Django Core Knowledge

Full Reference: See advanced.md for Django Channels setup, WebSocket consumers, JWT authentication middleware, broadcasting from views, room management, and WebSocket testing.

Deep Knowledge: Use mcp__documentation__fetch_docs with technology: django for comprehensive documentation.

Model Definition

from django.db import models

class User(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    email = models.EmailField(unique=True)
    created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    is_active = models.BooleanField(default=True)

    class Meta:
        ordering = ['-created_at']

    def __str__(self):
        return self.name

Views (Class-Based)

from django.views.generic import ListView, DetailView, CreateView
from django.urls import reverse_lazy

class UserListView(ListView):
    model = User
    template_name = 'users/list.html'
    context_object_name = 'users'
    paginate_by = 20

class UserDetailView(DetailView):
    model = User
    template_name = 'users/detail.html'

class UserCreateView(CreateView):
    model = User
    fields = ['name', 'email']
    success_url = reverse_lazy('user-list')

Django REST Framework

from rest_framework import viewsets, serializers

class UserSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
    class Meta:
        model = User
        fields = ['id', 'name', 'email', 'created_at']

class UserViewSet(viewsets.ModelViewSet):
    queryset = User.objects.all()
    serializer_class = UserSerializer

Key Commands

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py createsuperuser
python manage.py runserver

Project Structure

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── myproject/
│   ├── settings.py
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py
└── users/
    ├── models.py
    ├── views.py
    ├── urls.py
    └── admin.py

When NOT to Use This Skill

• FastAPI projects - FastAPI is async-first with automatic OpenAPI docs
• Flask microservices - Django is heavyweight for simple APIs
• Non-Python backends - Use language-appropriate frameworks
• Real-time only apps - Consider Node.js or Go for WebSocket-heavy apps
• Serverless functions - Django startup time is too slow

Anti-Patterns

Quick Troubleshooting

Production Readiness

Security Configuration

# settings/production.py
DEBUG = False
ALLOWED_HOSTS = env.list('ALLOWED_HOSTS')
SECRET_KEY = env('SECRET_KEY')

# Security headers
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT = True
SECURE_HSTS_SECONDS = 31536000
SECURE_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINS = True
SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFF = True
X_FRAME_OPTIONS = 'DENY'

# Session security
SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = True
SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLY = True
CSRF_COOKIE_SECURE = True

Caching

CACHES = {
    'default': {
        'BACKEND': 'django.core.cache.backends.redis.RedisCache',
        'LOCATION': env('REDIS_URL'),
    }
}

# Usage
from django.views.decorators.cache import cache_page

@cache_page(60 * 15)  # 15 minutes
def my_view(request):
    ...

Health Checks

from django.http import JsonResponse
from django.db import connection

def health_check(request):
    return JsonResponse({'status': 'healthy'})

def ready_check(request):
    try:
        connection.ensure_connection()
        return JsonResponse({'status': 'ready', 'database': 'connected'})
    except Exception as e:
        return JsonResponse({'status': 'not ready', 'error': str(e)}, status=503)

Gunicorn Configuration

# gunicorn.conf.py
import multiprocessing

workers = multiprocessing.cpu_count() * 2 + 1
worker_class = 'uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker'  # For async
bind = '0.0.0.0:8000'
max_requests = 1000
timeout = 30

Testing

import pytest
from django.test import Client

@pytest.fixture
def authenticated_client(django_user_model):
    user = django_user_model.objects.create_user(
        username='test', password='test123'
    )
    client = Client()
    client.force_login(user)
    return client

@pytest.mark.django_db
class TestUserAPI:
    def test_create_user(self, api_client):
        response = api_client.post('/api/users/', {
            'name': 'John', 'email': 'john@example.com'
        }, content_type='application/json')
        assert response.status_code == 201

Monitoring Metrics

Checklist

• DEBUG=False in production
• Security headers enabled
• HTTPS enforced (SSL redirect)
• Database connection pooling
• Redis caching configured
• Structured JSON logging
• Health/readiness endpoints
• Gunicorn with workers
• Static files on CDN
• pytest with fixtures

Reference Documentation

• Models & ORM
• Views Patterns