) > > I saw there's a starter issue for this. > https://github.com/apache/answer/issues/1555. I do think it can also work > as the existing AI capabilities or even better. > > BTW, I guess this is a starter feature for this goal(CLI+SKILL). I'm very > happy to contribute to make it come true. CC @fenbox @LinkinStar > > Option 3 - support translation for search/search result, and also support > translating to target language for questions/answers/comments > > Option 4 - only support translation for search/search result, and leverage > browser translation feature to translate. > > Which option do you prefer? > Also + @fenbox @linkinstar to share if any comments. > Hope we can figure out a better user experience in the discussion! > > Han > > On Wed, Sep 9, 2026 at 1:13 AM Christofer Dutz <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Yeah, >> >> So I know I’m good with English, but I know there are many people (even >> at the ASF) which work and think in other languages. >> I just thought, if we allowed anyone to query our knowledge-bases and get >> responses in whatever language they like, this could be a great feature. >> >> >> Chris >> >> >> Von: Han Gao <[email protected]> >> Datum: Dienstag, 8. September 2026 um 15:47 >> An: [email protected] <[email protected]> >> Betreff: Re: Using AI for translation? >> >> Hi Christofer, >> >> When you say "user asks a question in German", do you mean user ask in the >> search bar? Or something else? >> >> Per your statement, here's my understanding. *Let's assume the majority >> language is English, and this user uses German. * >> 1. user search a question in German in search bar >> 2. service translate to English and search >> 3. return in the original language and render in German in search result >> 4. when in specific question page, it can show in either German or >> origin(English) >> >> Is that what you mean? >> >> Han >> >> On Mon, Sep 7, 2026 at 4:59 PM Christofer Dutz <[email protected] >> > >> wrote: >> >> > Hi all, >> > >> > Ok … just wanted to make sure if it’s already in there and I just need >> to >> > configure it. >> > If it’s not … yeah … I think this could be a huge benefit for users. >> > >> > Especially with the whole Apache RAI initiative, I could imagine that >> the >> > ASF could possibly provide the infra/credits for running such a >> translation >> > service on the Apache hosted Apache Answer instance. >> > >> > Chris >> > >> > >> > Von: Feng Dong <[email protected]> >> > Datum: Montag, 7. September 2026 um 05:07 >> > An: [email protected] <[email protected]> >> > Betreff: Re: Using AI for translation? >> > >> > That's a good idea, I agree. >> > >> > LinkinStar <[email protected]> 于2026年9月7日周一 10:45写道： >> > >> > > Hi all, >> > > >> > > I think that's a good suggestion. Currently, in version 2.0 Apache >> > Answer, >> > > the AI serves only as a tool to assist with Q&A, helping users find >> > answers >> > > more quickly and avoid duplicate questions. The addition of AI-powered >> > > automatic translation might help users who speak other languages >> quickly >> > > ask questions in English. >> > > >> > > Best regards, >> > > LinkinStar >> > > >> > > On Sun, Sep 6, 2026 at 12:38 AM Christofer Dutz < >> > [email protected] >> > > > >> > > wrote: >> > > >> > > > Hi all, >> > > > >> > > > I was brainstorming a bit about how we could possibly use Answer on >> a >> > > > foundation level. >> > > > >> > > > I’m still looking for ways we can all communicate in our own >> languages, >> > > so >> > > > I had a look if answer allowed using something like an AI >> translation >> > > > system. >> > > > If seems general support for AI accessing Answer seems to be >> available >> > > > since 2.0, but could Answer support using AI? >> > > > >> > > > I was thinking … possibly a knowledgeable is in English, but a user >> > asks >> > > a >> > > > question in German … it would be great if the translation service >> could >> > > > translate the query to English, this could then be executed and then >> > the >> > > > result would be translated back to the original question language. >> > > > >> > > > Has this been discussed? Is this possible? >> > > > >> > > > Chris >> > > > >> > > > >> > > >> > >> > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
