drupal

Talking Drupal: TD Cafe #008 - Martin Anderson-Clutz & Jürgen Haas

In this episode, Martin and Jürgen dive deep into the concept of modular API, ECA and more. Jürgen shares insights from Dev Days in Lubin, key improvements in ECA 3.0, and the exciting potential of leveraging the BPMN interface for AI. The conversation also addresses future aspirations for ECA. Additionally, Jürgen and Martin share their personal travel hacks and discuss the intersection of Drupal travel and photography.

For show notes visit: https://www.talkingDrupal.com/cafe008

Topics
  • Introduction to Modular API
  • Conversations at Dev Days
  • Exploring Modeler API
  • AI Integration and Future Prospects
  • Challenges and Comparisons with Other Tools
  • Community Collaboration and AI Initiatives
  • Future Roadmap for ECA
  • Travel Hacks and Personal Insights
  • Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Martin Anderson-Clutz

Martin Anderson-Clutz is a highly respected figure in the Drupal community, known for his extensive contributions as a developer, speaker, and advocate for open-source innovation. Based in London, Ontario, Canada, Martin began his career as a graphic designer before transitioning into web development. His journey with Drupal started in late 2005 when he was seeking a robust multilingual CMS solution, leading him to embrace Drupal's capabilities. Martin holds the distinction of being the world's first Triple Drupal Grand Master, certified across Drupal 7, 8, and 9 as a Developer, Front-End Specialist, and Back-End Specialist. He also possesses certifications in various Acquia products and is UX certified by the Nielsen Norman Group. Currently serving as a Senior Solutions Engineer at Acquia, Martin has been instrumental in advancing Drupal's ecosystem. He has developed and maintains several contributed modules, including Smart Date and Search Overrides, and has been actively involved in the Drupal Recipes initiative, particularly focusing on event management solutions. His current work on the Event Platform aims to streamline the creation and management of event-based websites within Drupal. Beyond development, Martin is a prominent speaker and educator, having presented at numerous Drupal events such as DrupalCon Barcelona and EvolveDrupal. He is also a co-host of the "Talking Drupal" podcast, where he leads the "Module of the Week" segment, sharing insights on various Drupal modules. Martin's dedication to the Drupal community is evident through his continuous efforts to mentor, innovate, and promote best practices within the open-source landscape.

Jürgen Haas

Jürgen Haas is a seasoned software architect, open source advocate, and long-time contributor to the Drupal community. Based in Germany, Jürgen brings decades of experience in enterprise IT solutions, specializing in system architecture, security, and digital transformation. He is known for his leadership within the ECA project and for being the track lead for privacy and data protection in Drupal CMS. Jürgen is an active participant in community initiatives, a frequent speaker at Drupal events, and a mentor to developers looking to deepen their expertise in scalable and secure web applications. His work reflects a passion for innovation, collaboration, and the power of open-source technology to solve real-world business challenges

Guests

Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu Jürgen Haas - jurgenhaas

Drupal AI Initiative: From strategy to delivery: Key outcomes of the Drupal AI Initiative off-site

The Drupal AI Initiative is responsible for leading the definition and delivery of major AI capabilities for Drupal. Whilst operating in the fast-paced AI industry, we recognise the importance of taking time to ensure plans to deliver our bold vision are robust.

With this in mind, last week, members of the Drupal AI Initiative gathered in-person and online for two days of structured activities dedicated to refining the initiative’s direction, funding model, operational framework, and marketing. 

The off-site fostered improved collaboration and strategic clarity. It also served as a valuable forum to present and critically review a newly developed marketing and communications strategy, ensuring plans are in place to extend awareness of Drupal AI far beyond markets where Drupal is well-established.

$300k funding secured to catalyse progress

Securing sustainable funding and growing the team is fundamental to the initiative’s success, and Dominique De Cooman is leading this area. Dominique has had numerous conversations with Drupal agency leaders regarding the Drupal AI Initiative and how they can get involved. He reported rising interest in support and confirmed a host of additional sponsors, known as “Makers”, joining the initiative.

