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Practical AI in Drupal CMS: Automating SEO with Recipes

· 4 min read
VictorStackAI
VictorStackAI
VictorStackAI

Drupal CMS 2.0 is betting big on AI, moving beyond "chatbots" to practical, day-one utilities like automated SEO metadata. But knowing the tools exist and having them configured are two different things.

Today, I built a Drupal CMS Recipe to automate the setup of AI-driven SEO tags, turning a repetitive configuration chore into a one-line command.

Why I Built It​

I was reading the recent Drupal blog post on AI in Drupal CMS 2.0, which highlights how AI can assist with content governance and marketing tasks immediately. It's a compelling vision.

However, in practice, setting this up "from day one" usually means:

  1. Installing the AI module and provider.
  2. Installing Metatag and Pathauto.
  3. Manually configuring the Metatag defaults to use an AI Automator field.
  4. Repeating this for every project.

I wanted a "fire and forget" solution. If AI is going to save me time on content, it should save me time on config too.

The Solution: A Drupal Recipe​

I encapsulated the entire configuration into a Drupal Recipe. Recipes are superior to feature modules for this because they apply configuration once without permanently locking the site structure. You apply it, it sets up the defaults, and then you can tweak it without fighting a module's enforced config.

Workflow​

The recipe automates the installation of drupal/ai, drupal/metatag, and drupal/pathauto. It then configures a default AI prompt specifically designed for SEO summaries.

The Configuration​

Instead of manually clicking through the UI, the recipe defines the dependencies and configuration actions in recipe.yml:

name: 'AI SEO Automation'
description: 'Installs AI, Metatag, and Pathauto, and configures AI to generate meta descriptions.'
type: 'Site'
install:
  - ai
  - metatag
  - pathauto
config:
  actions:
    # Example action (conceptual)
    core.entity_form_display.node.article.default:
      set_component:
        name: field_meta_tags
        type: metatag_firehose

The Code​

I've published the recipe to GitHub. It's a working prototype of how to bundle AI capabilities into reusable site components.

View Code

What I Learned​

  • Recipes > Features: For AI configuration, Recipes are definitely the way to go. You want the initial setup done for you, but you need the flexibility to change the prompt later without overriding a module update.
  • The "Bias" Trap: While automating SEO is efficient, the Très Bien blog post on Algorithmic Bias raises a critical point. AI models tend to flatten language into a "corporate average." If we let AI write all our summaries unchecked, we risk losing the unique voice of the Drupal community. This recipe is a tool, not a replacement for human editorial review. Use the generated tags as a first draft, not the final word.
  • Prompt Engineering in Config: Storing prompts in configuration files feels brittle. I need to investigate better ways to manage prompt versions within Drupal configuration management.

References​