How I translate my YouTube films into six languages with AI
Claude translates my YouTube titles and descriptions into six languages, with every link and timestamp locked so it can't break them. 58 films in one day.
I make long, quiet films about hiking, mostly alone, for my YouTube channel. They go from the Dolomites to Patagonia to Alaska, but every title and description was only ever in English. This fall I started changing that with AI. Here's how it works and why I think it matters.
Why translate a title at all?
Most of my films have very little talking. The pictures don't need translating. The words people search for do.
YouTube lets you add your own translated title and description to any video. In its help page on translation tools, YouTube says those translations can show up in search results for viewers who speak those languages, and that it shows each viewer the title and description in their own language. It also says that, on average, over two-thirds of a creator's watch time comes from outside their home area.
So someone in Madrid searching in Spanish for the Kesugi Ridge sees a Spanish title, and someone in Tokyo sees a Japanese one. That's the bet.
Six languages, written by Claude
I picked six languages: Spanish, German, Portuguese (Brazil), French, Italian and Japanese. On September 29 I said yes to a tool that has Claude write them from my English.
The tool is called `video_translations`, and it lives in KraigOS, which runs on Cloudflare. It reads a film through the YouTube Data API, YouTube's official way for software to read and update videos. It asks Claude for each language, checks what comes back, and only then writes it to YouTube.
Claude gets a short set of rules with every film:
- Translate naturally, the way a native speaker would write it, and keep my plain, understated tone.
- Keep the title to 100 characters or fewer.
- Keep place, trail, mountain, hut and region names as they are, along with brand and gear names, numbers and distances.
- Keep the line breaks and the order of the lines. Don't add, drop, explain or shorten anything.
Here's one real example: Hiking the Kesugi Ridge Trail in Alaska, as YouTube shows it today in each language.
The trail's name stays "Kesugi Ridge Trail" in five of the six titles. The Japanese title writes it in katakana, ケスギ・リッジ・トレイル, while the Japanese description keeps the English name.
How a translation gets made, in 6 steps
- Read the English. The tool reads the film's title and description from YouTube.
- Lock what can't change. Every link, email address, @handle, #hashtag, code and timestamp is swapped for a numbered placeholder like ⟦0⟧. Claude never sees them, so it can't change them.
- Claude translates. Each of the six languages is written separately from the same locked English.
- Count the placeholders. Each one must come back exactly once. If a language loses one, repeats one or adds one, that language isn't used. It also fails if the title runs over 100 characters, the description is too long for YouTube, or the text contains a character YouTube doesn't allow.
- Preview, then apply. The translations are kept as a preview for three days. Applying puts exactly that text on YouTube, and only if my English hasn't changed since the preview. Translations already on the film in other languages are kept.
- Read it back. The tool reads the film again. It counts as verified only if YouTube now holds exactly what was sent.
The placeholder trick, on real text
Step 2 is the part I like most. My descriptions are full of things that must survive word for word: the link to the Kesugi Ridge guide, chapter timestamps that YouTube turns into clickable chapters, hashtags and links to my other films.
A language model asked to translate a paragraph will sometimes "helpfully" tidy a link or reformat a timestamp. So the tool doesn't trust it to leave them alone. It takes them out first. In the Kesugi Ridge description, eleven pieces get locked: three links to my website, one link to another film, four timestamps and three hashtags.
When the Spanish comes back, the tool counts the placeholders, puts the originals back in their places and checks the result. The link is still my link, and 3:53 is still a chapter.
What the checks have caught
The rules matter because the mistakes are real. A few the checks or the review caught:
- Brother, but which one? Japanese has separate words for older and younger brother. In early October, the Japanese for two films, Reflection Canyon and the Grand Canyon's Tonto Trail, kept picking one when my English just says "brother". Both were held. A new rule now says to use the neutral word, 兄弟, and never guess. After that, the Italian twice wrote "my brother or my sister" before it came out right, so that rule gets watched too.
- A medical term made more specific. On my Canary Islands film, the German and Japanese both turned a medical term in my English into a more specific diagnosis than the one I wrote. They were held three times, so that film stays in four languages for now.
- A lost handle. One Japanese translation dropped an @handle. The placeholder count caught it. The next attempt merged two chapter lines and added a sentence, so it was held again.
- Miles to kilometers. Some translations convert distances. The Italian title of my Alta Via 1 film says 120 km where my English says 75 miles, and the French of my 10 hours of ambient hiking converts miles too. Those were checked and kept, since that's how a reader in those countries measures a trail.
Why it matters to me, in my own words
People from all over the world, speaking a lot of different languages, have gotten interested in my videos. I can see in my stats on every platform where people watch from, but it's different when actual people leave comments or write me emails in their own language. I can translate them, and at the end of the day we're all the same; we just come from different cultures and languages. If I can help someone go on a trip because of something I've done, it doesn't matter what language it's in. So it's nice to have everything translated, so what reaches people is what truly matters.
58 films in one day
The first big pass was on October 3: 19 films got fresh translations in all six languages, replacing older ones (17 at once, two more after the brother fix). On October 7 I gave a standing yes: when my English hasn't changed and every check passes, Claude can apply translations without asking me, and tell me after.
Then, over the following week, Claude rewrote the English descriptions of dozens of my films in batches, with a link to each route's hiking guide at the top. Their translations still showed the old text, without the guide. So overnight from October 10 to 11, Claude worked through them in four scheduled runs, at 2, 4, 6 and 8 a.m., with a few more in my morning chat.
By the log, 58 different films got fresh translations on October 11. 56 have all six languages. Two have four or five, because the held languages above stayed off. Every one that went up was read back from YouTube and verified.
What I learned, and what's next
Lock away what must not change instead of asking the model nicely. Counting placeholders is simple and catches real mistakes. And hold anything that changes a fact, even when the rest of the translation is fine.
Next is finding out if it works. I'll watch whether these films start picking up more viewers who use YouTube in these six languages. I don't have those numbers yet. When I do, they'll get their own article. Some older films also still carry old regional translations, like a separate German-for-Germany version, that show the old text. Three films were cleared on October 11; the rest wait for my call.
FAQ
What gets translated?
The title and the description of each film, the text YouTube shows in search and under the video. The films themselves and their subtitles aren't part of this.
Which languages?
Spanish, German, Portuguese (Brazil), French, Italian and Japanese. English stays the original.
Who writes the translations?
Claude, the AI from Anthropic, writes them from my English, through a tool in KraigOS that uses the YouTube Data API. I set the rules. Claude applies a translation without asking only when every check passes.
How do you stop the AI from breaking links?
Links, email addresses, @handles, hashtags, codes and timestamps are swapped for numbered placeholders before Claude sees the text, then put back after. If one goes missing or appears twice, that translation isn't used.
How many films are translated?
On October 11 alone, 58 films got fresh translations. Earlier passes covered others.
Does it bring more views?
I don't know yet. It's a test, and I'll share the numbers when there are some.
How do I see a film in another language?
Set YouTube's language to one of the six, then open one of my films. The title and description change; the film stays the same.