Reverse i18n sweep: ~384 confirmed-dead locale keys across 58 namespaces (workflow/BPMN designer entirely unwired, console.objectView oversized, more)

[yinlianghui]

Follow-up to #4658, which deleted five specific dead keys
(console.objectView.striped/bordered/virtualScroll,
appDesigner.stripedRows/bordered) and, per that card's dispatch ruling,
built the general-purpose tool: scripts/check-i18n-dead-keys.mjs, a
report-only reverse sweep (pack key set minus referenced key set, reusing
check-i18n-call-site-keys.mjs's own AST walk plus a whole-repo text
safety net — see that script's header for the full mechanism). This card
records what running it over the rest of the pack found, since #4658's own
scope was five specific keys and this is clearly bigger than that.

What was measured

node scripts/check-i18n-dead-keys.mjs on top of #4658's PR (2927 pack keys,
13776 referenced):

626 candidate(s) with no call site this pass can see, across 58 namespace(s):
384 CONFIRMED (no textual footprint anywhere else in the repo either),
242 NEEDS-REVIEW (literal key string appears somewhere else in the repo —
 an indirect reference the AST pass cannot see, e.g. a `labelKey:
 'appDesigner.layoutSidebar'` property consumed through a variable).

The NEEDS-REVIEW tier is doing real work — appDesigner itself has 20
CONFIRMED but 34 NEEDS-REVIEW, because AppCreationWizard.tsx builds several
of its labels through exactly that indirect labelKey: pattern, invisible to
a literal-argument AST walk but caught by the text safety net. That tier is
NOT part of this card's claim; only CONFIRMED entries below were spot-checked
enough to report with confidence.

The two largest, spot-verified instances

workflow.* — 54 of 58 keys CONFIRMED dead (the other 4 are test-fixture
mentions only, in ellipsis-glyph-3878.test.ts and
untranslated-identity-4376.test.ts — not consumers). This is an entire
BPMN/workflow-designer vocabulary (boundaryEvent, serviceTask,
parallelGateway, userTask, signalEvent, timerEvent, joinGateway,
addNode, undo/redo, exportBpmn/importBpmn, …) with zero i18n
integration at its plausible consumer:
packages/plugin-designer/src/ProcessDesigner.tsx hardcodes English directly
({ label: 'User Task', value: 'user-task' }, handleAddNode('start-event', 'Start'), …) and imports no translation hook at all — no useTranslation,
no useObjectTranslation, nothing. Either the component predates i18n
integration and was never wired up, or the designer this vocabulary was
written for was replaced by ProcessDesigner.tsx's hardcoded-English version
without the old labels being cleaned up. Either way: 58 keys × 10 packs =
580 translated strings with no reader anywhere in the repo.

console.objectView.* — 116 of 154 keys CONFIRMED dead, on top of the
three #4658 already removed. This namespace backs the object-view
configuration surface (ViewConfigPanel.tsx et al.), and a working subset of
it clearly IS live (new, save, cancel, viewType*, the create-view
dialog fields — anything CreateViewDialog.tsx / ObjectView.tsx /
ViewConfigPanel.tsx call t() for directly). But the CONFIRMED 116 include
keys naming spec fields that are very much still active — rowActions,
inlineEdit, hiddenFields, filterableFields are current (non-retired)
ListViewSchema properties per
packages/types/src/zod/objectql.zod.ts:396-402 — with no i18n-labelled UI
control anywhere that lets an author toggle them. That reads as a much larger
"config surface scaffolded ahead of the settings panel that would expose it"
gap than #4658's narrow "three keys the upstream retirement killed" framing,
worth its own investigation into whether console.objectView's intended
settings panel exists partially, was never finished, or was descoped without
a matching i18n cleanup.

Other namespaces worth a look (CONFIRMED / NEEDS-REVIEW, from the same run)

Namespace	Confirmed	Needs-review
console.objectView	116	38
workflow	54	4
publicForm.demo	36	0
appDesigner	20	34
configPanel	16	0
renderer	13	0
table	10	2
report	10	1
search	9	0
form	8	2

publicForm.demo (36/36 confirmed, spot-checked: zero hits anywhere for
publicForm.demo.* outside the locale packs) looks like scaffolded demo-form
content for a public-form showcase page that was never built, or was removed
without its i18n keys.

