AI/ML

Z.AI Translation Agent: Technical Analysis of AI Translation Service with 6 Strategies

01/05/2026

16.425min

Z.AIAI TranslationNLPTranslation APIMultilingual

Technical analysis of Z.AI Translation Agent's 6 translation strategies (General, Paraphrase, Two-Step, Three-Step, Reflection, COT). Review structural features including support for 30+ languages and terminology dictionary functionality, and evaluate cost efficiency.

Z.AI Translation Agent is an AI-based translation service supporting over 30 languages. The core feature of this service is the provision of 6 translation strategies optimized for content types and purposes. Unlike existing translation APIs that provide only a single translation method, Z.AI is designed to enable strategy selection tailored to translation objectives.

This document analyzes the technical architecture of Z.AI Translation Agent and the characteristics of each translation strategy, and evaluates cost efficiency compared to existing solutions.

Technical Specifications Overview

The key technical specifications of Z.AI Translation Agent are as follows.

Language Support:

Translation support for 30+ languages (including Korean)
Automatic language detection (source_lang: "auto")
Adaptation to regional language variations (British/American English distinction)
Special language support (Pinyin, IPA phonetic symbols, Classical Chinese, Cantonese)

Translation Strategies:

Provision of 6 specialized translation strategies (general, paraphrase, two_step, three_step, reflection, cot)
Translation methods optimized by content type
Support for strategy-specific detailed settings (strategy_config parameter)

Additional Features:

Terminology dictionary customization (domain-specific technical term alignment)
Expert guidelines and style adaptation (suggestion parameter)
Pinyin and IPA phonetic symbol support
Translation process reasoning explanation feature (Reflection strategy)
Streaming output support (stream parameter)

The terminology dictionary customization feature provides significant value in enterprise environments. Consistent translation of domain-specific terms guarantees translation quality consistency.

Usage Guide

Z.AI Translation Agent can be accessed via two methods: web interface and API.

Access Paths

Developer Portal (Z.AI Open Platform):

Access: z.ai
Sign up and log in
Dashboard: Select General-Purpose Translation agent from top menu 'Agents' or 'Console' section
Web Interface: Translation without coding by text input and source/target language settings

API Integration (HTTP/SDK):

Endpoint: https://api.z.ai/api/v1/agents
Specify agent_id: general_translation
Pass translation strategies and terminology dictionaries via custom_variables parameter

Core Features Detail

Translation Strategy:

Support for 6 specialized strategies: general, paraphrase, two_step, three_step, reflection, cot
Quality improvement through Reflection-based self-correction
Transparency of reasoning process through COT (Chain of Thought) translation
Strategy-specific detailed settings via strategy_config parameter
Reasoning language selection via reason_lang option (from or to, default: to)

Terminology Dictionary (Glossary):

Guarantee technical term consistency via glossary parameter
Format: "source term: translated term" (comma-separated for multiple terms)
Enterprise translation quality improvement through domain-specific terminology dictionary construction

Automatic Language Detection:

Support for 30+ languages
Automatic input text detection (source_lang: "auto")
Including rare languages such as Classical Chinese and Cantonese

Authentication Method

Z.AI API uses standard HTTP Bearer authentication. After issuing an API key from the API Keys Page, include it in the request header.

Bash

Authorization: Bearer ZAI_API_KEY

API Call Example

The following is a basic example of calling the Z.AI Translation Agent API. According to official documentation format, messages.content is passed as an array.

Bash
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.z.ai/api/v1/agents \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_KEY>' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{
    "agent_id": "general_translation",
    "messages": [{
      "role": "user",
      "content": [{
        "type": "text",
        "text": "The AI Agent is revolutionizing software development."
      }]
    }],
    "stream": false,
    "custom_variables": {
      "source_lang": "auto",
      "target_lang": "ko",
      "strategy": "reflection",
      "glossary": "AI Agent: AI 에이전트"
    }
  }'

Required Parameters:

agent_id: "general_translation" (enum, translation agent identifier)
messages: User input array
- role: "user"
- content: Array format [{"type": "text", "text": "text to translate"}]

Custom Variables (Translation Settings):

source_lang: Source language code (default: "auto")
target_lang: Target language code (default: "zh-CN")
glossary: Terminology dictionary ID or direct mapping
strategy: Translation strategy selection (general, paraphrase, two_step, three_step, reflection, cot)
strategy_config: Strategy-specific detailed settings
stream: Streaming output enabled (default: false)

Strategy-Specific Settings:

General: Specify term mapping and style guide via strategy_config.general.suggestion parameter
COT: Select reasoning language via strategy_config.cot.reason_lang parameter (from or to, default: to)

API Response Format

Upon successful API call, a JSON response in the following format is returned.

JSON
{
  "id": "<request_id>",
  "agent_id": "general_translation",
  "status": "completed",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "finish_reason": "stop",
      "messages": [
        {
          "role": "assistant",
          "content": {
            "text": "AI 에이전트가 소프트웨어 개발을 혁신하고 있다.",
            "type": "text"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 123,
    "completion_tokens": 456,
    "total_tokens": 579,
    "total_calls": 1
  }
}

Response Field Description:

id: Unique request identifier
agent_id: Agent used (general_translation)
status: Request processing status
choices: Translation result array
- messages.content.text: Translated text
- finish_reason: Completion reason (stop, length, etc.)
usage: Token usage information
- prompt_tokens: Number of input tokens
- completion_tokens: Number of output tokens
- total_calls: Number of API calls

SDK Installation and Configuration

Z.AI supports both official SDKs and OpenAI-compatible SDKs.

Official Python SDK:

Bash

pip install zai-sdk==0.1.0

Python
from zai import ZaiClient
client = ZaiClient(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

Official Java SDK:

Maven:

Xml
<dependency>
    <groupId>ai.z.openapi</groupId>
    <artifactId>zai-sdk</artifactId>
    <version>0.3.0</version>
</dependency>

Gradle:

Groovy

implementation 'ai.z.openapi:zai-sdk:0.3.0'

Java
ZaiClient client = ZaiClient.builder().ofZAI()
    .apiKey("YOUR_API_KEY")
    .build();

OpenAI-Compatible SDK:

Python:

Bash

pip install --upgrade 'openai>=1.0'

Python
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-Z.AI-api-key",
    base_url="https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4/"
)

Node.js:

Bash

npm install openai

JavaScript
import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: "your-Z.AI-api-key",
  baseURL: "https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4/",
});

When using SDKs, translation requests can be performed with the same parameter structure after API key configuration and client initialization.

Technical Analysis of 6 Translation Strategies

Each translation strategy is optimized for specific use cases and has distinct technical characteristics. Based on official API documentation, 6 strategies are provided.

1. General Translation

The basic translation method that preserves the format of the original text while reflecting cultural and linguistic context of the target language.