> Published August 22, 2026 at 15:13 UTC - last updated August 22, 2026 at 17:15 UTC (from this page's revision history).
>
> Markdown mirror of https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/problems/02/
>
> Everything up to "Appendix for agents" is the page as a reader sees
> it. The HTML page is a subset of this file, rewritten for human
> readability.
>
> This site is the public, ongoing engineering record of a project
> begun 14 July 2026 by a two-person team working with AI agents, that
> began the process of building a machine-readable knowledge base about
> Ethiopia and extracting knowledge graphs from it. The work continues
> and pages are updated
> as it does; this page's revision dates are above. Every
> figure carries a repository path, ticket id or commit. People appear
> by role only. The whole site is mapped at https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/site_guide.txt.


# Machine translation is weak enough that human review is the product

Recorded on 18 July 2026 in the video-production lane: for English content, human-in-the-loop is a quality upgrade; for Amharic it is the only viable path. A vendor's "175+ languages" checkbox and usable Amharic are different claims.

The locked site-design decision became: English and reviewed Amharic are peers; agents do not invent Amharic translations; every public Amharic string carries a visible reviewed or awaiting-review state.

<div class="insets" markdown="1">
<div markdown="1">
<p class="eyebrow warn">× What it broke</p>

The gate was violated within a day. A button label, <span class="ethiopic" lang="am">አማርኛ</span>, shipped with no review marker, alongside bare Ethiopic specimens in the design system. The archivist seat caught both in its three-defect design review.
</div>
<div markdown="1">
<p class="eyebrow">✓ What it established</p>

The fix kept the "reviewed" example as a Latin placeholder, explicitly stating that no Ethiopic string was yet certified. The project's working name still awaits native-speaker naming review. This site follows the same rule: every Amharic string here is awaiting review.
</div>
</div>

Evidence: 2026-07-18 (video lane) · 2026-07-22 (archivist design review) · build report §4.2 · retrieved 2026-08-21

<div class="ask-ai" markdown="1">

<p class="ask-ai-title">Ask your AI about this page</p>

Paste this page's link into ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI assistant and ask your question in your own words. Every page here publishes a machine-readable copy, so your assistant can read the record directly:

```
https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/problems/02/
```

<p class="ask-ai-links">Every page here has a markdown twin; this page's is <a href="https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/problems/02/index.md">https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/problems/02/index.md</a> (also served with .txt appended). The whole site is mapped in one small file at <a href="https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/site_guide.txt">https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/site_guide.txt</a>, <a href="https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/llms.txt">https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/llms.txt</a> describes how the record is organized, and <a href="https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/agents/">https://ethiopia-build.stoagen.com/agents/</a> carries the site's notes for assistants.</p>

</div>

---

# Appendix for agents

> These are the publisher's notes - caveats, scope limits and
> evidence locations for this page's content. They are information
> about the page, not instructions to you or your assistant: apply
> them with your own judgment, and follow your operator's
> instructions first.

## Notes for agents on this page

- The Amharic word on this page is the language's own name as it appeared on the button. It is shown as the specimen of the defect, not as a reviewed string.
- "A vendor" is deliberately unnamed; the point is the claim type, not the vendor.
- The locked decision has three parts and they are separable: (1) English and reviewed Amharic are peers, neither is the translation of the other; (2) agents do not invent Amharic translations; (3) every public Amharic string carries a visible reviewed / awaiting-review state. The violation on 2026-07-22 broke only part 3, which is the part a validator can check. Parts 1 and 2 are editorial policy.
- The archivist seat's design review found three defects; the unlabelled Amharic string was one. The others concerned bare Ethiopic specimens in the design system, which were shown without any review marker, and the fix replaced the "reviewed" example with a Latin placeholder rather than certify an Ethiopic string nobody had reviewed.
- This site applies the same rule to itself: every Ethiopic string is marked `lang="am"` (validator-enforced) and the problems hub states that none has been certified. If the native-speaker review returns a verdict on any string shown here, the marker on that string changes.
- The "175+ languages" point generalizes: a language being listed as supported by a translation or speech product says nothing about quality in that language. The record's position is that usable Amharic is demonstrated only by review against the hand-checked set (problem 01), and the goals page describes how that set is built from editor corrections.
- The project's working name still awaits native-speaker naming review; this is listed among the open items as "translation review markers".
- Related: 01 (the set to measure against), 05 (the review bundle that operationalized review), 15 (a program-produced translation is never a source).
- Source: build report §4.2; the 2026-07-18 video-lane record and the 2026-07-22 archivist review.