[12.x] [meta] Release Drupal 12 in 2026

Drupal 12 will be released in mid-June, early August, or early December 2026. See https://www.drupal.org/about/core/policies/core-release-cycles/schedule for the detailed information about which scenario applies when. This is the main tracking issue of what to do in Drupal 11 to prepare for Drupal 12, and what to do in Drupal 12 once the branch is open for dedicated changes.

In Drupal 11

1. Set deprecation limits. #3518671: [policy, no patch] Defer disruptive 11.3 deprecations for removal until 13.0
2. Add compatibility for the latest minor and major dependency versions in Drupal 11. #3466094: [12.x] [meta] Add compatibility for the latest minor and major dependency versions in Drupal 11
3. Deprecate things. #3466088: [meta] Deprecate dependencies, libraries, modules, and themes that will be removed from Drupal 12 core
4. Release preparation steps for 11.4.0 #3563789: [meta] Release preparation steps for 11.4.0

In Drupal 12

1. Set platform requirements at least 6 months in advance of release #3534144: [meta] Set Drupal 12 platform and browser requirements by Jan 15 2026
2. #3067979: Exclude test files from release packages
3. #3564238: [meta] 12.0.0 milestone release notes
4. #3564245: 12.0.0 front page post
5. #3560615: [12.x] [meta] Requirements for tagging 12.0.0-alpha1
6. #3449808: [12.x] [meta] Requirements for tagging 12.0.0-beta1
7. Additional betas as needed
8. Requirements for tagging 12.0.0
9. Create issue for 12.1.x to use the equivalent updates API to prevent updates from 11.x.0 to 12.0.0. (Reference: #3463226: Use the new equivalent updates API to prevent updates from 10.4.0 to 11.0.0.