DrupalCon Rotterdam showed a Drupal that handles multilingual sites, headless front ends and AI assistants with far less custom work than before. Almost all of it needs Drupal 11.3 or later. Drupal 10 reaches end of life on December 9, 2026, about nine weeks after this post runs.
The conference ran September 28 to October 1, 2026, at the Postillion Hotel in the WTC Rotterdam building. Dries Buytaert gave his keynote, the Driesnote, on September 29. This piece walks through the three themes of that keynote, the Drupal AI demo, the Rosetta Sprint, Drupal CMS 2.2 and the Drupal 12 beta that shipped during the conference week. Then it turns to the part that matters most for associations, nonprofits, higher education and government teams still on Drupal 10.
The short version: the features shown at DrupalCon Rotterdam are real and you can try several of them today. If your site is on Drupal 10, you cannot use most of them until you upgrade, and the deadline to upgrade did not move. Plan the Drupal 11 move now, and treat the Rotterdam features as the reward for finishing it.
What the Driesnote at DrupalCon Rotterdam covered
Dries organized the keynote around three ways to grow Drupal: more languages, more developers through JavaScript and headless, and new ways to work through AI. The Drupal AI Initiative’s post-keynote summary (October 2) lays out the same three themes.
His main argument was about reputation. The official Driesnote recap carries the line "Drupal is now light-years ahead of its reputation." The technical work has moved faster than outside views of Drupal, and he asked the community to say so more publicly.
The keynote included six live demos, which the Drupal Association posted as a video roundup on September 30. They covered multilingual sites, JavaScript components, headless delivery, the AI demo site, AI-assisted editing and one module reached through several interfaces.
The recap also covers digital sovereignty, where Dries used the term "Stewarded Open Source" for projects with ongoing maintenance and security releases.
Multilingual: Drupal CMS 2.2 and Canvas translation
Multilingual was the first theme, and it shipped before the keynote. The Drupal CMS team released Drupal CMS 2.2 on September 25. Its announcement opens: "Drupal CMS 2.2.0 is out, and this release is all about multilingual."
What changed, according to that post:
- The installer has a searchable language selector in place of a long dropdown.
- A multilingual recipe installs the language modules, sets up configuration and adds a setup checklist.
- Canvas pages can be translated, with a preview before publishing.
- Canvas Translate AI is bundled and offers one-click AI translations for a whole page or single components.
- A new demo called Dashi replaces Umami, which the team says will not be in Drupal 12.
This matters for associations with chapters abroad, universities recruiting international students and public agencies serving several language communities. Drupal CMS 2.2 cuts much of the setup that used to make multilingual a project of its own.
One catch for Drupal 10 sites. Drupal CMS is built on Drupal 11, and the Canvas project page lists Drupal 11.3 or later for every current release, including 1.12.0 from September 25.
JavaScript and headless at DrupalCon Rotterdam
The second theme was about bringing in developers who do not work in PHP. The Driesnote recap says Canvas code components can be written in React, treating JavaScript developers as "first-class citizens."
The demos showed Canvas scaffolding a React, TypeScript and Tailwind project with previews and no extra configuration. A separate demo showed Canvas running headless with live visual editing, so editors see the real front end while developers work in the framework they prefer.
The Driesnote recap says official headless support now covers five frameworks, with Angular newly added. The drupal.org demo roundup names Next.js, Astro, Nuxt, TanStack Start and Angular. The DropTimes, in its keynote report, lists 11ty in place of TanStack Start. Check the Canvas documentation for the framework you use before planning on it.
A React team can work in Canvas without learning Drupal theming first. All of this runs through Canvas, so it also needs Drupal 11.3 or later.
The Drupal AI demo: what you can use today
The AI theme came with something you can open right now. The Drupal AI Initiative launched a public demo at drupal.org/ai/demo. Its post-keynote summary says: "Anyone can try it today at drupal.org/ai/demo."
The demo is a fictional university website with Drupal AI already set up. The demo page offers a 30-day trial through Drupal Forge, with AI credits included and no credit card required. It lists the AI infrastructure as provided by amazee.io.
According to the demo page and the initiative’s posts, the site shows:
- Conversational search that answers from the site’s own content and cites sources.
- Content review for accuracy, tone and inclusive language.
- Page drafts from a description, held for a human to review before publishing.
- Automatic tagging, translation and image alt text.
- AI disclosure labels and logging of AI activity.
Higher education teams get the most direct preview. Associations and nonprofits will recognize the same content types under other names.
The demo sits on the Drupal AI module. Version 1.5.0 was released September 25, and its project page lists support for Drupal 10.5 and later as well as Drupal 11.2 and later. The module itself runs on Drupal 10 today. That does not change what happens on December 9.
What comes next: MCP, Tool API and the Rosetta Sprint
Two AI items are still in progress.
The first is connecting outside AI assistants to Drupal. One demo showed ChatGPT editing Drupal content through the Simple OAuth and MCP Server modules, with each change saved as a new revision under the editor’s name. The initiative’s summary says that "Today, exposing a Drupal module’s features to AI assistants via MCP takes around 1,000 lines of code." It adds: "Dries showed a prototype that brings this down to around 20 PHP attributes, using a recipe that combines the Simple OAuth, MCP Server and Tool API modules." That is a prototype, so plan around it as coming rather than shipped.
The second is the Rosetta Sprint. The initiative describes it as "a four-day sprint with key maintainers to describe Drupal’s capabilities once, in a form that AI agents, other systems and humans can all read." It also says: "The date and location are still to be announced." The DropTimes reports that Dries hoped it could happen before the end of 2026.
