Update i18n recipe to use built-in routing

[hugosmoreira]

Description (required)

This updates the i18n recipe with a step-by-step English and French example using Astro's built-in routing. It keeps the recipe aligned with current content collections and i18n APIs while preserving translated routes and localized content.

The revision:

• adds the required loader for the local content collection;
• uses Astro.currentLocale for localized UI and date formatting;
• uses an explicit route map for translated slugs such as /en/about/ and /fr/a-propos/;
• connects navigation, the language picker, layouts, and localized blog content;
• documents both static and SSR implementations.

Validation performed:

• Generated standalone static and SSR fixtures from the final recipe snippets using Astro 7.0.2 from this repository's lockfile.
• Both fixtures passed astro check with no errors, warnings, or hints.
• Static output assertions verified localized routes, content, dates, lang attributes, and reciprocal hreflang links.
• SSR development-server HTTP assertions verified the / → /en/ redirect, successful localized responses, translated routes and content, localized dates, reciprocal links, and the expected /fr/about/ 404.
• Isolated controls confirmed the missing-loader failure and the broken raw-path language-picker behavior.
• A fresh clone of the Astro 7.1.5 reproduction passed npm ci, astro check, and the static build; npm ci reported no vulnerabilities.
• Browser verification of the published demo confirmed the root redirect, both-direction language switching for the about and blog pages, localized content and dates, reciprocal language links, and the expected invalid-route 404.
• The documentation formatter, slug checker, ESLint, Astro check, full docs build, and link checker passed locally.

Live demo: https://hugosmoreira.github.io/astro-i18n-recipe-demo/

Source: https://github.com/hugosmoreira/astro-i18n-recipe-demo

References

• Related to Internationalization (i18n) guide and recipe should be merged #9256

[astrobot-houston]

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Tracked Files

File	Note
en/recipes/i18n.mdx	Source changed, localizations will be marked as outdated.

Warnings reference

Icon	Description
🔄️	The source for this localization has been updated since the creation of this pull request, make sure all changes in the source have been applied.

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[github-actions]

Preview deployment

✅ Deployment complete!

• Latest commit: 8e41e1c
• Preview: https://docs-update-i18n-recipe-api.previews.docs.astro.build
• Workflow run: View logs

[ArmandPhilippot]

Hi @hugosmoreira,

First thanks for willing to help but...

We have a PR template so that contributors use it, not so an AI can replace it with whatever it pleases. The fact that your AI runs git diff --check is not important information for maintainers. Explaining what you changed and why you made those changes is more useful.

Also, have you tested your changes, or everything is AI-generated?

Your AI claims it's complete, but it doesn't seem to me. For example:

• we still miss a loader
• you removed the "Translate routes" section, but now the recipe no longer explains to users how to translate them... The current recipe do not translate any slugs.

If some info was missing in the previous recipe, it should be fixed. If we remove a section because there is another way to handle it, we should make sure the recipe still show how to achieve that.

The live recipe has several gaps. Using Astro built-in APIs is nice but I'm not sure that's enough to close that issue.

The purpose of a recipe is to provide step-by-step instructions to achieve a goal that users can adapt to their project. Looking at the end result, this just show users they can switch between two languages:

A real demo of the result achieved with this recipe would be more useful, I think...

[hugosmoreira]

Thanks for the direct feedback. You're right: I replaced the PR template and described the recipe as complete without verifying the exact instructions end to end.

I used an AI assistant to help draft the change, but I'm responsible for reviewing and testing what I submit. I've returned the PR to draft. Before requesting another review, I'll restore the template, add the missing loader, preserve translated-slug support, and follow the complete recipe in a clean project with a runnable reproduction.

I'll report only the exact behavior I verified with the revision.

[hugosmoreira]

Thanks for the direct feedback. You were right: the previous revision and PR description overstated what had actually been verified.

Codex assisted with the implementation. For this revision, I reviewed the final one-file diff and kept only claims backed by actual checks. The recipe now includes the missing content loader, preserves translated slugs with an explicit route map (/en/about/ ↔ /fr/a-propos/), connects the navigation and language picker to the demonstrated pages, and includes localized content examples for static and SSR rendering.

I generated standalone fixtures from the final snippets and tested the static output, SSR development-server responses, root redirect, localized routes/content/dates, reciprocal language links, and the missing-loader and raw-path-picker failure modes. I also published and browser-checked a fresh-clone reproduction:

• Live demo: https://hugosmoreira.github.io/astro-i18n-recipe-demo/
• Source: https://github.com/hugosmoreira/astro-i18n-recipe-demo

I restored the repository's PR template and kept the PR as a draft for review.