diff --git a/scripts/translation-links.spec.ts b/scripts/translation-links.spec.ts
index de87dc500a..f5f6a7a611 100644
--- a/scripts/translation-links.spec.ts
+++ b/scripts/translation-links.spec.ts
@@ -64,16 +64,8 @@ describe('translation link locale validation', () => {
     })
   })
 
-  it('normalizes an English extensionless file alias but retains a directory-index alias', () => {
+  it('retains an English directory-index alias', () => {
     const root = fixture()
-    expect(translationLinkLocaleViolations(
-      '[Reference](reference)\n',
-      { repoRoot: root, sourcePath: 'docs/guide.md' },
-    )[0]).toMatchObject({ expectedUrl: 'reference.md' })
-    expect(rewriteTranslationLinkLocales(
-      '[Reference](reference)\n',
-      { repoRoot: root, sourcePath: 'docs/guide.md' },
-    ).content).toBe('[Reference](reference.md)\n')
     expect(translationLinkLocaleViolations(
       '[Section](section/)\n',
       { repoRoot: root, sourcePath: 'docs/guide.md' },
diff --git a/scripts/translation-links.ts b/scripts/translation-links.ts
index 8346e401bf..fec370ecac 100644
--- a/scripts/translation-links.ts
+++ b/scripts/translation-links.ts
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ interface Replacement {
 }
 
 type LinkNode = Extract<Nodes, { type: 'link' | 'definition' }>
-type ResolutionKind = 'exact' | 'extensionless' | 'directory-index'
+type ResolutionKind = 'exact' | 'directory-index'
 
 function decodePath(path: string): string {
   try {
@@ -101,14 +101,8 @@ function resolveRepositoryTarget(
   if (decoded.endsWith('/') && index !== undefined && repositoryFileExists(context, index)) {
     return { path: index, kind: 'directory-index' }
   }
-  if (posix.extname(decoded) === '') {
-    const markdown = repositoryRelativePath(`${exact}.md`)
-    if (markdown !== undefined && repositoryFileExists(context, markdown)) {
-      return { path: markdown, kind: 'extensionless' }
-    }
-    if (index !== undefined && repositoryFileExists(context, index)) {
-      return { path: index, kind: 'directory-index' }
-    }
+  if (posix.extname(decoded) === '' && index !== undefined && repositoryFileExists(context, index)) {
+    return { path: index, kind: 'directory-index' }
   }
   return undefined
 }
@@ -142,7 +136,6 @@ function expectedLocalePath(
     }
     if (locale === 'en' && rawPath.endsWith('.zh.md')) return rawPath.replace(/\.zh\.md$/, '.md')
   }
-  if (kind === 'extensionless') return `${rawPath}${locale === 'zh' ? '.zh.md' : '.md'}`
   if (kind === 'directory-index' && locale === 'zh') {
     return `${rawPath}${rawPath.endsWith('/') ? '' : '/'}index.zh.md`
   }
@@ -177,8 +170,7 @@ function resolveTranslationLink(
 }
 
 function hasExpectedLocale(resolved: ResolvedTranslationLink): boolean {
-  if (resolved.targetPath !== resolved.expectedPath) return false
-  return !(resolved.locale === 'en' && resolved.kind === 'extensionless')
+  return resolved.targetPath === resolved.expectedPath
 }
 
 function replacementFor(destination: MarkdownDestination, value: string): Replacement {
diff --git a/scripts/translation-pairing.spec.ts b/scripts/translation-pairing.spec.ts
index 94c31325a8..96de451189 100644
--- a/scripts/translation-pairing.spec.ts
+++ b/scripts/translation-pairing.spec.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,11 @@ import {
 } from './translation-pairing.ts'
 
 function signature(markdown: string) {
-  return translationStructureSignature(parseTranslationMarkdown(markdown), 'counterpart.zh.md')
+  return translationStructureSignature(
+    parseTranslationMarkdown(markdown),
+    'counterpart.zh.md',
+    { repoRoot: process.cwd(), sourcePath: 'counterpart.md', markdown },
+  )
 }
 
 function gitSupportsObjectFormat(format: 'sha256'): boolean {
@@ -189,7 +193,11 @@ describe('translation pairing switchers', () => {
     )
 
     expect(linksTo(canonical, targets)).toBe(true)
-    expect(translationStructureSignature(canonical, targets).links).toEqual([])
+    expect(translationStructureSignature(canonical, targets, {
+      repoRoot: process.cwd(),
+      sourcePath: 'python/sdk/README.md',
+      markdown: '[中文](https://github.com/deepseek-ai/deepseek-harness/blob/master/python/sdk/README.zh.md)',
+    }).links).toEqual([])
     expect(linksTo(wrongPath, targets)).toBe(false)
   })
 })
diff --git a/scripts/translation-pairing.ts b/scripts/translation-pairing.ts
index 24fa487417..db3e3e10ea 100644
--- a/scripts/translation-pairing.ts
+++ b/scripts/translation-pairing.ts
@@ -351,7 +351,7 @@ export function requiresSourceLanguageSwitcher(source: string): boolean {
 export function translationStructureSignature(
   tree: Nodes,
   switcherTargets: string | readonly string[],
-  linkContext?: TranslationLinkContext & { markdown: string },
+  linkContext: TranslationLinkContext & { markdown: string },
 ): TranslationStructureSignature {
   const acceptedSwitchers = new Set(
     typeof switcherTargets === 'string' ? [switcherTargets] : switcherTargets,
@@ -364,9 +364,7 @@ export function translationStructureSignature(
   }
   collectDefinitions(tree)
   const linkTarget = (node: Extract<Nodes, { type: 'link' | 'definition' }>): string => (
-    linkContext === undefined
-      ? node.url
-      : semanticTranslationLinkNodeTarget(node, linkContext.markdown, linkContext)
+    semanticTranslationLinkNodeTarget(node, linkContext.markdown, linkContext)
   )
   const visit = (node: Nodes): void => {
     switch (node.type) {