May 4-7, 2026 : Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Three of our core team members (Myq, Korvin, and Andy) are clearing their calendars for four straight days to do nothing but fix bugs, harden security, and dial in the details for the next version of Concrete CMS.
We're calling it Squash Week, and we want you there.
This isn't a feature sprint. It's not a hackathon where someone builds a novelty app in 48 hours and wins a prize. This is the unsexy, unglamorous work of making software more reliable: tracking down that weird edge case, closing out security items, closing tickets, and fixing the thing that's been annoying you for six months.
We're going to be heads-down on GitHub and active in the forums all week. If you've ever wanted to contribute to Concrete's core but weren't sure where to start or whether anyone would notice, this is your week.
If you write code:
We'll be maintaining a list of targeted issues on GitHub, but that list isn't a ceiling. If there's a bug you've been living with, this is the time to file it, fix it, or both. We'll be reviewing PRs faster than usual because that's literally all we're doing.
Start here:
Check Github for issues we've already flagged
Grab something that looks right for your skill level, or propose your own fix
Open a PR against the 9.5.x branch.
If you test more than you code:
We need testers just as much as we need fixers. Install a development copy, try to break things, and report what you find. Good bug reports with steps to reproduce are genuinely valuable. If you can confirm or reproduce an existing issue, that helps us prioritize.
If you just want to hang out:
We'll be more present than usual in the community forums and on GitHub. Drop in, say hi, ask questions. Sometimes the best contribution is just showing up.
This is how you maintain open source software people depend on. Concrete runs government sites, banks, hospitals, military installations. Those organizations chose Concrete because it's stable and it ships complete. Keeping it that way takes focused effort, and sometimes that means blocking off a week to do nothing else.
Monthly releases are our rhythm, but a concentrated push like this lets us knock out a bigger batch of fixes in one go. It also gives us a chance to work alongside the community in a way that our normal schedules don't always allow.
When: Monday May 4 through Thursday May 7
Where: GitHub, the Concrete CMS forums, and wherever your code editor lives
What ships: Concrete CMS 9.5.0 will be released April 28th. This week will be addressing any bugs people find in that and dealing with security reports & other infrastructure improvements.
Who's leading it: Myq, Korvin, and Andy from the core team, with Franz lurking and occasionally being helpful
We just talked about this in our latest Town Hall video, let us know in the forums if you have any questions.
See you on May the 4th!
(yes.. may the fourth be with you too..;)
