SlyTranslate wires AI translation into WordPress at three different levels: the admin UI, the Gutenberg editor, and from external LLM tools via MCP. Whichever level you work at, the same language plugin integrations and translation quality controls apply.
It works with any LLM available through a WordPress AI connector and natively supports Polylang, WP Multilang, WPGlobus, and TranslatePress Multilingual.
- Translates posts, pages, and custom post types into any language managed by your active language plugin
- Translates selected text or entire Gutenberg blocks inline, without leaving the editor
- Exposes the same functionality as MCP abilities, so external LLM tools (Claude Code, Codex, and others) can drive translations programmatically
- Carries SEO metadata (title, description) through the same translation workflow as the post content
- Translates custom fields from ACF (including ACF blocks and options pages), Meta Box, and Pods automatically — no configuration required when the field plugin is active
- Handles long and structured content with chunking and output validation
- Supports model-specific profiles that tune prompt style and retry behavior for known model families
Translate full posts or pages directly inside WordPress admin — either one at a time from the editor side panel or in bulk from the list view.
Requirements: language plugin + configured AI Connector
From the post/page list, select one or more items and choose a translation action from the bulk-actions menu. A dialog lets you pick target language, model, and whether to overwrite existing translations. Progress updates live while the translation runs, and you can cancel at any time.
From the editor side panel, the same controls appear alongside the post you are currently editing. TranslatePress users get an equivalent panel inside the TranslatePress visual editor on ?trp-edit-translation pages.
The language plugin (Polylang, WP Multilang, WPGlobus, or TranslatePress) handles the translated post as it normally would — SlyTranslate creates or updates the translated entry and lets the language plugin own the relationship.
Translate content while writing, without touching a language plugin or a full-post workflow.
Requirements: configured AI Connector
Select any text in a Gutenberg block and the block toolbar gains a Translate button. The selected text is replaced with the translation in place. When no text is selected, the button translates the entire block.
This workflow is self-contained: it does not require a language plugin and does not create or modify translated post entries. It is useful for one-off corrections, translating imported content on the fly, or working in a single-language site where you just need AI rewriting in another language.
Drive WordPress translations from inside your LLM tool of choice.
Requirements: language plugin + WordPress application password (token)
WordPress MCP Adapter plugin to expose the MCP endpoint
When a WordPress MCP Adapter is active, SlyTranslate registers its abilities over MCP. Any MCP-capable LLM client — Claude Code, Codex, custom agents — can then discover and call them.
In this workflow the LLM wrapper provides the translation itself. SlyTranslate's MCP abilities handle the WordPress side: reading content structure, checking translation status, writing translated entries, and coordinating with the language plugin. No WordPress AI Connector is needed because translation is performed by the external model, not by WordPress.
A typical agent session looks like:
- Call
ai-translate/get-languagesto find valid target language codes. - Call
ai-translate/get-translation-statuson the source post to readsource_languageandsingle_entry_mode. - Translate the content using the agent's own LLM.
- Call
ai-translate/translate-contentto write the translated entry.
This is the right workflow for automating bulk site migrations, integrating translation into a CI/CD pipeline, or building a custom translation agent that uses a model not available as a WordPress AI connector.
┌──────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────┐ ┌────────────────────────┐
│ Admin UI │ │ Gutenberg │ │ LLM Wrapper │
│ (panel / list) │ │ (block / toolbar) │ │ (Claude Code, Codex…) │
└────────┬─────────┘ └────────┬──────────┘ └──────────┬─────────────┘
│ REST │ REST │ MCP
└──────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘
│
┌──────────▼──────────────┐
│ SlyTranslate Ability │
│ (REST / MCP endpoint) │
└──────────┬──────────────┘
│
┌───────────▼───────────┐
│ AI Connector │ ← only for UI/
│ (wp_ai_client_prompt)│ block workflows
└───────────┬───────────┘
│
┌───────────▼───────────┐
│ LLM (any provider) │
└───────────┬───────────┘
│
┌───────────▼───────────┐
│ Chunk + Validate │
│ output │
└───────────┬───────────┘
│
┌───────────▼───────────┐
│ Language Plugin │
│ Polylang / TP / … │
└───────────┬───────────┘
│
┌───────────▼───────────┐
│ WordPress Post │
└───────────────────────┘
In the MCP workflow the LLM Wrapper box at the top also acts as the translation engine — the AI Connector and LLM steps inside WordPress are bypassed.
