Pantheon release notes

Support for creating Drupal and WordPress sites using an external repository on GitHub is now generally available to Pantheon customers with Gold, Platinum or Diamond Workspaces. Previously, this capability was restricted to a private beta program; now, it is included as part of the recent Terminus 4.2.0 Release.

Sites created on an external GitHub repository utilize a GitHub Application that moves code to Pantheon Multidev environments and the Dev environment when correspond to changes are made to on that repository.

This Application is intended for teams that want the simplest possible tool for achieving the above workflow. Once it is turned on, no additional configuration is necessary.

Pantheon continues to offer a GitHub Action that performs a similar function for teams who want to make customization to their workflows and treat the deployment of code as one step in a larger Continuous Integration workflow.

See our Github application documentation page for more instruction on usage and a breakdown of limitations.

Terminus 4.2.0 is now available. This minor release brings major improvements including three integrated plugins and enhanced Node.js/STA site support.

Key improvements in this release

• Integrated core plugins: Three popular plugins are now built directly into Terminus, eliminating the need for separate installation:

  • terminus-secrets-manager-plugin for managing secrets (#2764)
  • terminus-repository-plugin for repository management (#2792)
  • terminus-node-logs-plugin for Node.js build logs (#2791)

• Enhanced Node.js/STA site management:

  • node:builds:wait command for tracking STA site deployment progress (#2798)
  • node:builds:rollback command for easy build rollbacks (#2803)
  • Enhanced builds:list with active build status (#2807)
  • Added deployment status to builds command (#2801)
  • Improved site creation workflow by skipping dev environment wait (#2810)
  • Node.js sites can now use the metrics command (#2806)

• Bug fixes:

  • Update check in env:wake for node sites (#2816)
  • Update Node.js site creation notice to reflect actual build trigger (#2819)

How to upgrade to Terminus 4.2.0

If you use Homebrew (macOS-only) to manage your Terminus installation, you should upgrade using:

If you installed Terminus directly from the .phar file, you should upgrade using the self:update command:

For more information about this release, visit the GitHub release page.

If you have questions or concerns around Terminus, please use the Terminus issue queue.

Terminus 4.1.9 is now available. This patch release fixes SSH output formatting issues and resolves env:wake command failures.

Key improvements in this release

• SSH output formatting fix: Resolved an issue where SSH command output would appear garbled when streaming, improving terminal display readability. (#2814)
• env:wake command fix: Fixed env:wake failures by removing the unnecessary X-Pantheon-Styx-Hostname header requirement, allowing environments to wake successfully. (#2815)

How to upgrade to Terminus 4.1.9

If you use Homebrew (macOS-only) to manage your Terminus installation, you should upgrade using:

If you installed Terminus directly from the .phar file, you should upgrade using the self:update command:

For more information about this release, visit the GitHub release page.

If you have questions or concerns around Terminus, please use the Terminus issue queue.

Solr support for WordPress and the Solr Power plugin will reach end of life on January 11, 2027. After this date, Solr-based search will no longer be available for WordPress sites on the platform.

What's changing?

Solr 3 is a legacy search technology that is being retired in favor of modern alternatives. Sites currently using Solr 3 with the Solr Power plugin will need to migrate to a supported search solution before the end-of-life date.

Recommended alternatives

Pantheon customers

We recommend migrating to Elasticsearch, now available as a Beta add-on for WordPress sites on Pantheon. Elasticsearch offers improved search relevance, real-time search-as-you-type, WooCommerce support, and more. See the Elasticsearch for WordPress Beta announcement for details.

Other options

If Elasticsearch is not the right fit for your site, consider these third-party search solutions:

• SearchWP — A WordPress-native search plugin that enhances the default WordPress search without requiring an external search service.
• Algolia Search — A hosted search API that provides fast, relevant search results with advanced features like typo tolerance and faceted filtering.

What you need to do

1. Identify any WordPress sites currently using the Solr Power plugin.
2. Choose a replacement search solution.
3. Complete your migration before January 11, 2027.

Elasticsearch is now available as a Beta add-on for WordPress sites on Pantheon. This integration is powered by ElasticPress, the leading Elasticsearch solution for WordPress.

What's included?

ElasticPress offloads search queries from your database to Elasticsearch, improving WP_Query performance and reducing load on your application server. Capabilities include:

• Full-text search — Fuzzy matching, synonyms, and weighted fields for more relevant search results.
• Instant Search — Real-time search-as-you-type results without full page reloads.
• WP_Query integration — Elasticsearch can handle WP_Query requests, reducing database load and improving page load times.
• Faceted filtering — Narrow results by category, tag, custom taxonomy, and other attributes.
• WooCommerce support — Product search and filtering for WooCommerce storefronts.
• Related content — Surface related posts and pages automatically.
• Custom content indexing — Index posts, pages, custom post types, and custom fields.

Who has access?

Elasticsearch is available to WordPress sites on Performance Small plans and above, including Elite.

How to enable it

Elasticsearch can be enabled in two ways:

• From the dashboard — Navigate to Site Settings → Add-Ons and activate Elasticsearch. Connection credentials are configured automatically.

• From Terminus — Use the search command:

Once enabled, install and activate the ElasticPress plugin in your WordPress admin and run your initial content sync. No manual credential configuration is required — EP_HOST, EP_INDEX_PREFIX, and EP_CREDENTIALS are set automatically across all environments.

Documentation

For setup instructions and additional guidance, see Elasticsearch on Pantheon.

Starting today, all Dev and Multidev environments that have not yet been upgraded to PHP Runtime Generation 2 will be auto-upgraded over the course of this week. Opting out is no longer available.

What's next?

• April 13, 2026: Auto-upgrades will begin for Test and Live environments

We strongly recommend using this week to verify your site on Dev and Multidev before Test and Live environments are upgraded.

Action Required

If you have not already reviewed your site's compatibility with Generation 2, please check the Known Changes and Requirements and address any issues in your Dev or Multidev environments this week.

PHP 8.5 is now available on the Pantheon platform. You can set PHP 8.5 as the version to use for your site via your pantheon.yml file.

Key changes in PHP 8.5:

• OPcache is now built into PHP core and no longer requires a separate extension package.
• Pipe operator (|>) for improved function chaining.
• curl_close() and imagedestroy() are deprecated but remain functional. These will emit deprecation notices but do not affect site behavior.

For more information on supported PHP versions and how to upgrade, refer to PHP on Pantheon.

Tika config support for disabling OCR

Tika 3 enables OCR (Optical Character Recognition) via Tesseract by default, which can significantly increase processing times for PDFs and image-based documents. A bundled tika-config.xml is now available on all Pantheon environments to disable OCR:

Pass it to Tika using the --config flag:

See External Libraries: Apache Tika for details.

Search API Attachments module update for Drupal

Drupal sites using the Search API Attachments module can now disable OCR directly from the admin UI. Version 10.0.8 adds a Path to Tika configuration file field at /admin/config/search/search_api_attachments. Set it to /opt/pantheon/tika/tika-config.xml

Tika 1.x no longer available starting April 28, 2026

Tika 1.18 and 1.21 are being removed from the platform:

• April 28, 2026 — tika_version: 1 in pantheon.yml will be ignored. Sites will automatically use Tika 3.
• May 12, 2026 — tika_version: 1 in pantheon.yml will be rejected.