acquia/drupal-cms-project

Drupal CMS - Acquia Hosting Tailored Version

Project template for building Drupal CMS tailored for Acquia hosting. This project follows the official Drupal CMS releases and includes Acquia-specific additions and integrations.

Example workflow using Acquia CLI

• Create project

  composer create-project acquia/drupal-cms-project
  

• Initialize repo and commit

  cd drupal-cms-project && git init && git add -A && git commit -m "initial build"
  

• Build artifact and push to cloud

  /usr/local/bin/acli push:artifact --destination-git-urls=<YOUR_ACQUIA_GIT_REPO_URL> --destination-git-branch=dist --quiet
  

• Checkout the new branch on cloud

  /usr/local/bin/acli app:task-wait "$(/usr/local/bin/acli api:environments:code-switch <YOUR_AH_SITEGROUP>.dev dist)"
  

• Drop database on cloud if you have previously installed a site and want to see the Drupal CMS installer

  /usr/local/bin/acli remote:drush @<YOUR_AH_SITEGROUP>.dev sql:drop
  

• Visit your site!

Branches

This repo ships with two branches: main and dist.

main

The main branch is used for development. When you're ready to deploy a feature or update, you will build an artifact from the main branch using ACLI.

Develop and deploy a feature

• Create a feature branch from main

  $ git checkout -b <FEATURE_BRANCH_NAME> main
  

• Do your work on the feature branch. Once it's reviewed and ready, merge it back into main.
• Create a deployment artifact from main.

  $ acli push:artifact --destination-git-urls="<YOUR_ACQUIA_GIT_URL>" --destination-git-branch=<DEPLOYMENT_ARTIFACT_BRANCH_NAME>
  

dist

The dist branch is a prebuilt deployment artifact. You can use it to get an application up and running quickly without building an artifact. You must generate a unique salt hash in the dist branch before using it. You can use the Drupal Recommended Settings provided Drush command to do this: drush drupal:hash-salt:init. This artifact uses the latest PHP version available on Acquia, currently 8.5. The prebuilt dist branch is generally NOT recommended for normal workflows.

Example dist branch workflow

• Clone the repo.

  $ git clone [e-mail]:acquia/drupal-cms-project.git
  

• Check out the dist branch.

  $ git checkout dist
  

• Remove the GitHub remote.

  $ git remote remove origin
  

• Generate a unique hash salt and add it to Git.

  $ vendor/bin/drush drupal:hash-salt:init
  $ git add -A
  $ git commit -m "Unique hash salt"
  

• Add your Acquia Git URL as a remote and push the dist branch to it.

  $ git remote add acquia <YOUR_ACQUIA_GIT_REPO_URL>
  $ git push acquia dist
  

• Checkout the dist branch on cloud.

  $ acli app:task-wait "$(/usr/local/bin/acli api:environments:code-switch <YOUR_ACQUIA_HOSTING_SITE_GROUP>.<HOSTING_ENVIRONMENT> dist)"
  

• Install from the prebuilt artifact's configuration on cloud.

  $ acli remote:drush @<YOUR_ACQUIA_HOSTING_SITE_GROUP>.<HOSTING_ENVIRONMENT> -- site:install --existing-config --yes
  

• Import the default content provided by Drupal CMS starter.

  $ acli remote:drush @<YOUR_ACQUIA_HOSTING_SITE_GROUP>.<HOSTING_ENVIRONMENT> -- content:import ../recipes/drupal_cms_starter/content --yes
  

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Acquia, Inc.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.