transom
Transom is an AI-powered site building module for Drupal 11. It adds a conversational chat interface to the admin UI that lets you describe the page you want (a landing page with a hero, a three-column feature section, a pricing table) and the AI agent builds it for you using Layout Builder, inline blocks, and styled component variants.
If you are new to Drupal: Transom removes the steepest part of the learning curve. Instead of navigating content types, block types, Layout Builder regions, and style configuration by hand, you describe the page in plain English and Transom performs the real Drupal operations for you. The output is standard Drupal — nodes, Layout Builder sections, inline blocks, component variants — so nothing is locked into a proprietary format.
Features
- Conversational page building — a chat UI at /admin/content/transom backed by an AI assistant that understands your site's content types, block types, and layouts.
- Real Layout Builder output — the agent creates nodes, builds Layout Builder sections, and populates inline blocks; no custom storage, no lock-in.
- Component variants — the agent can author and save new component variants on the fly, in either Tailwind (utility classes with JIT build) or raw CSS mode.
- AI image generation — optional asynchronous image generation with a queue worker, retry budget, and per-page caps.
- Image upload — drag and drop reference images into the chat to guide the agent.
- Website analysis — point the agent at an external URL to extract style and content references.
- Persistent agent threads — multi-turn conversations survive page reloads via a tempstore-backed runner.
- Alpine.js-aware variants — the agent can author interactive variants using a built-in Alpine reference.
- Google Fonts integration — resolve and attach fonts referenced by the design system.
- Provider-agnostic — works with any provider supported by the AI module (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, etc.).
When to use it: site builders who want to scaffold landing pages quickly, editors exploring layout ideas, agencies prototyping with a client in the room, or Drupal newcomers who want a guided path into Layout Builder.
Post-Installation
1. Enable the module: drush en transom.
2. Configure an AI provider via the AI module (/admin/config/ai) and assign it to the default chat operation (and image generation if you want images).
3. Visit Configuration → Content authoring → Transom (/admin/config/content/transom) to set:
- styling_mode — tailwind or css
- site_description — free-form context injected into the agent's system prompt
- default_landing_page_bundle — the content type used for generated pages
- Image generation toggles, caps, and async behavior
- Upload limits and optional Google Fonts API key
4. Grant the use transom permission to roles that should access the chat UI, and administer transom to site administrators.
5. Open Content → Transom (/admin/content/transom) and start prompting.
Opening /admin/content/transom resets the agent thread so each page-building session starts fresh.
Additional Requirements
- Drupal 11
- PHP 8.3+
- Layout Builder (core)
- Block Content (core)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/ai — with at least one provider configured (ai, ai_agents, ai_assistant_api, ai_chatbot)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/lb_plus
- https://www.drupal.org/project/component_variants
- https://www.drupal.org/project/tool_workspace (tool_workspace, tool_ai_connector)
- https://www.drupal.org/project/field_sample_value
Required patches:
- https://www.drupal.org/project/navigation_plus/issues/3585398
- https://www.drupal.org/project/navigation_plus/issues/3585407
See composer.json for exact version constraints. Several dependencies are currently alpha/dev — breaking changes are expected until they stabilize.
Recommended modules/libraries
- An AI provider module such as https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_provider_openai, https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_provider_anthropic, or https://www.drupal.org/project/ai_provider_ollama — required at
runtime, but which one is your choice.
- https://www.drupal.org/project/lb_plus — inline on-page editing, complements the chat-driven workflow.
- https://www.drupal.org/project/lb_plus — unified admin toolbar shared across the LB+ suite.
Similar projects
- AI Agents / AI Assistant API — Transom is built on top of these, but they ship only the generic agent framework. Transom provides the Layout Builder-specific function calls, the chat UI wired to content
building, the variant authoring pipeline, and the async image generation system that turn that framework into a usable page builder.
- Layout Builder AI / generic "AI block" modules — typically generate text inside a single block. Transom operates at the page level: it creates the node, plans the sections, chooses layouts and block types,
populates fields, and styles the result.
- Proprietary page builders (e.g. Paragraphs-based builders, commercial visual builders) — Transom outputs standard Layout Builder + inline blocks + component variants, so nothing is locked into a custom
data model.
Supporting this Module
Transom is developed and maintained by https://www.tag1consulting.com/. If you would like to sponsor development, contribute features, or report issues, please get in touch via the project's issue queue or the Tag1 website.
Community Documentation
- Project README and architecture overview: see the repository.
- Upstream documentation: https://project.pages.drupalcode.org/ai/, https://www.drupal.org/project/lb_plus, https://www.drupal.org/project/component_variants.
- Demo video and walkthrough: coming soon.