Being a maker goes beyond financial support. Each agrees to allocate full-time staff dedicated to advancing key areas of the initiative. Combined, these commitments represent new funding worth $300,000, which will be used to accelerate progress towards our goals.

The first round of Drupal AI Makers (in alphabetical order) was announced in early June:

The latest Drupal AI Makers (in alphabetical order):

Their support brings the total number of Drupal AI Makers to 15, representing a significant milestone for the initiative. There is also an anonymous sponsor contributing funding. A more detailed blog post about these new makers is coming soon.

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A workshop was held to explicitly define concrete deliverables across various functional areas, including product, external relations, operational processes, scaling the team, and financial sustainability.

Strategies to attract further funding were also discussed, together with discussions on how supporters may derive value. This covered details of the “early access” programme, which provides benefits to makers while remaining true to open source and Drupal community values.

Building delivery capacity with dedicated project management

Thanks to the new makers, we have greatly increased our capacity to deliver. The leadership team acknowledged the need to recruit a dedicated project manager (PM). This will bring clarity, structure, and accountability to product management, development, and delivery. A focused PM will ensure our development team works effectively, bolstering our ability to ship solutions frequently and maintain Drupal’s leading advantage in open-source AI.

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The team developed a hiring plan for this critical position, including profiling the role, outlining timelines and budget, and identifying the individuals responsible for the hiring process.

Decisions were made regarding candidate assessment and communicating hiring plans, while interim candidates from makers were identified to fill the role and deliver immediate benefits.

Shaping the next phase of Drupal AI development

A deep dive into the product roadmap was conducted, where participants worked to define concrete milestones, delivery timelines, and assign ownership of features.

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Discussions also focused on making the technology installable and packaging its various capabilities, with decisions made regarding demo versions to support evaluation.

An article detailing the roadmap planning is forthcoming.

Informed by the Drupal AI Survey

The off-site was intentionally held as the Drupal AI Survey drew to a close. Early analysis of 232 submissions ensured that our decision-making processes directly took into account feedback from end users.

The survey’s ranking method was designed to determine feature value and sentiment, helping to prioritise features based on market demand and perceived business value.

The top three features by overall weighted score were the Search Optimizer, Audit Trail Agent, and Content Librarian. Conversely, respondents ranked features such as Demand Driver and Lead Enhancer among those with the lowest business value, indicating they may benefit from reframing, clearer use cases, or potential deprioritization.

Fact Finder and Role Master generated the most commentary, which will undoubtedly enhance our approach once we enter the planning phase.

A full report from the Drupal AI Survey will be released via a special webinar on 28th August.

Marketing strategy

A substantial segment was dedicated to evaluating the draft external communication and engagement strategy.

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The core objectives of this strategy are twofold: Grow the Drupal AI audience by focusing on the specific AI challenges faced by particular industries, and retain existing customers by positioning Drupal AI as a strong motivator for continued Drupal use.

The Drupal AI Marketing Strategy acknowledges a shift in buyer persona from marketing to AI procurements with more oversight from IT leaders. Over half of AI solution purchases are now funded by central IT budgets and have a strong focus on return on investment (ROI).

The core messaging frames Drupal AI as "a framework to accelerate AI adoption" that allows users to "Integrate today’s best-in-class AI and experiment with tomorrow’s breakthroughs” within the freedom of an open-source ecosystem. The strategy will ensure Drupal AI strengthens Drupal’s longstanding commitment to transparency and robust governance.

With increasing support from Makers, marketing efforts can be expanded by incorporating team members from these organisations who bring the skills and expertise necessary to achieve our aspirational goals.

Rounding off 2 days of intensive meetings

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Nothing compares to the sense of togetherness and energy that face-to-face gatherings provide. Being together sparked numerous aha moments and new ideas. Of course, in true Drupal fashion, the conversations went on well into the evening. So much progress was made.

