How We Decided Not to Panic: The Joomla Post Release Decision Process

When Firefox 148 rolled out in late February 2026, it broke something important: TinyMCE, the default editor in Joomla, started flickering and became unusable. First it appeared only in Firefox Developer Edition, but with the final version all Firefox users were affected (PR #46889). Content editors couldn't work because the edit form was flashing and the user was unable to change or save. Understandably, voices in the community and the maintenance team quickly asked: do we need an emergency release?

A process instead of pressure

This is exactly the kind of situation where teams can make bad decisions under pressure. Luckily, the CMS Release Team has a documented process for this — the Post Release Decision Process. We developed it starting in 2021, after the experience with the Joomla 4.0.0 and 4.0.1 releases, where we learned that fast decisions after a release need structure, not just gut feeling. The process includes a clear set of steps: monitoring, analysis, decision, communication. And at its core, there is a decision sheet — a simple scoring matrix that helps us evaluate the situation objectively.

What the decision sheet does

The decision sheet asks a few straightforward questions like: Is there data loss? Is there a workaround? How many sites are probably affected? Is it a security issue? Each answer gets a score. You multiply severity and occurrence, and the result tells you whether to pull the release immediately, schedule a new release in the next few days, or stick to the normal release cycle. It takes the emotion out of the decision and replaces it with a shared, transparent evaluation.

How it worked this time

On Thursday, February 26, when the pressure was building, we had a quick look at the decision sheet. Already at that point it was clear: this was probably not an emergency. We scheduled a meeting for Friday evening with the Release Managers and team leads. Together we went through the sheet. The editor was broken, yes — but there was no data loss, no security issue, and a workaround was possible. Within ten minutes, the decision was made: no emergency release. Instead, we planned to create a hotfix — an installable package with three files that users could install like a regular extension. We then split up the tasks: documentation, testing, release post, social media. Done.

Why this matters

Open source projects don't just mature through better code. They also mature through better processes. Having a documented, shared decision framework meant that we didn't waste energy on discussions about whether this was an emergency or not. We had a tool for that. And it worked. If you're involved in managing releases — in Joomla or any other project — I'd encourage you to think about your own post release process. Because the moment something breaks is the worst time to figure out how to decide.

For more details just contact me through [email protected]

Links:

Release Information:
https://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5943-joomla-6-0-3-and-5-4-3-bugfix-release.html

Known Issues in the Manual
https://manual.joomla.org/migrations/54-60/known-issues/6.0.3/

PR on Github
https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/pull/46889

Release Management:
https://internal.joomla.org/docs/production/release-management/joomla/stable#4-post-release

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