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Decoupled Drupal + Next.js: One Workflow for the Composable Web

•5 months ago
DecoupledDrupalNext.js
How decoupled Drupal and Next.js share one Pantheon workflow — JSON:API, Multidev previews, and the next-drupal-starter.
Drupal backend connected to a Next.js frontend over JSON:API in one workflow.

A decoupled architecture separates the frontend from the backend CMS: Drupal manages content, Next.js renders the experience, and the two talk over an API. This demo wires Drupal 11 to a Next.js 16 frontend over JSON:API, authenticated with Simple OAuth client credentials — the same pattern Pantheon supports natively for the composable web.

On Pantheon, both halves share one workflow. The CMS and the frontend connect through a single Git workflow and the Terminus CLI, every pull request spins up a Multidev preview environment, and content flows from Drupal (or Content Publisher) to the frontend without leaving the platform. Developers get automated CI/CD via the GitHub App; marketers get publish-and-preview without a dev ticket.

To build a Drupal backend for a decoupled frontend, Pantheon's next-drupal-starter consumes data from a Drupal site running the pantheon_decoupled module, with helpers from @pantheon-systems/drupal-kit that surface Drupal features to the Next.js layer.

See Pantheon's decoupled CMS overview and the Drupal + Next.js frontend starter guide.

Decoupled Drupal + Next.js: One Workflow for the Composable Web | NextJS on Pantheon