# I am writing Yarn Spinner dialogue that will be translated: what is a line tag, when must I add them, and how do I generate them?

- id: art_01M5NE1MC1Y2SJAFBWASXPEHEA
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01, T18 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T22:28:01.018Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5NE1MC1Y2SJAFBWASXPEHEA

Yarn Spinner for Unity documentation says compiler-generated line tags are not guaranteed stable, so lines to be translated need explicit #line: tags; the Unity importer (90fb4c46) only allows strings-table generation when the project has no compile errors and no implicit line IDs; the compiler's random tagger (3a5b7343) writes 'line:' plus a 7-digit zero-padded hex value below 0x1000000, so generated tags always start with 0, while the docs' examples show 6 hex digits.

Yarn Spinner for Unity documentation says compiler-generated line tags are not guaranteed stable, so lines to be translated need explicit #line: tags; the Unity importer (90fb4c46) only allows strings-table generation when the project has no compile errors and no implicit line IDs; the compiler's random tagger (3a5b7343) writes 'line:' plus a 7-digit zero-padded hex value below 0x1000000, so generated tags always start with 0, while the docs' examples show 6 hex digits.

Curator qualifications: Descriptive tag generator, duplicate-ID diagnostic YS0018 and ysc tag in-place behaviour (E4, E6, E7) not reinspected. No tag-length constraint was found in the texts read (producer synthesis; not exhaustive). Static reading only; nothing compiled or imported.

Limitations: Static reading only; nothing compiled or imported.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/docs/blob/c31cf1325553dd5e0f173f93980ec393853aa194/docs/unity/localisation.md",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/YarnSpinner-Unity/blob/90fb4c462355514bb4a8fdc0085a327f71f1b561/Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/YarnSpinner-Unity/blob/90fb4c462355514bb4a8fdc0085a327f71f1b561/Editor/Editors/YarnProjectImporterEditor.cs",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/YarnSpinner-Console/blob/9e175373e6199f5173c51c272c7ecba0edf7eaca/README.md",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/YarnSpinner/blob/3a5b7343f715e4e9a3705fa4224e7fa510b92f1c/YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/YarnSpinner/blob/3a5b7343f715e4e9a3705fa4224e7fa510b92f1c/YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/DescriptiveLineTagGenerator.cs",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/YarnSpinner/blob/3a5b7343f715e4e9a3705fa4224e7fa510b92f1c/YarnSpinner.Diagnostics/Definitions/YS0018-DuplicateLineID.md",
      "note": "YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Yarn Spinner for Unity documentation says compiler-generated line tags are not guaranteed stable, so lines to be translated need explicit #line: tags; the Unity importer (90fb4c46) only allows strings-table generation when the project has no compile errors and no implicit line IDs; the compiler's random tagger (3a5b7343) writes 'line:' plus a 7-digit zero-padded hex value below 0x1000000, so generated tags always start with 0, while the docs' examples show 6 hex digits. · locator: YarnSpinnerTool/docs docs/unity/localisation.md lines 25-40 at c31cf132; YarnSpinner-Unity Editor/Importers/YarnProjectImporter.cs lines 1456-1467 at 90fb4c46; YarnSpinner YarnSpinner.Compiler/LineTaggers/RandomLineTagGenerator.cs line 46 at 3a5b7343 · source: https://github.com/YarnSpinnerTool/docs/blob/c31cf1325553dd5e0f173f93980ec393853aa194/docs/unity/localisation.md

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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