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Christopher Helm Creator of Wire

Wire supports multi-language sites where each language is an independent content site sharing a domain. This guide explains the architecture, what Wire does and does not do, and why.

Architecture: Parallel Sites, Not Translations

Traditional CMS i18n assumes pages are 1:1 translations. Wire rejects this assumption.

When Chief writes a German page about "Bundesanzeiger," that page has no English equivalent. The AI authored it for a German audience with German-specific regulatory context. The English site might cover "SEC Filings" instead. These are parallel content sites that happen to share a domain, not translations with drift.

This is a deliberate design choice:

  • Pages are authored independently per language by Chief
  • Each language has its own topics, slugs, and editorial direction
  • A page in one language may have no counterpart in another
  • Pages that started as translations may diverge completely over time

Configuration

Each language gets its own docs directory. Wire builds them as independent sub-sites under language prefixes.

# wire.yml
languages:
  - code: en
    name: English
    docs_dir: docs/en
  - code: de
    name: Deutsch
    docs_dir: docs/de
  - code: es
    name: "Espa\xF1ol"
    docs_dir: docs/es

Mark one language as default: true to set the root redirect target. Without it, the first entry is used.

languages:
  - code: de
    name: Deutsch
    docs_dir: docs/de
    default: true
  - code: en
    name: English
    docs_dir: docs/en

Output structure:

site/
  index.html    # Root redirect to /de/ (default language)
  en/           # English sub-site
    index.html
    search/index.html
    search_index.json
    sitemap.xml
  de/           # German sub-site
    index.html
    search/index.html
    search_index.json
    sitemap.xml

Each language gets its own search page, search index, sitemap, RSS feed, and llms.txt. Search only returns results from the current language. Sitemap URLs include the language prefix (e.g., https://example.com/de/guides/).

Language Switcher

The header renders a dropdown with all configured languages. Clicking a language redirects to that language's homepage (/de/, /en/).

Wire does not attempt to link to the "same page" in another language because:

  1. The page may not exist in the target language
  2. Even if a page with the same slug exists, it may cover different content
  3. False cross-links are worse than no cross-links

If you need explicit page-to-page links between languages, add them manually in your content.

No hreflang Tags

Wire does not generate <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags. This is intentional.

hreflang tells Google that two pages are translations of each other. When pages drift apart (and they will), false hreflang signals confuse Google's ranking more than missing signals. Google already detects page language from <html lang="">, content analysis, and URL structure (/de/, /en/).

If you need hreflang for pages that truly are translations, add them manually in frontmatter:

---
title: Getting Started
hreflang:
  de: /de/guides/erste-schritte/
  es: /es/guides/primeros-pasos/
---

Wire will render these as <link rel="alternate"> tags when present. But it will never guess.

Chief and Multi-Language

Chief operates independently per language. When running Chief commands, specify the language:

python -m wire.chief audit --lang de
python -m wire.chief news --lang en
python -m wire.chief refine --lang es --topic guides

Each language has its own:

  • GSC database (.wire/en/gsc.db, .wire/de/gsc.db) with language-specific search data
  • Progress tracking (.wire/en/progress-*.json)
  • Content analysis scoped to that language's pages only
  • Link context generated from that language's site directory

Chief does not cross-reference between languages. The German audit does not know about English pages, and it should not. Each language competes in its own search market.

What Wire Handles Automatically

Feature Scope Notes
<html lang=""> Per language From languages[].code
Search index Per language Only indexes that language's pages
Sitemap Per language Submitted separately to GSC
RSS feed Per language Separate feed per language
Navigation Per language Built from that language's docs
Language dropdown Shared Links to each language's homepage
404 page Shared One 404, language-neutral

What Wire Does Not Do

  • No automatic translation. Write content per language or use external translation tools before importing.
  • No page mapping. Wire does not track which pages are "the same" across languages.
  • No hreflang generation. Declare explicitly in frontmatter when pages truly correspond.
  • No shared content. Each language is fully independent. No template inheritance across languages.
  • No fallback language. If a page does not exist in German, Wire does not serve the English version.

Directory Structure

docs/
  en/
    index.md
    guides/
      getting-started/index.md
      seo-reference/index.md
    vendors/
      acme/index.md
  de/
    index.md
    guides/
      erste-schritte/index.md
      seo-referenz/index.md
    anbieter/
      bundesanzeiger/index.md     # No English equivalent

Topics and slugs can differ between languages. The German site might have "anbieter" where English has "vendors." Chief treats each as a separate topic namespace.

GSC Setup

Each language sub-site needs its own GSC property or URL prefix:

  • https://example.com/en/ (English)
  • https://example.com/de/ (German)

Run data separately per language so each GSC database captures the right search performance data:

python -m wire.chief data --lang en
python -m wire.chief data --lang de

Trade-offs

What you gain:

  • Simple, honest architecture with no false signals to Google
  • Each language evolves independently based on its own search data
  • Chief makes optimal decisions per market, not compromises across markets
  • No complexity from page mapping, sync status, or translation tracking

What you give up:

  • No automatic "view in English" links on German pages
  • No hreflang SEO signals (but false signals are worse)
  • Content teams must manage each language independently
  • Duplicate editorial effort for truly shared content

This trade-off is correct for content sites where quality and market fit matter more than translation coverage.