Olivero

Olivero is the front-end theme that ships with Drupal core and styles the public pages of a site installed with the Standard profile. It is responsive and is named after Rachel Olivero, a member of the Drupal community who died in 2019. Drupal.org lists it for removal from core in Drupal 12.0.0, after which it continues as a contributed theme.

How it works in Drupal 11

Olivero lives in core/themes/olivero. The Standard installation profile of Drupal 11.4.10 lists it as the default theme and the Claro theme as the administration theme. You switch themes on the Appearance page at /admin/appearance, where the theme list offers the action Set as default. The administration theme is a separate setting at the bottom of the same page.

The theme declares 13 regions: Header, Primary menu, Secondary menu, Hero (full width), Highlighted, Breadcrumb, Social Bar, Content Above, Content, Sidebar, Content Below, Footer Top and Footer Bottom. A site builder places blocks into these regions on the block layout page. Colors are set on the theme's own settings page, at /admin/appearance/settings/olivero, and the theme also offers a setting for the header branding background color.

Olivero is marked @internal in its info file. That means its markup and assets are allowed to change between minor Drupal releases, and it makes no promise of backward compatibility.

Status and history

Olivero was added to core in Drupal 9.1.0 as a beta experimental theme. The Drupal 9.3.0 announcement called it stable, and the 9.4.0 announcement says Drupal now uses it by default. The Drupal 10 change record adds that Bartik, the previous default, was deprecated in Drupal 9.5.0 and not included in Drupal 10.

Checked on 26 October 2026: a policy issue, marked fixed on 12 June 2026, approved deprecating Olivero and moving it to contrib, with the comment that this can happen in 11.5 and 12.0. Its stated reasons are that Drupal CMS is taking over the default install experience and that core serves highly custom sites. The plan drops Olivero from the Standard profile and lets core show a welcome message that suggests picking a front-end theme. Drupal.org's list of deprecated extensions now says Olivero is deprecated in Drupal 11.5.0 and removed from Drupal 12.0.0. In 11.5.0-beta1, released on 15 October 2026, olivero.info.yml reads lifecycle: deprecated; the released 11.4 line, up to 11.4.11, still ships Olivero as the default. A contributed Olivero project exists: release 2.0.0 came out on 21 September 2026 and lists compatibility with Drupal 11.4 and 12.

Example

A nonprofit launches on the Standard profile and wants its brand red in the header and links. A site builder opens /admin/appearance/settings/olivero and enters #a30f0f in Primary base color. The field takes a hexadecimal value, and the theme derives its other colors from it, so no CSS file is touched. The theme also defines five presets: Blue Lagoon, Firehouse, Ice, Plum and Slate; Firehouse uses the same red. The builder then places a custom block into the Hero region on the block layout page.

Common mistakes

• Using Olivero as a base theme for a full redesign. The README says it is not intended as a base theme, and the info file warns that a sub-theme can break when Olivero changes. Start a dedicated theme instead.
• Editing the core theme in place. The info file names two routes for changing Olivero's output, a renamed copy or a sub-theme. Editing core/themes/olivero itself is not one of them.
• Ignoring the removal. A site that relies on Olivero needs a plan before it moves to Drupal 12: install the contributed project or switch themes.
• Expecting exact brand colors from one value. Olivero derives its other colors from the primary base color, so check text and button contrast on real pages.

For marketing and content teams

Olivero gives a new site a clean, readable look without design work, which suits a prototype or an internal site. For a brand-led marketing site, plan a theme of your own. Ask your developer two questions: which theme your live site uses today, and who owns it once Olivero leaves core. If your site uses Olivero unchanged, the answer decides whether a redesign belongs in the budget for the Drupal 12 upgrade.

With DXPR

The DXPR Theme page describes a free theme for Drupal 11, built on Bootstrap 5, that is published on drupal.org like other contributed themes. It is one option for sites that want a branded theme instead of the default.

Sources

• Drupal.org: Drupal 9.3.0 is available
• Drupal.org: Drupal 9.4.0 is available
• Drupal.org: Add new Olivero frontend theme to Drupal 9.1 core as beta
• Drupal.org: Bartik theme is removed from Drupal 10
• Drupal.org: Deprecated and obsolete extensions
• Drupal.org: Deprecate Olivero and move to contrib (policy decision)
• Drupal.org: Olivero project page
• Drupal.org: Drupal 11.4.0 is now available
• Drupal.org: Drupal core releases
• Drupal core 11.5.0-beta1: olivero.info.yml
• Drupal core 11.5.0-beta1: Standard profile theme settings
• Drupal core 11.4.10: olivero.info.yml
• Drupal core 11.4.10: Olivero README
• Drupal core 11.4.10: Olivero theme settings
• Drupal core 11.4.10: Standard profile theme settings