provus_base_theme

The core of the Provus system. 100+ production sites. Zero opinions about your sector.

Provus Base Theme is a Drupal 11 base theme and Single Directory Component (SDC) library — the innermost layer of the Provus system, built to be the foundation that every sector-specific theme and recipe builds on top of. It is non-opinionated by design: no assumptions about your industry, your CMS configuration, or your institution's brand. Just a production-grade component library, a clean SCSS architecture, a Gulp + Webpack build pipeline, and a subtheme scaffold that actually works.

Maintained by Promet Source — a Drupal specialist agency that has been building government, higher education, and public sector Drupal sites for 20+ years. Provus Base Theme is not a side project. It's the shared front-end foundation that every Promet client site runs on, which means every production bug, accessibility edge case, and editor-experience issue gets fixed here and propagates to the full family.

By the Numbers

• 111+ production Drupal sites
• 23 production-ready SDC components
• 3 sector-specific child themes
• WCAG 2.2 Level AA across all components

Where Provus Base Theme Fits in the Provus System

Provus is a layered system. Think of it as an onion — each layer adds sector-specific opinions on top of the layer beneath it. Provus Base Theme is the core. Everything else is optional.

• Layer 3 — Sector-Specific Recipes & Site Templates: Provus®EDU, Provus®Gov — opinionated, ready-to-deploy
• Layer 2 — Sector-Specific Child Themes: Provus®EDU Theme, Provus Fire, Provus DUSWDS
• Layer 1 — Provus Base Theme (Core): Non-opinionated components, design system, scaffold — this project

The core principle: keep the base non-opinionated so it works for everyone, and let the sector-specific layers add the opinions. Provus Base Theme has no higher-ed, government, or public-safety assumptions baked in. Add a child theme and it becomes anything. This is why agencies building for multiple client verticals adopt it once and never rebuild their front-end foundation again.

The result: a component library and SCSS architecture that has been tested across 111+ production implementations across government, higher education, healthcare, and the public sector. Edge cases that would sink a less-proven system have already been found, filed, and fixed.

23 Production-Ready SDC Components

All components follow Drupal Single Directory Component (SDC) conventions and are designed to work with Canvas (Drupal Layout Builder) for a full drag-and-drop editor experience. Every component has been tested in production across the 111+ site install base — not just in a sandbox.

Group Components Layout & Structure Hero Banner, Layout, Spacer, Divider, Tabs, Accordion Content Display Card, Heading, Paragraph, Image, Gallery, Slideshow, List (div), List (styled) People & Engagement Person (faculty / staff card), Testimonial, Stat / Counter Navigation & Interaction Button, Call to Action, Dynamic Field Media & Embeds Event, Google Map

Each component ships with:

• Twig template with documented variables
• SCSS partial following the BEM naming convention
• JavaScript where applicable (progressive enhancement, no jQuery dependency)
• SDC component.yml definition for Drupal's component discovery
• Canvas (Layout Builder) compatibility configuration
• WCAG 2.2 AA compliance built into the markup and ARIA implementation

Subtheme Scaffold — No Documentation Archaeology Required

The repository ships a complete subtheme starter at /subtheme. It contains everything needed to create a custom child theme and start building immediately:

• Sample .info.yml with Provus Base Theme declared as the base theme
• .theme file with common hook stubs
• gulpfile.js pre-configured for SCSS compilation, JS bundling, and live reload
• libraries.yml with the library definitions that load the compiled assets
• SCSS partials structure — variables, mixins, component overrides, layout, utilities
• JS directory scaffold

The scaffold is ready to extend without copying from documentation. Clone it, rename it, add your client's SCSS variables, and start building. Agencies that build three or more Drupal sites per year typically recover the setup time in the first week.

Child Themes Built on Provus Base Theme

Promet Source maintains three sector-specific child themes that extend Provus Base Theme. Each adds the opinionated design, components, and configurations that a particular sector requires — without modifying the core layer beneath.

Theme Sector & Key Features Drupal.org Provus®EDU Theme Higher Education · Bootstrap 5 · Canvas-optimized · WCAG 2.2 AA · enrollment-focused layouts drupal.org/project/provus_edu_theme Provus Fire Theme Public Safety / Emergency Services · alert-first hierarchy · incident command patterns drupal.org/project/provus_fire_theme Provus DUSWDS Theme Federal Government · U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) aligned · Section 508 compliant drupal.org/project/provus_duswds_theme

Use one of these child themes directly, or use the subtheme scaffold to build your own institutional theme. Both paths are fully supported and documented.

Who This Is For

• Drupal agencies — Building sites across multiple sectors. Install Provus Base Theme once, build child themes per client vertical, stop rebuilding your component library from scratch.
• In-house higher-ed web teams — Need a production-tested WCAG-compliant component library as the foundation for institutional branding. The Figma design system and subtheme scaffold make designer-to-developer handoff tractable.
• Government digital teams — Public sector compliance requirements — WCAG 2.2 AA, Section 508, USWDS alignment — are built into the base. Provus DUSWDS Theme extends this for federal properties specifically.
• Front-end developers — Tired of building Drupal themes against an undocumented style soup. Provus Base Theme is structured, documented, token-based, and follows conventions consistently. Your future self will not file a bug against it.

Installation

Provus Base Theme is a base theme — it is not intended to be set as the active theme directly. Install it as a dependency of a child theme (one of the ready-made Provus child themes, or your own custom subtheme built on the scaffold).

composer require 'drupal/provus_base_theme:^1.0'

Then declare it as the base theme in your child theme's .info.yml:

name: My Institution Theme
type: theme
base theme: provus_base_theme
core_version_requirement: ^11

Enable the child theme (not Provus Base Theme directly) at /admin/appearance or via Drush:

drush theme:enable my_institution_theme && drush config:set system.theme default my_institution_theme

Build Pipeline

Provus Base Theme uses a Gulp + Webpack build system for SCSS compilation, JS bundling, and asset optimization. A Docker-based development workflow is also supported for teams that prefer containerized environments.

See the repository README for full local setup instructions: drupal.org/project/provus_base_theme

Related Projects

Project What It Is URL Provus®EDU Recipe Installs a complete higher-ed Drupal site in one command drupal.org/project/provus_edu Provus®EDU Site Template Drupal CMS starter for colleges and universities new.drupal.org/site-template/provus-edu Provus®EDU Theme Higher-ed child theme — Bootstrap 5, WCAG 2.2 AA drupal.org/project/provus_edu_theme Provus Fire Theme Public safety child theme drupal.org/project/provus_fire_theme Provus DUSWDS Theme Federal government, USWDS-aligned child theme drupal.org/project/provus_duswds_theme Live demo (Provus®EDU) See the component library in action edu-windy-cms.provusdemo.com

Need More Than a Starter?

Provus Base Theme is free to use and extend. When you need implementation, custom theme development for institutional branding, accessibility remediation, or ongoing maintenance — Promet Source is the team that built and maintains this system.

Custom theme development, implementation, or accessibility remediation → prometsource.com/contact