Get started

Requirements

• Drupal core 11.3 or later. The main, export and media modules declare Drupal 12 as well, tested on 12.0.0-beta1; content_deployment_tools declares Drupal 11 until Tool API declares 12.
• PHP 8.3 or later.
• content_deployment_export: core's Workspaces and HTTP Basic Authentication.
• content_deployment_tools: Tool API.

Recommended modules

• Content Moderation, in core: drafts with a workflow state, and the Latest version tab.
• Paragraphs and Entity Reference Revisions: paragraph trees.
• File Hash, with SHA-256: one media item per set of bytes, and changesets that carry files.
• Config Read-only: configuration locked on live, where changesets write content only.
• Pathauto and Redirect: generated aliases are reported and left to Pathauto; a changed alias leaves a redirect.

Modules

Module	Enable on	Contains
content_deployment	every environment	The content spec engine, review flow, robot account, changeset runner, Drush commands, and every permission the submodules check.
content_deployment_export	development environments only	Exporting staging workspaces as changesets, from Drush and the workspace's Export changeset operation; the media upload and lookup endpoints. Needs Workspaces.
content_deployment_media	any	content-spec:suggest-media and content-spec:illustrate.
content_deployment_tools	any	Tool API plugins for the operations. Experimental while Tool API is in beta. Needs Tool API.

Installation

composer require drupal/content_deployment
drush pm:install content_deployment

content_deployment_export is enabled per environment and kept out of the exported configuration:

$settings['config_exclude_modules'] = ['content_deployment_export'];

Settings

Setting	Meaning
$settings['content_deployment_directory']	Where changesets and their files live, in its changesets and files directories: an absolute path, or one relative to the Drupal root, outside the docroot. See Changesets.
$settings['content_deployment_run_on_deploy']	TRUE runs pending changesets during drush deploy, after deploy:hook. Off by default: drush deploy then prints how many are pending, and the status report warns while any are.
$settings['content_deployment_max_file_size']	Export only. The largest file an export carries, in bytes. Default 10485760, 10 MiB.

Site setup

1. Put the bundles that are written to under a workflow. The module works without content moderation, using core non-default revisions, but under a workflow editors get the Latest version tab and a recognizable draft state.
2. Let editors see and publish drafts. Under the core editorial workflow that is view latest version, view any unpublished content, view all revisions, use editorial transition publish and use editorial transition create_new_draft.
3. Know the robot account. The first write creates content_deployment, a blocked account with no password and no roles. Drush commands and changesets write as it, so it owns what they write. Tool API plugins write as the account invoking them.
4. Grant uploads only where content is built. The upload endpoint needs an account with Upload content deployment media.
5. Enable File Hash with SHA-256 where changesets carry files. Media ingest finds bytes the site already has through it, and the runner refuses a changeset with files without it. Run drush filehash:generate once for the files already there.

Permissions

Permission	Allows
upload content deployment media	Uploading and looking up media through the content_deployment_export endpoints, with basic auth. Restricted.
export content deployment changesets	Exporting a staging workspace as a changeset, from the workspace's Export changeset operation. Restricted: an export is the approval to publish what it carries.

Publishing a draft from the review notice takes the workflow's transition to its published state, or, without moderation, update access and edit access to the published flag.

Commands

Command	Does
content-spec:model	The site's content model
content-spec:query	Find entities from a description
content-spec:read	An entity as a spec
content-spec:create	Create an entity from a spec, as a draft
content-spec:apply	Apply a spec to an entity, as a draft
content-spec:media-ingest	Files into media
content-spec:pending	Drafts awaiting review; --conflicts for those changesets left
content-spec:publish	Make a draft live; --langcode for one language's
content-spec:unpublish	Take the live version offline
content-spec:suggest-media	Rank the image library against a text
content-spec:illustrate	Fill empty image slots
content-spec:kitchen-sink	A page with every field filled in, for reviewing the theme
content-deployment:status	The changesets, and which have run here
content-deployment:run	Run the pending changesets
content-deployment:export	Export a staging workspace as the next changeset (content_deployment_export)