i18n pipeline: open PR backlog at 9, exceeds max-5 limit (batch: ja, 2026-07-16)

[openlibrary-bot]

What happened

Running the translation batch for ja on 2026-07-16, Step 1 pre-flight found 80 untranslated strings for ja (work exists), but the open i18n PR count was 9, exceeding the documented max of 5.

Open i18n PRs at time of check:

• i18n: AI translations — ko (2026-07-16) #35 i18n/ai-ko-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — de (2026-07-16) #34 i18n/ai-de-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — French (fr) (2026-07-16) #33 i18n/ai-fr-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — cs (2026-07-16) #32 i18n/ai-cs-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — Hindi (hi) (2026-07-16) #31 i18n/ai-hi-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — Spanish (es) (2026-07-16) #30 i18n/ai-es-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — tl (2026-07-16) #29 i18n/ai-tl-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — hr (2026-07-16) #28 i18n/ai-hr-20260716
• i18n: AI translations — Italian (it) (2026-07-16) #27 i18n/ai-it-20260716

None of these are for ja, so this isn't a resumable in-progress branch for this batch — it's a genuine backlog of PRs awaiting review/merge.

Impact

Per instructions, no new PR was opened for the ja batch. This run stopped at Step 1 without translating.

Suggested fix

• Merge or close some of the open i18n PRs above to bring the count under 5, then re-run the ja batch.
• Consider whether the auto-merge-after-CI mechanism referenced in the instructions is actually running — 9 open PRs suggests PRs are accumulating faster than they're merging.