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We concluded with a shared sense of purpose, a clear direction, and renewed enthusiasm to advance Drupal AI ahead of DrupalCon Vienna, by which time we will have much to showcase. See you there?

Get involved with Drupal AI

We have a variety of webinars, events, training and ways to contribute. There are opportunities for individuals across a range of skill sets plus we encourage organisations to become Makers of Drupal AI via sponsorship.

Visit the Drupal AI Initiative homepage to find out more.

Photos: Paul Johnson

Drupal AI Initiative: Drupal AI 1.2.0-alpha2 is out and comes with stability fixes and new features

Drupal AI 1.2.0-alpha2 was released on the 13th of August and it comes with a lot of stability fixes and some new features. 

Note that since this is an alpha, we will not provide upgrade paths from this alpha and more features will still be added before the beta releases.

To discover more about Drupal AI and to access full documentation visit the project page.

Stability Fixes

The release takes us closer to a production release, by fixing a lot of bugs on the added features since the 1.2.0-alpha1 release and it fixes minor bugs on the features that already exist.

Views Automators Type

This new AI Automators type gives a whole set of new powers to AI Automators by making it possible to invoke Views from anywhere in your Automators Workflows.

This means that any content you can express in a view, the Automator can use to automate or make part of an editorial workflow.

The following scenarios are some of thousands of different workflows that you could create within minutes using the AI Automators due to this new type:

  • You want to figure out not just what was the most commented articles last week, but you also want a short summary and semantic rating of if the comments were positive or negative for each article. You can now set that up in minutes.
  • You want to have a related content block on your article, but you want it actually written in free text as a couple of sentences, how the linked content connects to the article you are reading now. You can now set that up in minutes.
  • You want a weekly mail with quotes that touches a specific topic, filtered out from all the editorial content that was added last week. You can now set that up in minutes.

Field Widget Actions - now with more Automator Types and with improved accessibility 

The new Field Widget Actions module makes it possible to add interactive buttons on any entity form, to make it easy for editors to interact and fill out fields with AI from anywhere. With a push of a button you can have suggestions or picks - if you are not happy, you can push and ask again. This ensures that we can use AI to help the editor, but the editor has the final decision. 

We have now added so you can use select lists, numeric fields, e-mail fields and more using the Automators and Field Widget Actions.

Outside of that, the initial version lacked needed accessibility features, making it hard to be used by everyone. We have added fixes for this.

Fully flexible streamed response

Streaming has been a second class citizen up until now in the AI module. The problem with the architecture of PHP and how a streamed response works, made it hard to do things like logging, token counting, callbacks and other post streaming events.

This has now been alleviated and it's now possible to do all things that you can do in a normal response as a streamed response.

Better CKEditor experience

The AI CKEditor experience had a limited experience when using it with the text selection. We have now added improvements to how the plugin works when selecting text and using the AI CKEditor.

Normalized Token Usage

The token usage for chat clients has historically been represented as a raw value on the response, however now we have added normalization of token usage, meaning that any third party library that for instance wants to count usage costs or add usage limits now has the possibility to do this.

Work on such an module is already underway here. 

Thank you 

Thank you to the following contributors for your contributions:

marcus_johansson, leo pitt, bbruno, a.dmitriiev, mrdalesmith, anjaliprasannan, prashant.c, danielveza, sijumpk, johnpicozzi, bisonbleu, jayzalani34, sanket.tale, ishani patel, libbna, abhishek@kumar, kanchan bhogade, jofitz, sarvjeetsingh, techmantejas, project update bot, kristen pol, mgifford, ravimane23, prabha1997, annmarysruthy, valthebald, andrewbelcher, riyas_nr, murz, gxleano, aporie, sirclickalot, seogow, svendecabooter, breidert, dan2k3k4, akhil babu, michaellander, ralkeon, scott_euser, jurgenhaas, andypost, binoli lalani, nicholass, petar_basic, matthews, dunx

Thank you to the following organizations for supporting contribution:

