simplytest.me Overhaul Reworks Drupal Sandbox Experience

A five-day overhaul of simplytest.me has reworked the Drupal sandbox service across testing, project data, build handling, patch support, and its user interface. Matt Glaman detailed the shipped changes in an 8 September 2026 blog post, covering work across pull requests #579 through #608. The update also adds launch validation and aggregate statistics while changing how the service communicates with Drupal.org and Tugboat.

The work addresses problems that affected simplytest.me as an entry point for testing Drupal projects. Matt reported that core release information had stopped updating reliably, failed sandboxes could continue polling Tugboat, and some advanced options could break builds. One simplytest.me environment was also generating about 36,000 requests a day to the Drupal.org JSON API. Background and implicit requests to that API have now been removed, with project release data relying on conditional requests to updates.drupal.org and refreshes when users need the information.

Custom-module line coverage increased from 52% to 89%, with continuous integration now failing below 85%, and the new tests exposed existing queue-processing and cache-control problems. The overhaul also addresses two patch-related issues, redesigns the launch and build screens, validates submitted core versions and installation profiles, and records aggregate launch data without storing IP addresses, user agents, sessions, or patch URLs. Glaman identifies Drupal Site Templates and Recipes as the next area to explore, but support for those launch models has not yet been implemented.