drupal-brainstorming

Drupal Brainstorming

Structured exploration before implementation. Prevents the most expensive Drupal mistakes: wrong entity type, wrong test type, missing access control, unnecessary complexity.

When to Use

• Starting a new feature or module
• Adding significant functionality to existing code
• Unsure whether to use a content entity, config entity, or neither
• Choosing between hooks, events, or plugins
• Multi-module changes with unclear blast radius

Process (4 steps, ~5 minutes)

Step 1: Clarify Intent

Ask yourself (or the user) these questions before anything else:

• What problem does this solve? (not what code to write)
• Who uses it? (admin, authenticated user, anonymous, API consumer, cron)
• What already exists? Run discover deps:MODULE or check the structural index
• What's the simplest version that works?

Do NOT skip this. The most common failure mode is building the wrong thing correctly.

Step 2: Entity & Data Design

Drupal's most consequential early decision is how data is stored:

If the data...	Use
Has revisions, access control, fields, views	Content entity
Is site configuration (settings, mappings)	Config entity
Is transient/computed (cache, queue, state)	No entity — use State API, Queue, or cache
Is a simple key-value pair	\Drupal::state() or config

Common trap: Creating a content entity when config entity or State API would suffice. Content entities are expensive (DB tables, access handlers, views integration). Only use them when you need the full entity lifecycle.

Step 3: Architecture Sketch

For each component, decide:

Concern	Options	Default choice
Business logic	Service class	Always a service, never in controller/hook
Data access	Entity API	Never raw SQL
User interaction	Form API + controller	Form for mutations, controller for display
Background work	Queue + AdvancedQueue	Not cron hooks
External calls	Guzzle via DI	Never file_get_contents
Events	EventSubscriber	Prefer over hooks for cross-module concerns
Display	Twig + preprocess	Heavy logic in preprocess, not Twig

Blast radius check: Before multi-module changes, run discover deps:FEATURE to see what depends on what.

Step 4: Decision Record

Document your decisions in 3-5 lines:

Entity: config entity (settings only, no revisions needed)
Services: my_module.processor (business logic), my_module.client (external API)
Hooks: hook_cron for scheduled check, #[Hook] attribute style
Access: custom permission 'administer my_module'
Test: Kernel test for service, Functional for admin form

This becomes the input for writing-plans or direct implementation.

Anti-Patterns

• Building before understanding — writing code to "explore" instead of reading existing code
• Entity sprawl — creating entities for data that should be config or state
• God services — one service that does everything. Split by responsibility
• Premature abstraction — interfaces, plugins, and factories for things that have one implementation
• Ignoring existing modules — check if contrib already solves this before building custom

Output

After brainstorming, you should have:

1. A clear problem statement (1-2 sentences)
2. Entity/data design decision with rationale
3. Service architecture sketch (which services, what they do)
4. Hook/event strategy
5. Test strategy (which test type, what to test)

Hand this to writing-plans for detailed implementation planning, or to @drupal-builder for direct implementation.