  • 1xINTERNET
  • Acquia
  • Amazee Labs
  • amazee.io
  • CivicActions
  • Dropsolid
  • drunomics
  • Drupal India Association
  • EPAM Systems
  • European Commission and European Union Institutions, Agencies and Bodies
  • FAB Web Studio
  • Factorial GmbH
  • FreelyGive
  • Itty Bitty Byte
  • jofitz
  • LakeDrops
  • Noble Services Scotland
  • PreviousNext
  • QED42
  • Salsa Digital
  • Sixeleven
  • Skilld
  • Soapbox
  • Sven Decabooter
  • SystemSeed
  • Zoocha

Learn more about the Drupal AI Initiative and get involved

We have a variety of webinars, events and ways to get involved. There are opportunities for individuals across a range of skillsets plus we are keen to encourage organisations to become Makers of Drupal AI via sponsorship.

Visit the Drupal AI Initiative homepage to find out more.

Salsa Digital: Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia — Rules as Code for divorce eligibility

Image removed.Overview Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s challenge Divorce eligibility rules can be quite complex. People interested in applying for a divorce need to navigate through many pages of content before starting an application. This can make the process time consuming and confusing.  Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia’s transformation Salsa worked with the team at the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia to create a Rules as Code proof of concept (PoC) for divorce eligibility. Users are taken through a series of questions and then told if they’re eligible for a divorce. In addition, they’re given tailored information about what documentation they need in their specific situation.

ImageX: Drupal Content Categorization, #2: Scale Your Vocabularies with Ease Using Taxonomy Manager

Organizing your website’s content into categories is easy and intuitive, thanks to Drupal’s taxonomy, one of its best built-in tools. But what if your website has hundreds or even thousands of categories — especially in multiple languages — and you need to update or reorganize them frequently?

 

The Drop Times: Drupal GovCon 2025 Opens Tomorrow with Tighter Schedule and Bigger Conversations

Drupal GovCon 2025, a free two-day open source conference focused on Drupal in government, starts August 14 at the University of Maryland. Organized by Drupal4Gov, the annual event features sessions on AI, site performance, and public sector digital strategy, with attendees from government, nonprofit, education, and tech sectors.

