The AI copilot
Aquilla includes an AI copilot to speed up translation and help you check your work. It’s a helper: every suggestion is yours to accept, edit, or ignore.
What the copilot can do
Section titled “What the copilot can do”- Draft a translation. Choose Translate with AI from a cell’s action rail (it appears on hover); a suggested target streams in as it generates, and you decide whether to keep it, adjust it, or discard it. While the draft is generating, the cell shows a pulsing ring so you can see which cells are still in progress.
- Regenerate a draft. If a cell already has an AI draft and hasn’t been validated yet, the action rail offers Regenerate (a circular-arrows icon; tooltip “Regenerate — another AI variation”): it throws away the current suggestion and replaces it with a fresh, more varied one.
- Draft a whole paragraph. Most imported files group cells into paragraphs, shown in the editor as a bit of extra space above each paragraph’s first cell. That first cell’s action rail carries a Draft paragraph button: one AI request drafts every cell in the paragraph at once, skipping any cell you’ve already validated.
- Back-translate. Request a back-translation: the copilot translates your target text back into the source language, word for word, so you can sanity-check that the meaning carried across. You’ll find this in the cell’s detail panel.
Translate as read: drafting while you read
Section titled “Translate as read: drafting while you read”The copilot can also work ahead of you. The file’s ⋯ menu holds a Translate as read toggle (wand icon): while it’s on, the copilot drafts every empty cell that comes into view as you scroll, so reading down a file fills its gaps with suggestions. Each draft lands in its cell marked with an amber AI draft · review required badge, and the menu item shows a spinner while a draft is being written.
It’s a mode, not a one-time action: a check mark in the menu shows it’s on, and it stays on for that project on your device until you switch it off, surviving reloads. If the project’s AI isn’t set up yet, the item is greyed out.
Three things it will and won’t do:
- It only fills empty cells. A cell someone has translated or validated is never touched, even while it’s on screen.
- It keeps its own drafts fresh. When your team validates more translations, the copilot gains better examples to work from, and may replace an earlier unreviewed AI draft with a stronger one. The cell you’re currently editing is always left alone.
- Nothing skips review. Every draft carries the badge until a person reviews it; validation still requires individual human sign-off.
How is this different from autopilot? Autopilot plans whole passages and stages suggestion cards you accept or dismiss; Translate as read simply drafts the cells you’re looking at, one by one, as you read.
It draws on your project’s knowledge
Section titled “It draws on your project’s knowledge”The copilot draws on your project’s accumulated knowledge: your validated translations, your terminology, and any standards or instructions you’ve set, so its suggestions fit your project rather than being generic.
This is also why validation matters beyond review: confirmed cells become better context for the copilot’s future suggestions.
Replacing an existing translation
Section titled “Replacing an existing translation”Running AI Generate over a cell that already has a translation asks first: a Replace existing translation? dialog confirms before it overwrites your text. A Don’t ask again checkbox lets you skip that confirmation on this device going forward, but it only applies to cells that aren’t validated yet; a validated cell always asks, regardless of that setting.
Once the replacement commits, Aquilla returns you to the cell and shows a brief Saved confirmation so you know the new text landed.
Turned it off and want it back? Re-enable it any time in Preferences → Workspace → Confirm before replacing a translation, see Device preferences.
Choosing the model
Section titled “Choosing the model”You can choose which language model the copilot uses:
- the Aquilla-hosted default, or
- your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including a local server such as LM Studio, for teams that want to keep everything on their own machines.
A project’s model and system prompt are set in its settings, so different projects can shape the copilot’s behaviour differently. You can also set a personal provider override that applies to you across projects.
Help assistant
AI answers from the Aquilla docs — may make mistakes.