A Sous Chef Profile is a saved set of instructions for wxrks' AI translation: who the content is for, how formal it should be, its tone, how creative the AI can be, and your own written brief. This guide shows you how to create profiles, choose which one applies by default, route specific language pairs to a different profile, and set profiles for one Organizational Unit or one project. It also explains how wxrks decides which profile wins when several could apply.

Who is this for?

Before you start: A profile only affects output when AI translation is on. That's the Enable Augmented Translation Actions setting, covered in wxrks Augmented Actions. For what a profile changes in the AI output, see Sous Chef Agents Explained. Older articles call profiles "Sous Chef Agents"; it's the same thing.

For each document, wxrks checks the scopes from the most specific to the most general and uses the first profile it finds. Within a scope, a mapped language pair beats that scope's default:

If nothing matches anywhere, the AI translates without a profile.

The Sous Chef Profiles page sums this up in one line, under both headings: "Most specific scope wins; within a scope, a mapped pair beats the default." Hover the info icon next to it to see the full order.

Your account has these settings:

This is what each document gets:

⚠️ Common misconfiguration: An account mapping doesn't reach an Organizational Unit that has its own default. In the example, if Acme Legal also needs Game UI Strings (JP) for Japanese, map English (United States) → Japanese at the Acme Legal scope too.

ℹ️ Note: Mappings match the exact locales. An English (United States) → Portuguese (Brazil) mapping doesn't apply to English (United States) → Portuguese (Portugal), or to English (United Kingdom) → Portuguese (Brazil).

In the sidebar, go to Settings > Translation Settings > Sous Chef.

The Sous Chef Profiles page opens. On the left, the Profiles list shows every profile with its formality, tone, creativity, and the flags of any language pairs mapped to it. The account default carries a Default badge. Select a profile to see its details in the panel on the right. Selecting a profile only shows it; it doesn't change anything.

Use Search profiles to filter the list by name.

Domain, audience, formality, and tone are required because they give a profile its own point of view. Instructions alone don't tell the AI who it's writing for.

ℹ️ Note: A counter under each text field shows how many characters you've used. If a field goes over its limit, it turns red and Save stays disabled until you shorten it. wxrks never cuts your text silently.

To start from an existing profile, select it and click Duplicate. The form opens with the same settings and (copy) added to the name, for example "Legal Compliance (copy)".

To change a profile, select it and click Edit. Changes apply everywhere the profile is used.

The account default is the fallback for every project that has no more specific match.

The profile gets the Default badge and moves to the top of the list. Only one profile can be the account default, so setting a new one replaces the previous one.

To remove the account default, select the profile that has it and click Clear default, then confirm. After that, projects and Organizational Units with no profile or mapping of their own run without a Sous Chef Profile.

Use this when a client or department needs its own instructions for all of its projects. You can assign one profile to several Organizational Units at once.

If any of the Organizational Units you picked already defaults to another profile, a warning lists each one with the profile it uses now, for example "Docs OU (article-helper) (currently Technical Documentation)", before you save. Saving switches them to this profile.

Use a mapping when one language pair needs different instructions from the rest of its scope, for example a Japanese UI style guide while every other language uses the default.

Each scope can map a given pair only once. If the pair is already mapped in that scope, wxrks doesn't save the new mapping and shows "This language pair is already mapped for this scope". To send that pair to a different profile, edit the existing mapping instead.

The Language Pair Mappings table lists every mapping in your account, Organizational Unit mappings first. To change which profile a mapping uses, click its pencil icon. Scope and languages can't be edited: to change them, delete the mapping with the trash icon and create a new one.

Select a profile and look at Where this profile applies in its detail panel. The table lists every place the profile is the default or is mapped to a pair. Its rows are in the same order wxrks checks them: Organizational Unit mappings, then Organizational Unit defaults, then account mappings, then the account default.

To stop using the profile somewhere, click the × at the end of that row and confirm.

If a project or a work unit chose this profile directly, a line under the table says so, for example "Also picked directly by one project and 0 work units." Those choices are made in the project or the editor, so they don't appear in the table.

⚠️ Warning: Deleting a profile removes it from every scope and mapping that uses it. This can't be undone.

Project Managers can do this from the Organizational Unit itself, without the Sous Chef Profiles page.

The profile you choose becomes this Organizational Unit's default. Every project in it uses it unless the project sets its own.

ℹ️ Note: A profile from the account's Sous Chef Profiles page is shared by the whole account. Only Account Admins can edit or delete it. Everyone else duplicates it to customize it.

Below the selector, the Language pair overrides card lists the mappings that win over this Organizational Unit's default:

Account Admins also see a Manage mappings in Settings > Sous Chef Profiles link. Mappings are created and edited only on that page.

A project's choice outranks its Organizational Unit and the account. The new profile applies to Context Sensitive suggestions right away. Segments that were already pre-translated keep their output until you run Pre-Translate again. For the other settings on this tab, see Project's Translation Settings.

ℹ️ Note: Linguists can also choose a profile for the single document they're translating, from the Sous Chef Profile tab in the editor. That choice outranks everything above, but it doesn't change the project or any other document. See How to check and change the Sous Chef Profile for a document in the editor.