Drupal CMS + DDEV in GitHub Codespaces

This repository is a ready-to-fork and run example that sets up Drupal CMS inside a GitHub Codespace using DDEV. It provides a fully orchestrated developer environment for rapid prototyping and testing of Drupal projects in the cloud — no local setup required.

Purpose

The goal of this project is not just to install Drupal CMS, but to demonstrate how DDEV can be used inside a GitHub Codespace to:

• Run a complete Drupal CMS environment (core + contrib modules/themes)
• Automate setup via a Makefile
• Launch the site in a browser from within the Codespace container
• Provide a clean starting point for your own Drupal projects

What’s Included

• Drupal CMS 1.3.x: A curated Drupal distribution with smart defaults
• DDEV: Local dev tooling inside the Codespace container
• Makefile: Automates setup (cleaning, starting DDEV, Composer install)
• Devcontainer config: VS Code & Codespaces setup with useful PHP extensions
• Post-install hooks: Automatically fetch and copy the Drupal CMS profile
• Extra Hero recipe: Adds hero components and sample content to showcase Basecore's hero patterns
• Contrib modules like webform, project_browser, extra_project_browser, and a full set of CMS tools
• Two free, contributed Drupal themes:
  • CorporateClean
  • BaseCore

Both themes are developed and maintained by More than Themes, a long-standing contributor to the Drupal community offering free and premium themes for over a decade.

Quick Start

1. Fork this repository

Click the “Use this template” button or fork it to your GitHub account.

2. Open in GitHub Codespaces

From your forked repository:

Code → Open with Codespaces → Create new Codespace

3. Run make in the terminal

Once the Codespace has been created, open a terminal in the Codespace and run:

make

This will:

• Clean the Drupal CMS directory
• Start or restart DDEV
• Run Composer install
• Run post-install hooks
• Launch the Drupal CMS site in a browser

Note: While the devcontainer.json includes a postCreateCommand intended to automate this step, it currently does not work reliably in Codespaces. Manual execution of make is required for now.

This is tracked as a future improvement.

4. View the site

After make finishes, your default browser will open and point to the running Drupal CMS site inside the container.

Included Commands

make           # Full setup: clean, start DDEV, install Drupal CMS, launch browser
make clean     # Clean up everything except composer.json
make ddev      # Start or restart the DDEV container
make setup     # Run Composer install and post-install hooks
make launch    # Open the Drupal CMS instance in the browser

Extra Recipes (Basecore)

Extra recipes are plug-and-play Drupal CMS add-ons that install configuration, content types, and sample content to showcase specific components and patterns. The recipes below are the same ones we ship in our Webmaker+ distribution, shared with the Drupal community to help teams build beautiful, high-impact pages faster.

Included recipes:

• Extra Hero
• Extra Highlight Feature
• Extra Icon Features

This template includes the extra_hero, extra_highlight_feature, and extra_icon_features recipes plus the extra_project_browser module.

After installation, enable them using Drush inside the DDEV container:

ddev exec "cd cms && vendor/bin/drush en -y extra_project_browser extra_hero extra_highlight_feature extra_icon_features"

Then apply the recipe:

ddev exec "cd cms && vendor/bin/drush recipe extra_hero"
ddev exec "cd cms && vendor/bin/drush recipe extra_highlight_feature"
ddev exec "cd cms && vendor/bin/drush recipe extra_icon_features"

You can also enable them via the admin UI:

• Enable Project Browser and Extra Project Browser modules in Extend.
• Open Project Browser and install the Extra Hero recipe from there.

Stock Drupal CMS

Looking for the steps to start from stock Drupal CMS and then add our extra recipes and demo themes? See docs/stock-drupal-cms-extra-recipes.md.

Requirements

You don’t need to install anything locally to use this — just a GitHub account with Codespaces enabled.

If running locally (optional):

• Docker
• DDEV
• GNU Make

Extending This Template

This is a great starting point for your own Drupal projects using Codespaces. You can:

• Add your own modules/themes in composer.json
• Modify the custom profile
• Change the default site installation options
• Add database seeders or migrations

License

MIT License