name	drupal-coding-standards
description	The shared modern coding + documentation standards for custom Drupal 10/11 code; Drupal 10.3+ idioms (constructor property promotion, PHP attributes not annotations, #config_target, OOP #[Hook] implementations, translatable strings, dependency injection), Doxygen doc-blocks and .api.php, README/documentation-file conventions, and secrets handling. Use when writing, editing, or reviewing any custom Drupal module/theme/profile code. The other drupal-* skills (module-scaffold, hook-update-n, phpunit-tests) follow this baseline; cite it rather than duplicating these rules.
metadata	{"version":"2026.07.06"}

Drupal Coding Standards

The shared baseline for custom Drupal 10/11 code, the modern idioms and documentation conventions every drupal-* skill and hand-written change should follow. Vendor-neutral: it targets any Drupal 10/11 site.

Much of this is enforced automatically by PHPCS (Drupal + DrupalPractice) and the drupal-code-quality-* skills; this doc is the authoring reference for what those checks expect plus the conventions tools don't catch.

Prerequisites

Custom code under web/modules/custom/, web/themes/custom/, or web/profiles/custom/ (never edit core/contrib).
drupal/coder installed for PHPCS to apply the Drupal standard.

When To Use

Writing or editing any custom Drupal module/theme/profile code.
Reviewing custom code for standards compliance.
As the cited baseline from drupal-module-scaffold, drupal-hook-update-n, drupal-phpunit-tests, and the remediation skills.

The standards

Modern PHP/Drupal idioms (target Drupal 10.3+, DI, attributes, #config_target, OOP #[Hook], translatable strings, namespacing, naming conventions, and cacheability) → information/code-standards.md
Documentation & comments (Doxygen doc-blocks, .api.php, comment density, hook_help(), README/doc-file conventions) → information/documentation.md

Verifying compliance (this skill authors; other skills run the checks)

This skill defines how to write the code; it does not run any checks itself. To verify code meets these standards, use the QA skills and the test suite:

Code quality / static analysis: drupal-code-quality-audit → drupal-code-quality-remediation (or drush utest:lint); PHPCS Drupal+DrupalPractice, PHPStan, deprecations, and more.
Accessibility of rendered output (WCAG): drupal-accessibility-audit → drupal-accessibility-remediation (or the per-lane a11y commands: drush utest:alfa, utest:axe, utest:pa11y, utest:reflow, utest:meta-viewport). For accessible markup patterns, follow the a11y agent.
Behavior (works + stays working): write Unit/Kernel tests with drupal-phpunit-tests; run them via the suite (/tests/phpunit/run.js / drush utest:phpunit).

Author to this standard; verify with those.

Secrets: never in code

Never hard-code or commit secrets (API keys, tokens, passwords). Read them at runtime via the Key module (key.repository, injected through DI), the environment, or config; never a literal in PHP/YAML/JS. The drupal-code-quality-* suite detects committed secrets (gitleaks) and treats them as critical/security (remove and rotate). Provisioning secrets is hosting-specific (e.g. Pantheon Secrets); see the drupal-secrets-management skill.

Development

Maintenance guidance (keeping the standards current with Drupal releases, vendor-neutrality) → development/development-instructions.md

Drupal Coding Standards

Prerequisites

Custom code under web/modules/custom/, web/themes/custom/, or web/profiles/custom/ (never edit core/contrib).

drupal/coder installed for PHPCS to apply the Drupal standard.

When To Use

Writing or editing any custom Drupal module/theme/profile code.

Reviewing custom code for standards compliance.

As the cited baseline from drupal-module-scaffold, drupal-hook-update-n, drupal-phpunit-tests, and the remediation skills.

The standards

Modern PHP/Drupal idioms (target Drupal 10.3+, DI, attributes, #config_target, OOP #[Hook], translatable strings, namespacing, naming conventions, and cacheability) → information/code-standards.md

Documentation & comments (Doxygen doc-blocks, .api.php, comment density, hook_help(), README/doc-file conventions) → information/documentation.md

Verifying compliance (this skill authors; other skills run the checks)

This skill defines how to write the code; it does not run any checks itself. To verify code meets these standards, use the QA skills and the test suite:

Code quality / static analysis: drupal-code-quality-audit → drupal-code-quality-remediation (or drush utest:lint); PHPCS Drupal+DrupalPractice, PHPStan, deprecations, and more.

Accessibility of rendered output (WCAG): drupal-accessibility-audit → drupal-accessibility-remediation (or the per-lane a11y commands: drush utest:alfa, utest:axe, utest:pa11y, utest:reflow, utest:meta-viewport). For accessible markup patterns, follow the a11y agent.

Behavior (works + stays working): write Unit/Kernel tests with drupal-phpunit-tests; run them via the suite (/tests/phpunit/run.js / drush utest:phpunit).

Author to this standard; verify with those.

Secrets: never in code

Development

Maintenance guidance (keeping the standards current with Drupal releases, vendor-neutrality) → development/development-instructions.md

drupal-coding-standards