| Ability | Purpose |
|---|---|
ai-translate/get-languages |
List languages exposed by the active language plugin |
ai-translate/get-translation-status |
Show translation status for a content item, including source_language and single_entry_mode |
ai-translate/set-post-language |
Change the language assignment of an existing content item (Polylang only) |
ai-translate/get-untranslated |
Find content still missing a target translation |
ai-translate/translate-text |
Translate arbitrary text |
ai-translate/translate-blocks |
Translate serialized Gutenberg blocks |
ai-translate/translate-content |
Create or update one translated post/page/CPT entry |
ai-translate/translate-content-bulk |
Bulk-translate multiple entries (background=true queues the batch via Action Scheduler/WP-Cron) |
ai-translate/translate-terms |
Bulk-translate taxonomy terms and link them as translations (Polylang only) |
ai-translate/get-translatable-fields |
Introspect which meta fields a translation would translate or clear, with source attribution |
ai-translate/get-progress |
Return live progress for a running translation or a queued background job (job_id) |
ai-translate/cancel-translation |
Cancel a running translation or a queued background job (job_id) |
ai-translate/get-available-models |
List models from configured connectors |
ai-translate/save-additional-prompt |
Save per-user additional instructions |
ai-translate/configure |
Read or update persistent plugin settings |
For reliable results in agent workflows:
- Call
get-languagesfirst when the correct target language code is unknown. - Call
get-translation-statusbeforetranslate-contentto readsource_language,single_entry_mode, and whether a translation already exists. - Omit
source_languageunless you intentionally pin a source variant. - Set
overwrite=trueonly when status or prior context confirms a target-language entry already exists. translated_post_idequalssource_post_idin single-entry adapters (WP Multilang, WPGlobus, TranslatePress). In multi-post adapters (Polylang) the translated item has a sibling post ID.
- WordPress 6.9+
- PHP 8.1+
- An AI connector configured in WordPress (Settings > Connectors) — required for UI and Gutenberg workflows
- A supported language plugin for content-translation workflows across posts/pages/CPTs
- WordPress MCP Adapter if you want MCP discovery for LLM wrapper workflows
Language plugins
- Polylang
- WP Multilang
- WPGlobus
- TranslatePress Multilingual
Field plugins (custom fields translated alongside content)
- Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) — Free and Pro, including Repeater and Flexible Content, ACF blocks in Gutenberg, and options pages
- Meta Box (metabox.io)
- Pods
SEO plugins (metadata translated alongside content)
- Genesis SEO
- Yoast SEO
- Rank Math
- All in One SEO
- The SEO Framework
- SEOpress
- Slim SEO
Any LLM available through a WordPress AI connector works without configuration. The following model families have dedicated built-in profiles that tune prompt style, chunking, and retry behavior:
- TranslateGemma — dedicated runtime with
chat_template_kwargssupport viadirect_api_url - TowerInstruct / Salamandra — bilingual framing, conservative chunking, stricter retries
- Nvidia Nemotron — system-prompt-aware, reasoning-disable, provider-parameter forwarding
- Qwen 3.x / GLM-4.6v / Gemma 4 / Phi-4 — thinking-aware profiles
- EuroLLM / Llama 3.1-8B / SauerkrautLM — conservative chunking tuned for European languages
- Ministral-3 / Ministral-8B — optimized for the Ministral model family
Additional profiles can be registered via the slytranslate_model_profiles filter.
Via WordPress Plugin Directory (recommended)
- Ensure WordPress 6.9+ and PHP 8.1+ are running.
- In wp-admin, go to Plugins > Add New and search for "SlyTranslate".
- Install and activate SlyTranslate.
- Install and configure an AI connector in Settings > Connectors.
- Optional for content translation: install and activate Polylang, WP Multilang, WPGlobus, or TranslatePress Multilingual.
- Optional for local llama.cpp models: install AI Provider for llama.cpp.
- Optional for other OpenAI-compatible local/self-hosted endpoints: install Ultimate AI Connector for Compatible Endpoints.
