Drupal.org Updates Maintainer Role Sync With GitLab to Two-Way Mapping

Drupal.org has revised how project maintainer roles synchronise with GitLab project members, introducing a two-way mapping between permissions on both platforms. The change is part of the ongoing migration of Drupal projects to GitLab and focuses on aligning access control across systems.

The update ensures that changes made in either Drupal.org or GitLab are reflected in the other system. According to a Drupal.org blog post published on 29 April 2026, the synchronisation is now more comprehensive and may result in unexpected changes to project membership and permissions. Maintainers are advised to review GitLab project members and activity logs following updates.

The revised mapping connects specific Drupal.org permissions to GitLab roles. “Write to VCS” corresponds to the developer role, while combining it with “Administer maintainers” maps to the maintainer role. The “Maintain issues” permission is mapped to the planner role, and other Drupal.org maintainership roles are not included in the synchronisation.

GitLab roles also update Drupal.org permissions under the new system. The maintainer role grants both “Write to VCS” and “Administer maintainers,” while developer and planner roles adjust permissions by removing or limiting access. Reporter and guest roles remove maintainership permissions entirely, maintaining consistency across role transitions.

A bulk update is planned to assign the planner role in GitLab to users who hold the “Maintain issues” permission on Drupal.org. This change is expected to expand access for managing issues and merge requests, particularly as issue management continues to shift towards GitLab.

The update also addresses a previous gap where changes made in GitLab were not synchronised back to Drupal.org due to a missing webhook listener. With the implementation of the user_update_for_team webhook, role updates are now fully bidirectional.

Drupal.org indicated that once issue migration is complete, the “Maintain issues” permission will be removed from Drupal.org, and GitLab will become the primary system for managing access below the developer role. Further implementation details are available in the related Drupal.org issue and accompanying documentation.