Dries Buytaert: Funding Open Source like public infrastructure

Image removed. Fifteen years ago, I laid out a theory about the future of Open Source. In [*The Commercialization of a Volunteer-Driven Open Source Project*](https://dri.es/the-commercialization-of-a-volunteer-driven-open-source-project), I argued that if Open Source was going to thrive, people had to get paid to work on it. At the time, the idea was controversial. Many feared money would corrupt the spirit of volunteerism and change the nature of Open Source contribution. In that same post, I actually went beyond discussing the case for commercial sponsorship and outlined a broader pattern I believed Open Source would follow. I suggested it would develop in three stages: (1) starting with volunteers, then (2) expanding to include commercial involvement and sponsorship, and finally (3) gaining government support. I based this on how other [public goods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good) and public infrastructure have evolved. Trade routes, for example, began as volunteer-built paths, were improved for commerce by private companies, and later became government-run. The same pattern shaped schools, national defense, and many other public services. What begins as a volunteer effort often ends up being maintained by governments for the benefit of society. I suggested that Open Source would and should follow the same three-phase path. Over the past fifteen years, paying people to maintain Open Source has shifted from controversial to widely accepted. Platforms like [Open Collective](https://opencollective.com/), an organization I invested in as an angel investor in 2015, have helped make this possible by giving Open Source communities an easy way to receive and manage funding transparently. Today, Open Source runs much of the world's critical infrastructure. It powers government services, supports national security, and enables everything from public health systems to elections. This reliance means the third and final step in its evolution is here: governments must help fund Open Source. Public funding would complement the role of volunteers and commercial sponsors, not replace them. This is not charity or a waste of tax money. It is an investment in the software that runs our essential services. Without it, we leave critical infrastructure fragile at the moment the world needs it most. ### The $8.8 trillion dependency A 2024 Harvard Business School study, [*The Value of Open Source Software*](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4693148), estimates that replacing the most widely used Open Source software would cost the world $8.8 trillion. If Open Source suddenly disappeared, organizations would have to spend 3.5 times more on software than they do today. Even more striking: 96% of that $8.8 trillion depends on just 5% of contributors. This concentration creates fragility. Most of our digital infrastructure depends on a small group of maintainers who often lack stable funding or long-term support. When they burn out or step away, critical systems can be at risk. Maintaining Open Source is not free. It takes developers to fix bugs, maintainers to coordinate releases, security teams to patch vulnerabilities, and usability experts to keep the software accessible. Without reliable funding, these essential tasks are difficult to sustain, leaving the foundations of our digital society exposed to risk. Addressing this risk means rethinking not just funding, but also governance, succession planning, and how we support the people and projects that keep our society running. ### When digital sovereignty becomes survival Recent geopolitical tensions and policy unpredictability have made governments more aware of the risks of relying on foreign-controlled, proprietary software. Around the world, there is growing recognition that they cannot afford to lose control over their digital infrastructure. [Denmark recently announced a national plan](https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/denmark-embraces-open-source-software) to reduce their dependency on proprietary software by adopting Open Source tools across its public sector. This reflects a simple reality: when critical public services depend on foreign-controlled software, governments lose the ability to guarantee continuity and security to their citizens. They become vulnerable to policy changes and geopolitical pressures beyond their control. As [Denmark's Ministry for Digitalisation explained](https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/denmark-embraces-open-source-software), this shift is about control, accountability, and resilience, not just cost savings. Other European cities and countries are developing similar strategies. This is no longer just an IT decision, but a strategic necessity for protecting national security and guaranteeing the continuity of essential public services. ### From Open Source consumption to contribution Most government institutions rely heavily on Open Source but contribute little in return. Sponsorship usually flows through vendor contracts, and while some vendors contribute upstream, the overall level of support is small compared to how much these institutions depend on said projects. Procurement practices often make the problem worse. Contracts are typically awarded to the lowest bidder or to large, well-known IT vendors rather than those with deep Open Source expertise and a track record of contributing back. Companies that help maintain Open Source projects are often undercut by firms that give nothing in return. This creates a race to the bottom that ultimately weakens the Open Source projects governments rely on. As I discussed in [*Balancing makers and takers to scale and sustain Open Source*](https://dri.es/balancing-makers-and-takers-to-scale-and-sustain-open-source), sustainable Open Source requires addressing the fundamental mismatch between use and contribution. Governments need to shift from Open Source consumption to Open Source contribution. The digital infrastructure that powers government services demands the same investment commitment as the roads and bridges that connect our communities. ### Drupal tells the story I have helped lead [Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/) for almost 25 years, and in that time I have seen how deeply governments depend on Open Source. The European Commission runs more than a hundred Drupal sites, France operates over a thousand Drupal sites, and Australia's government has standardized on Drupal as its national digital platform. Yet despite this widespread use, most of these institutions contribute little back to Drupal's development or maintenance. This is not just a Drupal problem, and it is entirely within the rights of Open Source users. There is no requirement to contribute. But in many projects, a small group of maintainers and a few companies carry the burden for infrastructure that millions rely on. Without broader support, this imbalance risks the stability of the very systems governments depend on.

Many public institutions use Open Source without contributing to its upkeep. While this is legal, it shifts all maintenance costs onto a small group of contributors. Over time, that risks the services those institutions depend on. Better procurement and policy choices could help turn more public institutions into active contributors.

