Site Templates in Source CMS provide a comprehensive starting point for website creation.
Site Templates help to:
- Accelerate site creation with pre-configured components and content structures.
- Ensure governance and compliance through consistent configurations.
- Reduce development time and eliminate repetitive setup tasks.
Available templates
Source CMS provides the following options when you start creating a new site:
Blank Site: Provides a clean slate to build your site from the basics.
Acquia Site Template: Provides a library of pre-built website components to rapidly create content-rich, visually-engaging pages.
- CPG Multi-Brand Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for companies to enable them rapidly launch multiple new, fully functional, and similar websites for various brands, regions, or campaigns.
- Eudaimonia University Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for universities to enable them rapidly launch a new, fully functional, and branded university website.
- Lumière Grand Hospitality Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for hospitality businesses to enable them rapidly launch a new, fully functional, and branded hotel or resort website.
- Vitalis Healthcare Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for healthcare providers, hospitals, clinical networks, and medical practices to launch a functional, branded healthcare website rapidly.
DAM Portal Microsite Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for digital marketing teams to launch a branded microsite to share Acquia DAM assets rapidly.
RiSE Nonprofit Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for nonprofit and non-governmental organizations to rapidly launch a new, fully functional, and branded nonprofit website.
For detailed instructions on how to create a new site from a template, visit Creating a new site.
Creating custom Site Templates
Adding a new template to the template selection page, which is the picker displayed when creating a new site, is an Acquia-internal platform process and is not a self-service capability available to customers. If you require a new template in the picker, contact Acquia.
However, developers can build highly reusable, production-ready site configurations independently through two supported paths.
Recommended starting point
When building a custom configuration, start from either the Blank Site or the Acquia Site Template. Both provide a solid foundation that you can extend and refine using Drupal Canvas.
Option A: Drupal Canvas CLI and GitHub Sync
Developers can scaffold a local codebase using the Nebula template repository (github.com:acquia/nebula.git). Components are built locally using the Drupal Canvas CLI and then synced bidirectionally with a Source CMS site via GitHub. This workflow is recommended to manage component code at scale and to build a reusable starting point across multiple sites.
For more information, visit Using Drupal Canvas.
Option B: AI-assisted component building
AI coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, or Lovable can be used alongside the Drupal Canvas CLI to rapidly generate page components. Once built, components are uploaded to a Source CMS site. This approach accelerates the process to build a custom configuration and is well suited for rapid prototyping.
For more information, visit Drupal Canvas AI Builder.
Site Templates
Site Templates in Source CMS provide a comprehensive starting point for website creation.
Site Templates help to:
- Accelerate site creation with pre-configured components and content structures.
- Ensure governance and compliance through consistent configurations.
- Reduce development time and eliminate repetitive setup tasks.
Available templates
Source CMS provides the following options when you start creating a new site:
Blank Site: Provides a clean slate to build your site from the basics.
Acquia Site Template: Provides a library of pre-built website components to rapidly create content-rich, visually-engaging pages.
- CPG Multi-Brand Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for companies to enable them rapidly launch multiple new, fully functional, and similar websites for various brands, regions, or campaigns.
- Eudaimonia University Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for universities to enable them rapidly launch a new, fully functional, and branded university website.
- Lumière Grand Hospitality Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for hospitality businesses to enable them rapidly launch a new, fully functional, and branded hotel or resort website.
- Vitalis Healthcare Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for healthcare providers, hospitals, clinical networks, and medical practices to launch a functional, branded healthcare website rapidly.
DAM Portal Microsite Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for digital marketing teams to launch a branded microsite to share Acquia DAM assets rapidly.
RiSE Nonprofit Site Template: Provides a pre-built, reusable site configuration for nonprofit and non-governmental organizations to rapidly launch a new, fully functional, and branded nonprofit website.
For detailed instructions on how to create a new site from a template, visit Creating a new site.
Creating custom Site Templates
Adding a new template to the template selection page, which is the picker displayed when creating a new site, is an Acquia-internal platform process and is not a self-service capability available to customers. If you require a new template in the picker, contact Acquia.
However, developers can build highly reusable, production-ready site configurations independently through two supported paths.
Recommended starting point
When building a custom configuration, start from either the Blank Site or the Acquia Site Template. Both provide a solid foundation that you can extend and refine using Drupal Canvas.
Option A: Drupal Canvas CLI and GitHub Sync
Developers can scaffold a local codebase using the Nebula template repository (github.com:acquia/nebula.git). Components are built locally using the Drupal Canvas CLI and then synced bidirectionally with a Source CMS site via GitHub. This workflow is recommended to manage component code at scale and to build a reusable starting point across multiple sites.
For more information, visit Using Drupal Canvas.
Option B: AI-assisted component building
AI coding tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, Replit, or Lovable can be used alongside the Drupal Canvas CLI to rapidly generate page components. Once built, components are uploaded to a Source CMS site. This approach accelerates the process to build a custom configuration and is well suited for rapid prototyping.
For more information, visit Drupal Canvas AI Builder.
Source CMS