Just a confirmation about the “Header fields” section in `theme/core-concepts/main-stylesheet.md`.

[stein2nd]

I am participating in the “Theme Development Handbook” Japanese translation project.

Issue Description

Doesn't WordPress detect the translation when the theme is activated?

URL of the Page with the Issue

theme/core-concepts/main-stylesheet.md

Section of Page with the issue

Header fields

Why is this a problem?

*   **Domain Path:** A relative path to where theme translations are stored. WordPress uses this field when the theme is disabled to detect translations. Defaults to `/languages`.

Doesn't WordPress detect the translation when the theme is activated?

Suggested Fix

[github-actions]

Heads up @WordPress/docs-issues-coordinators, we have a new issue open. Time to use 'em labels.

[Anuj-Rathore24]

Why WordPress needs this before activation

The Language Pack Upgrader (class-wp-upgrader.php) is responsible for downloading translations from translate.wordpress.org.

• When it processes inactive themes, it uses the theme headers (Text Domain, Domain Path) to know what translation package - to fetch and where to place it.
• Translations are always installed in:
  • Global: wp-content/languages/themes/{textdomain}-{locale}.mo (preferred)
  • Or fallback: {theme-folder}/{domainpath}/{textdomain}-{locale}.mo

When viewing the list of all themes in the WordPress admin dashboard (Appearance > Themes), WordPress can show theme information and translation data without needing to activate each theme.

• Reads headers from style.css of every theme using get_file_data() and Wraps them in a WP_Theme object.

[github-actions]

Heads up @kafleg @carolinan @TeBenachi - the "themes" label was applied to this issue.