Add French translation sync workflow (sync-translations-fr.yml)

[mmcky]

Wires automated French translation sync for the new QuantEcon/lecture-python-programming.fr edition — step 3 of the fr rollout tracked in QuantEcon/project-translation#3.

The workflow is a clone of sync-translations-fa.yml with three substitutions: target-repo: QuantEcon/lecture-python-programming.fr, target-language: fr, and target-language-appropriate naming. On each merged PR touching lectures/**/*.md or lectures/_toc.yml it opens a translation PR in the target repo; commenting \translate-resync on a merged PR re-triggers it.

Pin: @v0.16.0, unlike its siblings

This PR originally pinned @v0.15.0, matching fa and zh-cn. It now pins @v0.16.0, released 2026-07-15 (bumped in 07b2b6b), whose default model is claude-sonnet-5 rather than claude-sonnet-4-6.

That divergence is deliberate. French is the edition we've looked at on Sonnet 5; fa and zh-cn haven't been, and silently changing the model for two live editions isn't this PR's business. The estate therefore runs two action versions until that's decided on purpose — tracked in QuantEcon/project-translation#5.

Merge order

QuantEcon/lecture-python-programming.fr#1 (the seed) must merge first. It adds the 26 bulk-translated lectures (step 2 of the rollout). Merging this before then would fire syncs into a content-less repo.

The first sync after merge also live-verifies that QUANTECON_SERVICES_PAT can push to the new .fr repo — the one gate that can't be checked ahead of time.

Two caveats about what this turns on

French sync will not apply typography. v0.16.0 ships a deterministic pass for the non-breaking space French needs before ; : ! ?, but it's wired into the CLI seed path only, not sync — verified: applyTypography appears zero times in the action bundle. The seeded corpus is typography-correct; synced sections won't be, so it drifts toward mixed until QuantEcon/action-translation#81 is settled. scripts/typography/apply.mjs is the stopgap.

Severity, honestly: the defect is invisible. Both Sonnet 5 and Opus 4.8 already write Bonjour ! — they just emit an ordinary space where French wants U+00A0, which renders identically and only matters when a line wraps. Synced French will read correctly.

Sonnet 5 has not been measured against Sonnet 4.6 on this corpus. The v0.16.0 default change was justified by a general capability claim, not a measurement on MyST lecture translation — tracked in QuantEcon/action-translation#82. Model upgrades are very likely the right direction; we just don't have the evidence yet, and French will be the first edition on Sonnet 5. If 4.6 turns out better, the fix is a constant and a pin, not a re-seed.

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[mmcky]

Bumped the pin to @v0.16.0 in 07b2b6b.

This PR predated today's v0.16.0 release, so it pinned @v0.15.0 — whose default model is claude-sonnet-4-6. v0.16.0 defaults to claude-sonnet-5, which is the reason to point French at it.

Deliberate divergence from the siblings

sync-translations-fa.yml and sync-translations-zh-cn.yml stay on @v0.15.0 / Sonnet 4.6. French is the edition we evaluated on Sonnet 5; those two have not been, and silently changing the model for two established editions is not this PR's business. The repo therefore runs two action versions for a while — worth knowing when debugging, and worth revisiting deliberately.

Merge order

QuantEcon/lecture-python-programming.fr#1 (the seed) should merge first — it adds the 26 translated lectures. If sync goes live against an empty target, the next merged PR here syncs into a repo with nothing to update.

Two things to know about what this turns on

French sync will not apply typography. v0.16.0 ships a deterministic pass for the non-breaking space French needs before ; : ! ?, but it is wired into the CLI seed path only, not sync (verified: applyTypography appears zero times in the action bundle). The seeded corpus is typography-correct; synced sections will not be, so it drifts toward mixed until QuantEcon/action-translation#81 is settled. scripts/typography/apply.mjs is the stopgap.

Severity, honestly: the defect is invisible. Both Sonnet 5 and Opus 4.8 already write Bonjour ! — they just emit an ordinary space where French wants U+00A0, which renders identically and only matters when a line wraps. Synced French will read correctly.

Sonnet 5 has not been measured against Sonnet 4.6 on this corpus. The v0.16.0 upgrade was justified by a general capability claim, not a measurement on MyST lecture translation — tracked in QuantEcon/action-translation#82. Model upgrades are very likely the right direction; we just do not have the evidence yet, and French will be the first edition on Sonnet 5. If it turns out 4.6 was better, the fix is a constant and a pin, not a re-seed.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds a new GitHub Actions workflow to automatically sync changed lecture content into the French translation repository (QuantEcon/lecture-python-programming.fr) as part of the multi-language rollout.

Changes:

• Introduces sync-translations-fr.yml to run on merged PRs touching lecture sources.
• Adds an issue_comment trigger intended to allow manual re-sync via \translate-resync.
• Configures the translation sync action to target the French repo/language.