How I stopped my README.md and README.zh.md from drifting apart

The drift problem Every project that ships a translated README has the same lifecycle: Someone writes README.md in English. A contributor opens a PR with README.zh.md . Great. Three months later, English has six new sections. Chinese has the original. A second translator opens README.es.md . Spanish gets translated from… which version? The current README.md ? Or README.zh.md , by accident, because the structure looks tidier? By month nine, you have three READMEs that disagree on what the project