Backdrop 1.34.0-preview Release checklist

[quicksketch]

Scheduled for May 4th, 2026 6 - 10pm PT

Pre-release tasks

• Merge commits (@quicksketch)
• Create a new minor release milestone (@quicksketch)
• Move all unfinished issues to the next minor release milestone (@quicksketch)
• Draft Release notes (@quicksketch)
  • Include a short, descriptive summary of the release, for example:
    • This is the preview release of Backdrop 1.16.0. Please use this version if you would like to help us test the features in the new version of Backdrop prior to the official release on January/May/September 15th, 20xx.
  • Include a section heading ## Notes for updating*
    • Note if any changes were made to files outside the core directory, for example:
      • - No changes have been made to the `.htaccess`, `robots.txt` or default `settings.php` files in this release. Updating customized versions of those files is not necessary.
      • See this example for updates to .htaccess
      • See this example or this example for updates to settings.php
    • Note if updates (update.php) needs to be run, for example:
      • Use the text The database update script does **not** need to be run.
      • or **It will be necessary to run the update script** (located at /core/update.php) for this release.
      • Note: you can use this command to see if any install files were changed:
        ls -1 core/modules/*/*.install | while read filename; do echo "$(git log -1 --pretty="format:%ad %f" --date=format:"%F %R" -- $filename)" $filename; done|sort
  • Include a section heading ## Changes since version 1.xx.x
    • navigate to Actions
    • Select the most recent time "Release Notes Generator" has been run.
    • Download the release-notes artifact attached to the generator.
    • Unzip the file, and copy/pate contents into release notes draft.
      • Move the headings to H3, add another # before the ## to get ###.
    • Re-word issue titles to indicate that the problems have been fixed.

Pre-release Publicity + documentation tasks

• Review issues for new features (assign to @jenlampton / @klonos / @cellear)
  • Add a conclusion suitable for blog post + release notes
  • Add Documentation label if the feature needs to be documented (or needs docs to be updated)
  • Add Needs change record label if the the issue contains an API change.
• Generate an unpublished/draft blog post (and rewrite if it was created with AI tools) @Wylbur
  • Review blog post and provide feedback @izmeez, @stpaultim and anyone else
• Draft roadmap updates for backdropcms.org (assign to stpaultim / klonos / jenlampton)
• Update list of modules included in backdrop core (assign to bugfolder / klonos / jenlampton)
• Update list of modules included in backdrop_upgrade_status module @ jenlampton
• Create new forum topic for feedback on the release @stpaultim

Release tasks

• Update bootstrap.inc with version number (e.g. 1.10.0-preview) (@quicksketch)
• Tag for release, and push tag to GitHub (@quicksketch)
• Note: New incremented branch for development is usually created on release day
• Revert version number back on 1.x branch with the same minor number (e.g. 1.10.x-dev) (@quicksketch)
• Create release notes on GitHub Important: Check "This is a pre-release" checkbox when creating release (@quicksketch)

Website updates (optional)

• beta.backdropcms.org @bugfolder (or @jenlampton)

Post-release Publicity + documentation tasks

• Post/Tweet/Toot/Skeet that a new release is out (assignments below)
  • Post to Bluesky @stpaultim
  • Post to Mastodon @stpaultim
  • Post to Twitter @stpaultim

[quicksketch]

Working on the release but the release notes generator script is still broken. I'll proceed with cutting the tag. We might not get full release notes tonight though.

[quicksketch]

Preview release is now out: https://github.com/backdrop/backdrop/releases/tag/1.34.0-preview