### The rise of government stewardship I am certainly not the only one calling for government involvement in Open Source infrastructure. In recent years, national governments and intergovernmental bodies, including the United Nations, have begun increasing investment in Open Source. In 2020, the UN Secretary General's [*Roadmap for Digital Cooperation*](https://www.un.org/en/content/digital-cooperation-roadmap/) called for global investment in "digital public goods" such as Open Source software to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Five years later, the UN introduced the [UN Open Source Principles](https://unite.un.org/news/sixteen-organizations-endorse-un-open-source-principles), encouraging practices like "open by default" and "contributing back". At the European level, the [EU's Cyber Resilience Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Resilience_Act) recognizes Open Source software stewards as "economic actors", acknowledging their role in keeping infrastructure secure and reliable. In Germany, the [Sovereign Tech Agency](https://www.sovereign.tech/) has invested €26 million in more than [60 Open Source projects](https://www.sovereign.tech/tech) that support critical digital infrastructure. Governments and public institutions are also creating Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) to coordinate policy, encourage contributions, and ensure long-term sustainability. In Europe, the European Commission's [EC OSPO](https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EC_OSPO) operates the [code.europa.eu](https://code.europa.eu) platform for cross-border collaboration. In the United States, agencies such as the [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services](https://www.cms.gov/digital-service/open-source-program-office), the [United States Digital Service](https://www.usds.gov/), the [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency](https://www.cisa.gov/), and the [U.S. Digital Corps](https://digitalcorps.gsa.gov/) play similar roles. In Latin America, Brazil's [Free Software Portal](https://softwarepublico.gov.br/) supports collaboration across governments. These efforts signal a shift from simply using Open Source to actively stewarding and investing in it at the institutional level. ### The math borders on absurd If the top 100 countries each contributed $200,000 a year to an Open Source project like Drupal, the project would have a twenty million dollar annual budget. That is about what it costs to maintain less than ten miles of highway. In my home country, Belgium, which has just over ten million people, more than one billion euros is spent each year maintaining roads. A small fraction of that could help secure the future of Open Source software like Drupal, which supports public services for millions of Belgians.

For the cost of maintaining 10 miles of highway, we could secure the future of several critical Open Source projects that power essential public services. The math borders on absurd.