- Optional for MCP discovery: install and activate WordPress MCP Adapter.
Manual installation
- Ensure WordPress 6.9+ and PHP 8.1+ are running.
- Copy the
slytranslatedirectory to/wp-content/plugins/. - Activate SlyTranslate in wp-admin.
- Configure an AI connector in Settings > Connectors.
- Optional steps same as above.
Do ACF fields get translated automatically?
Yes. When Advanced Custom Fields (Free or Pro) is active, SlyTranslate automatically detects text, textarea, and wysiwyg fields on the post being translated and includes them in the translation — no settings to configure. Fields of other types (image, number, url, select, relationships, etc.) are left untouched.
This works for all field layouts including Repeater and Flexible Content: each leaf field with a translatable type is picked up individually regardless of nesting depth.
To extend which field types are translated, use the slytranslate_acf_translatable_field_types filter:
add_filter( 'slytranslate_acf_translatable_field_types', function ( $types ) {
$types[] = 'url'; // also translate URL fields
return $types;
} );To exclude fields there are three options, from simplest to most flexible:
- ACF field editor — enable the "Exclude from AI translation" toggle in the field's settings.
- Exclusion list — add the meta keys (whitespace-separated) to the
meta_keys_excludesetting (via theconfigureMCP ability or theslytranslate_meta_keys_excludeoption). Works for any meta key, not just ACF. - Filter API — use the
slytranslate_translate_meta_keyfilter, which has the final say:
add_filter( 'slytranslate_translate_meta_key', function ( $translate, $meta_key ) {
if ( $meta_key === 'my_internal_field' ) {
return false; // exclude
}
return $translate;
}, 10, 2 );Are ACF blocks and options pages covered?
Yes. Field data stored inside acf/* Gutenberg blocks is translated automatically along with the post content, including repeater sub-fields. ACF link fields translate only the link title — URL and target are never sent to the model.
ACF fields on options pages (global content such as footer texts or CTAs) are translated through the ai-translate/translate-options MCP ability. With WPGlobus or WP Multilang the translated variant is merged into the option value; with TranslatePress nothing needs to happen (its string table already translates option output). Polylang has no language-aware option storage — opt in to per-language storage via the slytranslate_acf_options_post_id filter:
// Polylang pattern: store translated options under options_{lang}
add_filter( 'slytranslate_acf_options_post_id', function ( $post_id, $target_language ) {
return 'options_' . $target_language;
}, 10, 2 );Do Meta Box or Pods fields get translated automatically?
Yes. Translatable field types (text, textarea, wysiwyg for Meta Box; text, paragraph, wysiwyg for Pods) are detected through each plugin's field registry. The type lists are extensible via the slytranslate_metabox_translatable_field_types and slytranslate_pods_translatable_field_types filters.
Does this work without a language plugin? Yes, for inline text and block translation. Content translation workflows (full post/page) require a supported language plugin.
Where are API keys configured? In WordPress Settings > Connectors, not inside SlyTranslate.
Can I run bulk translation from the post/page list? Yes. Select items in wp-admin, pick the bulk translation action, choose language and model, and confirm.
Does this work inside the TranslatePress visual editor?
Yes. On pages opened with ?trp-edit-translation=true, SlyTranslate adds a sidebar panel with the same model, overwrite, progress, and cancel controls used elsewhere.
How does overwriting existing translations work? In the list-table dialog, overwrite is off by default. If a translation already exists you must enable it and confirm before the translation starts.
Can I change a post's language without re-translating?
Yes, when using Polylang. Call ai-translate/set-post-language with post_id and target_language. Use force to bypass conflict checks and relink=true to rewrite translation relations. Not available in WP Multilang mode.
How do I control the prompt and translation style?
Use the settings page (Settings → SlyTranslate) or ai-translate/configure for persistent defaults — both write through the same backend. Pass additional_prompt on any translate-* call for per-request instructions.
Why does execute-ability fail even when discovery looks correct?
Some external WordPress MCP adapter wrappers expose a flatter execute-ability signature. If discover-abilities shows the correct SlyTranslate schema but execute-ability still errors about a missing parameters wrapper, investigate the external adapter layer — SlyTranslate controls ability names, descriptions, and schemas, not the wrapper surface.
