Drupal CMS

Drupal CMS Q&A with Dries

With Drupal CMS 1.0 released in January, we're now well into development of the next version.

So it's a great opportunity to explain which processes we’ve followed so far, provide updates on how we are tracking and discuss what we have planned next on the roadmap.

Some topics that will be covered:

- Features and areas we're working on now
- Plans for future versions ongoing
- What we're looking for from contributors
- How we defined the strategy and scope
- Which role research played on the product definition

Since its launch in January 2025, Drupal CMS has been revolutionizing the way we build and manage websites through its innovative AI Agents built on a freeing abstraction layer allowing you to control your data and providers. Come and explore how AI is reshaping the Drupal ecosystem, making complex functionalities accessible to users of all technical levels, and setting new standards for intelligent, user-friendly site building.

Description

Drupal is evolving into an AI-powered open source CMS, with new AI capabilities being integrated regularly. Yet many organizations struggle to understand how AI will transform content management systems and their digital presence.

For every new project, there are certain tasks we have to complete over and over again. We install the same modules, because we are used to having them, we configure features in a consistent way, implementing best practices or the optimal approaches that we know work well. Until January 15, 2025, these repetitive tasks were delegated to distributions or profiles.

Thanks to site building, Drupal was already a low-code platform before low-code was a thing. Modeling the business requirements by assembling sharable plugins in config entities, from the admin UI, is making Drupal the solution we have fallen in love with.

The AI Agents were released and brought to attention in Drupal CMS. They are fast, model agnostic and as reliant as the models allows them to be now. But there is one huge issue with them - they are quite code heavy and makes you reliant on developers.

What if you could open up the world of agents, so that people we communication and language skills could focus on the prompt writing and the actual way the Agents interact with Drupal or its content is just an abstraction that you get access to with a click of a button.

This talk will go through:

In this session, we'll explore how Lupus Decoupled Drupal streamlines modern web development with its innovative Custom Elements UI, allowing frontend developers to customize API responses directly through Drupal's configuration system - no PHP code required. While the backend is fully configured through Drupal's UI, frontenders keep complete control over their HTML output in the decoupled frontend.

As the Drupal CMS strategy v1.0 describes, supporting the Open Web is our responsibility. Drupal's Open Web Manifesto clarifies, that the Open Web is strengthened by every individual’s right to choice, privacy, and security. The Open Web must be designed to protect — not exploit — personal data and public discourse.

The "Drupal CMS Track 8 Privacy and Compliance" is governed by this responsibility. It delivers the necessary technical implementation but also provides information and advice for other tracks and the whole product to get it right on all levels.

Since its announcement during DrupalCon Portland, Drupal CMS (Starshot) promised a revolutionary step forward for the platform. With groundbreaking features including experience builder, AI integration, project browser, and recipes, it promised a significant step forward in Drupal's capabilities.

Instead of waiting for the official launch, I jumped into building a real website (https://zodiaczingers.com) utilizing these new features, documenting the entire journey and sharing the source code on Github and Gitlab.