Suggested scope for whoever picks this up

Re-run node scripts/check-i18n-dead-keys.mjs for the current CONFIRMED
list (it will have drifted since this card's measurement) and work through it
namespace by namespace — workflow and publicForm.demo look safe to bulk
delete on the same evidence standard #4658 used (zero call sites, zero
textual footprint, a spot-checked plausible consumer that confirms no i18n
wiring exists). console.objectView needs a product decision first: is the
ListViewSchema-backed settings panel meant to exist, in which case this is
a missing-feature card, not a dead-key card.

Whether to red-ify check-i18n-dead-keys.mjs

Explicitly deferred by #4658's own ruling — it stays report-only
(--strict exists but nothing calls it). This card's data point: 242/626
(38.7%) of a naive AST-only candidate list would have been wrong without the
text safety net, which is the measured argument for keeping this a
human-triaged report rather than a red gate for now. A gate could reasonably
enforce "every CONFIRMED-tier candidate needs an explicit allowlist entry or
deletion" once the current backlog is worked down, since NEEDS-REVIEW already
filters out the indirect-reference class that would otherwise make it noisy.

[yinlianghui]

Findings triage (first grade, PM session session_01RnQd8iMMUwXQEV1crFmQiQ): HOLD — finding stands, with a named fork that must be settled before any deletion sweep dispatches.

The 384 confirmed candidates are not one class. At least two namespaces hide a direction question, not a deletion backlog: workflow.* (54 keys) traces to ProcessDesigner.tsx hardcoding English with no translation hook — the honest fix there may be localizing the surface (making the keys live) rather than deleting them; and console.objectView.* includes keys for currently-active ListViewSchema fields with no labelled UI control — same question one layer down. Deleting keys for surfaces that arguably should consume them buries the localization debt the keys document. That localize-vs-delete call is product/UX direction, not mechanical triage.

Restart conditions: ① a direction ruling on the localize-vs-delete fork for the two named namespaces (decision-box candidate if the maintainer wants it; otherwise the next i18n-focused planning pass); ② the mechanically-safe remainder (namespaces with no plausible live surface, e.g. publicForm.demo.* at 36/36 confirmed with zero footprint) can be carved into its own queue card without waiting for ①; ③ the sweep report from check-i18n-dead-keys.mjs regenerates the full list on demand — no staleness risk in holding.

---

Generated by Claude Code

[yinlianghui]

Carve-out dispatched (repo:objectui PM seat, session session_01RnQd8iMMUwXQEV1crFmQiQ): the two spot-verified namespaces (workflow.*, publicForm.demo.*) are now #4742, dispatched under the #4658 evidence standard. This umbrella card stays open for:

1. console.objectView.* — maintainer decision (already in the decision box): 116 CONFIRMED-dead keys naming active ListViewSchema properties (rowActions, inlineEdit, hiddenFields, filterableFields) read as "config surface scaffolded ahead of a settings panel that was never finished." Fork: (a) the settings panel is intended → this is a missing-feature card and the keys stay; (b) it was descoped → the namespace joins the deletion queue. No default applied — the answer decides between deleting 116 translated strings ×10 locales and specifying a feature.
2. The smaller CONFIRMED namespaces (configPanel 16, renderer 13, table 10, report 10, search 9, form 8, …) — not yet spot-verified; each needs the same consumer spot-check before it can join a deletion card. This seat will grade them in a later round or fold them into Delete the two spot-verified dead i18n namespaces: workflow.* (54 keys) and publicForm.demo.* (36 keys) across the ten packs #4742's successor once the standard is re-applied.

---

Generated by Claude Code

[yinlianghui]

Second carve-out dispatched + remaining-namespace spot-check results (repo:objectui PM seat, session session_01RnQd8iMMUwXQEV1crFmQiQ):

• Delete the dead configPanel.* (~16 keys) and renderer.* (~13 keys) i18n namespaces across the ten packs #4746 dispatched: configPanel.* (16 keys) + renderer.* (13 keys), both spot-checked today at whole-namespace level — zero t() call sites each; no *ConfigPanel* component exists anywhere in packages/*/src; the renderer.* English strings have no hardcoded twin either (the stronger form of dead — the messages left the product entirely).
• search.* is partially live — 7 t() call sites in SearchResultsPage.tsx (search.back/title/placeholder, …). Its 9 CONFIRMED entries are a key-level trim inside a live namespace, not a namespace deletion; lower value, held for a later batch with table (10/2), report (10/1), form (8/2), appDesigner (20/34 — heavy indirect-reference tier).
• Umbrella remains open for: console.objectView.* maintainer decision (in the decision box), and the key-level trims above.

---

Generated by Claude Code