Drupal 12 Targets August 2026 as Core Team Focuses on Release-Critical Work

Drupal is now targeting the week of 10 August 2026 for its 12.0.0 release, after core maintainers confirmed that critical requirements will not be completed in time for the earlier June window.

Gábor Hojtsy has outlined the shift within Drupal’s three-window release model. The first window, tied to a 27 March deadline for beta requirements, is no longer achievable. The project now moves to the second window, which depends on completing those requirements by 15 May, while a third fallback option remains scheduled for December 2026.

Development progress continues despite the schedule change. The main branch has been updated to Symfony 8, and most modules previously marked for removal have already been eliminated. These updates reflect ongoing work to modernise Drupal core while reducing legacy dependencies ahead of the next major release.

The remaining work is now concentrated into a defined set of release-critical priorities. One key task is adding support for PHPUnit 12, which introduces API changes that Drupal must adopt before progressing further with its testing framework.

Frontend tooling is another focus area. Drupal core needs to introduce a JavaScript import maps API, tracked in the import maps initiative, to align with changes in CKEditor 5’s installation model and ensure compatibility with future editor integrations.

Upgrade path reliability is also being addressed. Contributors are working on new database dump fixtures to support upgrades from Drupal 11.3.0, alongside removal of older update paths that are no longer required. These changes are necessary to maintain predictable upgrade processes for site maintainers.

Core packaging adjustments are under consideration as well. A proposal to exclude test files from release packages, tracked under test file exclusion work, aims to reduce distribution size, with tests expected to be provided separately. Because this alters release structure, it is being treated as a major release change.

Further simplification of core remains a priority. The Toolbar module is expected to be removed following the stabilisation of the Navigation module, as outlined in Toolbar deprecation efforts. Additional dependencies, modules, and themes are also under review for removal as part of Drupal 12’s cleanup cycle.

The administrative interface is another active area. Contributors are working to stabilise the Gin theme, tracked under the admin theme initiative, so it can replace Claro as the default backend experience.

Other required updates include moving coding standards tooling from ESLint 8 to ESLint 9, addressing the use of unsupported tooling in the development workflow.

Gabor identifies these items as the highest current priorities, with additional issues continuing to be tracked under Drupal 12 release planning. Whether Drupal 12 meets its August 2026 target now depends on completing this focused set of requirements by the 15 May deadline.