### How governments can help Just as governments maintain roads, bridges and utilities that society depends on, they should also help sustain the Open Source projects that power essential services, digitally and otherwise. The scale of investment needed is modest compared to other public infrastructure. Governments could implement this through several approaches: - **Track the health of critical Open Source projects.** Just like we have safety ratings for bridges, governments should regularly check the health of the Open Source projects they rely on. This means setting clear targets, such as addressing security issues within _x_ days, having _y_ active maintainers, keeping all third-party software components up to date, and more. When a project falls behind, governments should step in and help with targeted support. This could include direct funding, employing contributors, or working with partners to stabilize the project. - **Commit to long-term funding with stable timelines.** Just as governments plan highway maintenance years in advance, we'd benefit from multi-year funding commitments and planning for critical digital infrastructure. Long-term funding allows projects to address technical debt, plan major updates, and recruit talent without the constant uncertainty of short-term fundraising. - **Encourage contribution in government contracts.** Governments can use procurement to strengthen the Open Source projects they depend on. Vendor contribution should be a key factor in awarding contracts, alongside price, quality, and other criteria. Agencies or vendors can be required or encouraged to give back through coding, documentation, security reviews, design work, or direct funding. This ensures governments work with true experts while helping keep critical Open Source projects healthy and sustainable. - **Adopt "Public Money, Public Code" policies.** When taxpayer money funds software for public use, that software should be released as Open Source. This avoids duplicate spending and builds shared digital infrastructure that anyone can reuse, improve, and help secure. The principle of ["Public Money? Public Code!"](https://publiccode.eu) offers a clear framework: code paid for by the people should be available to the people. Switzerland recently embraced this approach at the federal level with its [EMBAG law](https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/new-open-source-law-switzerland), which requires government-developed software to be published as Open Source unless third-party rights or security concerns prevent it. - **Scale successful direct funding models.** The [Sovereign Tech Agency](https://www.sovereign.tech/) has shown how government programs can directly fund the maintenance and security of critical Open Source software. Other nations should follow and expand this model. Replacing widely used Open Source software could cost an estimated 8.8 trillion dollars. Public investment should match that importance, with sustained global funding in the billions of dollars across countries and projects. - **Teach Open Source in public schools and universities.** Instead of relying solely on proprietary vendors like Microsoft, governments should integrate Open Source tools, practices, and values into school and university curricula, along with related areas such as open standards and open data. This prepares students to participate fully in Open Source, builds a talent pipeline that understands Open Source, and strengthens digital self-reliance. ### Keeping the core strong Concerns about political interference or loss of independence are valid. That is why we need systems that allow all stakeholders to coexist without undermining each other. Government funding should reinforce the ecosystem that makes Open Source thrive, not replace it or control it. Companies and volunteers are strong drivers of innovation, pushing forward new features, experiments, and rapid improvements. Governments are better suited to a different but equally vital role: ensuring stability, security, and long-term reliability. The most critical tasks in Open Source are often the least glamorous. Fixing bugs, patching vulnerabilities, updating third-party dependencies, improving accessibility, and maintaining documentation rarely make headlines, but without them, innovation cannot stand on a stable base. These tasks are also the most likely to be underfunded because they do not directly generate revenue for companies, require sustained effort, and are less appealing for volunteers. Governments already maintain roads, bridges, and utilities, infrastructure that is essential but not always profitable or exciting for the private sector. Digital infrastructure deserves the same treatment. Public investment can keep these core systems healthy, while innovation and feature direction remain in the hands of the communities and companies that know the technology best. ### Conclusion Open Source has become public infrastructure. Like roads and bridges, it needs public investment to remain safe and reliable. Fifteen years ago, I argued that Open Source needed commercial sponsorship to thrive. Now we face the next challenge: governments must shift from consuming Open Source to sustaining it. Leaving critical infrastructure dependent on too few maintainers is a risk no society should accept. The solution requires coordinated policy reforms: dedicated funding mechanisms, procurement that rewards upstream contributions, and long-term investment frameworks. *Special thanks to [Baddy Sonja Breidert](https://www.drupal.org/u/baddysonja), [Tim Doyle](https://www.drupal.org/u/tim-d), [Tiffany Farriss](https://www.drupal.org/u/farriss), [Mike Gifford](https://www.drupal.org/u/mgifford), [Owen Lansbury](https://www.drupal.org/u/owenlansbury) and [Nick Veenhof](https://www.drupal.org/u/nick_vh) for their review and contributions to this blog post.*

Centarro: Exploring AI to accelerate Drupal Commerce development

I've been slow to try out AI tools even as they've grown in popularity. Part of it is the pedant in me bristling at the fact that we're all now calling "AI" what we used to call "machine-learning" on "big data." But I can get past that to admit that turbocharged predictive text generation applied to coding is actually pretty neat.

Recently I've been exploring AI assisted development by switching from VS Code to Cursor and trying out different chat prompts and models while working on Drupal Commerce. I haven't been tracking the myriad tools and models too closely, so I opted for the tool that required the least amount of change for me. All my extensions and my fine-tuned custom theme transfered over without issue, so I was happy to move forward with Cursor. ☺️

I've had a few "Aha!" moments while working in Cursor along with some natural frustrations. Before relaying the former, I can illustrate the latter. Cursor uses AI to make code suggestions in the editor based on what it thinks you want to do. Once it makes a suggestion, you hit tab to apply it, which means quickly roughing out a simple function is an exercise in whack-a-mole as it continually expands suggestions where you just wanted to indent. Easy enough to train myself around, but perhaps I can find a setting to make this less aggressive.

Last week I turned up the need for a minor improvement to the Commerce Recurring module. This module defines a subscription entity type and a related entity trait that will create a subscription for a customer based on their purchase of a given product variation. The module supports a wide variety of use cases for subscription billing - pre vs. post-billed subscriptions, fixed price vs. metered usage, prorations, etc. - and it lets you determine the billing cycle based on fixed dates or rolling intervals.

Read more