For agencies, Rosetta is the DrupalCon Rotterdam item to watch. If it works, connecting a client site to an AI assistant becomes a configuration task. Our earlier piece on the Drupal AI security initiative’s advisory count is a reminder that each new connection also needs security review.
Drupal 12 beta 1 shipped during DrupalCon Rotterdam week
The biggest release news did not come from the stage. Drupal 12.0.0-beta1 was published on September 30, 2026, mid-conference.
The release notes say: "Beta releases are not intended for production." They also settle the upgrade question: "Updates added prior to Drupal 11.3.0 have been removed and Drupal’s update system will refuse to update from Drupal 11.2 or earlier." The notes recommend getting to Drupal 11.4, or 11.5 once it ships, before moving to 12. As of October 5, there is no 11.5.0-beta1 release page.
Drupal’s core release schedule targets Drupal 12 for the week of December 7, 2026. Our look at Drupal 12’s missed release windows covers why that target has moved before. The beta is real progress. It does not change the Drupal 10 date.
Drupal 10 end of life: what DrupalCon Rotterdam means if you are still on 10
The Driesnote did not dwell on Drupal 10, and the DrupalCon Rotterdam keynote coverage we read does not mention its end of life. The date still governs everything above.
The release schedule says: "Drupal 10 will reach end of life on December 9, 2026. This is the same week that Drupal 12 will be released. No new releases of Drupal 10 will be made after this date." It also says: "Drupal 10.6.0 is the last minor release of Drupal 10."
Three facts make this hard to put off:
- No skipping. Drupal’s upgrade overview says a major version “cannot be skipped during an upgrade.” The 12.0.0-beta1 notes confirm the update system refuses anything older than 11.3.
- Webform support ends too. The Webform project page says of the 6.2.x branch: “This branch will receive security support until the Drupal 10 EOL.” The 6.3.x branch runs on Drupal 10.3 or later and Drupal 11.
- The new features need 11.3. Canvas, and the multilingual and headless work built on it, need Drupal 11.3 or later. A Drupal 10 site can watch the demos. It cannot install them.
We covered the deadline in full in what Drupal 10 end of life means for your site. The Webform advisories in plain language show what an unpatchable add-on would look like.
A nine-week plan for Drupal 10 teams
Nine weeks is enough for many sites if the work starts this month.
- Confirm your versions this week. Drupal core, Webform and every contributed module. Reports, then Available updates, shows all of them.
- Get to Drupal 10.6. Update to the latest 10.6 release first so the move to 11 starts from a supported base.
- Run the deprecation checks. Find modules with no Drupal 11 release and decide on each: update, replace or remove.
- Move Webform to 6.3.x. It runs on both Drupal 10.3 or later and Drupal 11, so it can move ahead of core.
- Upgrade to Drupal 11.4 or later. The beta notes recommend 11.4 as the jumping-off point for 12.
- Test the forms that bring in revenue. Join, renew, donate, register and apply.
- Schedule the launch before December. Holiday freezes, year-end giving and conference registration all land in the same weeks.
Our Drupal 10 to 11 upgrade guide covers each step in more detail. Once the site is on 11.4, Canvas, Drupal CMS 2.2’s multilingual tools and the AI features from DrupalCon Rotterdam become options rather than demos.
Other announcements from DrupalCon Rotterdam
The Drupal Association launched the Drupal Advocacy Program at drupal.org/advocacy. It is a pilot that gives contribution credit for work like tutorials, demo videos, talks, translations and customer stories. Content tied to the current theme earns extra credit. The keynote recap and the program post describe the multiplier differently, so check the program page for current terms.
For agencies, case studies and how-to posts they already write can now earn credit.
Drupal AI 1.5.0 also landed the week before the conference. According to its release notes, it adds chat memory, AI reranking for Search API and an HTML to Markdown converter.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026?
DrupalCon Rotterdam ran September 28 to October 1, 2026, at the Postillion Hotel in the WTC Rotterdam building. The Driesnote was on September 29.
What were the main themes of the DrupalCon Rotterdam Driesnote?
Multilingual, JavaScript and headless, and AI. Dries also argued that Drupal is ahead of its reputation.
Can I try the Drupal AI demo?
Yes. The demo at drupal.org/ai/demo is a fictional university site with Drupal AI set up. The demo page offers a 30-day trial through Drupal Forge with AI credits included.
What is the Rosetta Sprint?
A planned four-day sprint with key maintainers to describe Drupal’s capabilities once, in a form AI agents, other systems and people can read. The date and location had not been announced as of October 5, 2026.
What is new in Drupal CMS 2.2?
Multilingual setup. It adds a searchable language selector in the installer, a multilingual recipe, Canvas page translation and a bundled AI translation module. A new Dashi demo replaces Umami.
Is Drupal 12 out?
Not yet. Drupal 12.0.0-beta1 was published September 30, 2026, and beta releases are not meant for production. The release schedule targets the week of December 7, 2026.
Can a Drupal 10 site upgrade straight to Drupal 12?
No. The 12.0.0-beta1 notes say the update system will refuse to update from Drupal 11.2 or earlier. A Drupal 10 site has to move to Drupal 11 first, ideally 11.4 or later.
Did the Drupal 10 end of life date change at DrupalCon Rotterdam?
No. The release schedule still says Drupal 10 reaches end of life on December 9, 2026, and no new Drupal 10 releases will be made after that date.
What happens to Webform on Drupal 10 after December 9?
The Webform project page says the 6.2.x branch gets security support only until the Drupal 10 end of life. The 6.3.x branch runs on Drupal 10.3 or later and Drupal 11.
