Drupal Canvas SDC Components (Twig)

When to Use This Skill

Use it for Twig-based SDCs that Canvas places in its editor: creating or changing a *.component.yml and its .twig/.css/.js, getting a component registered in Canvas, keeping canvas.component.* config stable across deploys, Canvas preview problems, and outdated component instances after a prop change.

Use the upstream drupal-canvas/skills suite (or this repo's drupal-canvas pointer skill) instead(https://github.com/drupal-canvas/skills) suite instead for Code Components (React/JSX written in-browser or uploaded with the Canvas CLI) and for general Canvas editor usage.

Overview

Drupal Canvas 1.0 (released December 2025) is a React-based visual page builder powered by Single Directory Components (SDC). Canvas consolidates three component types:

• SDC components from themes/modules
• Code Components written in-browser with React/JSX
• Traditional Drupal Blocks

Canvas becomes the default page builder in Drupal CMS 2.0 (January 2026).

Installation

composer require 'drupal/canvas:^1.0'
drush en canvas -y

Requirements: Drupal ^11.2

Component Discovery

SDC components live in a components/ directory within any theme or module. Drupal scans enabled themes/modules for directories containing a .component.yml file.

Component ID pattern: {provider}:{component-name} (e.g., mytheme:hero-banner)

Management UI: Appearance > Components (/admin/appearance/component)

SDC File Structure

Every SDC requires exactly two files. CSS/JS with matching names auto-attach.

theme_name/
└── components/
    ├── atoms/
    │   └── button/
    │       ├── button.component.yml   # REQUIRED
    │       ├── button.twig            # REQUIRED
    │       ├── button.css             # Auto-attached
    │       └── button.js              # Auto-attached
    └── molecules/
        └── card/
            ├── card.component.yml
            ├── card.twig
            ├── card.css
            └── thumbnail.png          # Optional preview

Naming Rules:

• Use kebab-case for directories and files
• All files share the same base name as the directory
• Templates use .twig extension (NOT .html.twig)
• Organizational folders (atoms/, molecules/) don't affect component IDs

component.yml Schema

$schema: https://git.drupalcode.org/project/drupal/-/raw/HEAD/core/assets/schemas/v1/metadata.schema.json
name: Hero Banner
description: Full-width hero with image background and CTA
status: stable  # experimental, stable, deprecated, obsolete
group: Content

props:
  type: object
  required:
    - heading
  properties:
    heading:
      type: string
      title: Heading
      examples: ['Welcome to our site']  # REQUIRED for Canvas preview
    background_image:
      type: object
      $ref: json-schema-definitions://canvas.module/image
    cta_text:
      type: string
      title: Button Text
      default: Learn More
    size:
      type: string
      title: Size
      enum: ['small', 'medium', 'large']
      default: medium
      meta:enum:
        small: "Compact"
        medium: "Standard"
        large: "Full Screen"

slots:
  content:
    title: Body Content
    description: Main content area below the heading

libraryOverrides:
  dependencies:
    - core/drupal
    - core/once

Registration requirements: title: on every prop and slot, and examples: on every required prop, are Canvas registration requirements, not cosmetic. Canvas checks them on cache rebuild; an SDC that fails is disabled in Canvas (it cannot be placed in the editor) and the reasons are recorded. The first example must also validate against the prop schema, since Canvas uses it as the default value. There are more rules; see references/registration-and-config.md for the full Canvas 1.7.1 checklist, how to read the recorded reasons, and an unexplained production 5xx that was seen alongside missing prop titles.

Prop Types and Canvas Widgets

Default Values in Twig

IMPORTANT: Schema default values are documentation only. Always use |default() in Twig:

{% set heading_level = heading_level|default(2) %}
{% set color = color|default('primary') %}

Core Workflow: Create or Modify a Twig SDC

1. Create or edit components/<group>/<name>/<name>.component.yml and <name>.twig (plus optional .css/.js with the same base name).
2. Give every prop and slot a title:, every required prop an examples: value that validates against its schema, and use |default() in Twig for optional props.
3. Clear cache: ddev drush cr. Confirm the component is enabled at /admin/appearance/component/status; if it is not, read the recorded reasons (references/registration-and-config.md).
4. New component: export its auto-created canvas.component.sdc.<extension>.<name> config object in the same change.
5. Changed props: migrate outdated instances to the new active_version, then re-export the component's config. Canvas ships no Drush command for the migration; references/component-versioning.md describes a project-custom one.
6. Open the Canvas editor on a page using the component before pushing.

Critical Rules

The registration, config-export and upgrade-drift rules are in "Registration, Config Entities and Deploys" below. In addition:

• Version pinning: existing instances stay on the component version they were created with; prop changes need an instance upgrade (references/component-versioning.md).
• Component-scoped CSS: never scope styles to route/path body classes; the Canvas editor preview iframe does not have them (references/styling-js-accessibility.md).
• Twig defaults: schema default values are documentation only; use |default() (see "Default Values in Twig" above).

Registration, Config Entities and Deploys

Details, commands and detection steps: references/registration-and-config.md.

• Registration rules: every prop and slot needs title:, every required prop needs examples:, every prop shape must be storable. Ineligible SDCs are disabled in Canvas (no entity is created, an existing one is disabled); reasons are recorded in ComponentIncompatibilityReasonRepository. As cheap insurance, check with canvas_dev_mode uninstalled after a drush cr.
• New SDC = new config: Canvas auto-creates canvas.component.sdc.<extension>.<name> in the database. Export that one object in the same change, or the deploy's config import deletes it.
• Canvas module upgrade: version-hash inputs change, so drush cr recomputes active_version on many canvas.component.* objects. Re-export each drifting name, confirm drift stays at zero across two more cache rebuilds, and never prune versioned_properties.
• Different right after an import: if only active_version and one archived version differ, it is versioned-config recompute noise from a stale committed hash, not a settings change.
• Content templates: no node-level in-context editor (Canvas 1.7.1 to 1.9.0, checked August 2026; drupal.org/i/3498525). Editors use the node form.

References

Resources

• Canvas project: https://www.drupal.org/project/canvas
• Canvas docs: https://project.pages.drupalcode.org/canvas/
• SDC docs: https://www.drupal.org/docs/develop/theming-drupal/using-single-directory-components
• Canvas SDC Starterkit: https://www.drupal.org/project/canvas_sdc_starterkit
• SDC Examples: https://www.drupal.org/project/sdc_examples

Apply to Files

• **/components/**/*.component.yml
• **/components/**/*.twig
• **/components/**/*.css
• **/components/**/*.js
• docroot/themes/custom/mytheme/components/**/*
• docroot/modules/custom/*/components/**/*