djinit helps you set up a production‑ready Django project in minutes. No more copy‑pasting settings or manually wiring up apps—just answer a few questions and get a modern Django project with REST API, authentication, documentation, and deployment configs ready to go.

Why djinit?

Starting a Django project usually means spending hours setting up the same things: splitting settings for dev/prod, configuring DRF, adding JWT auth, setting up CORS, preparing for deployment. djinit does all of this for you with sensible defaults and lets you choose the project structure that fits your needs.

Installation

Recommended (using pipx):

pipx install djinitx

Or with pip:

pip install djinitx

Or with uv:

uv tool install djinitx

Requirements: Python 3.13+

Getting Started

djinit setup

or the shorter alias:

dj setup

The wizard will ask you a few questions:

What structure do you want?
- Standard – Classic Django layout with split settings
- Predefined – Organized with apps/ and api/ folders (great for larger projects)
- Unified – Everything under core/ and apps/ (clean and minimal)
- Single Folder – All apps in one configurable folder (simple and flat)
Project Setup – Destination directory (use . for current) and project name.
Database Configuration – Choose DATABASE_URL (recommended) or individual variables; pick PostgreSQL or MySQL.
Frontend Tools (optional) – Pick Tailwind CSS, HTMX, or Vite for frontend bundling.
Django Apps (Standard structure only) – Whether to create an apps/ folder and which apps to scaffold.
CI/CD Pipeline – GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, both, or skip it.

That’s it—your project will be ready with everything configured.

What You Get

Split settings for development and production
Django REST Framework with JWT authentication
API documentation (Swagger UI at /docs/)
CORS configured for local development
WhiteNoise for static files
PostgreSQL support (SQLite for dev)
Modern admin interface (django-jazzmin)
Deployment ready with Procfile and runtime.txt
Development tools (Justfile with common commands)
Environment template (.env.sample)
Git ready (.gitignore included)
Tailwind CSS – Optionally scaffolded with django-tailwind-cli
HTMX – Optionally included with django-htmx and middleware
Vite – Optionally set up with django-vite and vite.config.ts

Commands

Create a Project

djinit setup

Add Apps to an Existing Project

djinit app users products orders

Creates the apps, adds them to INSTALLED_APPS, and wires up URLs.

Generate Secret Keys

djinit secret

Use --count 5 to generate five keys or --length 64 to change the length.

Project Structures

Standard Structure

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── myproject/          # Config module
│   ├── settings/       # Split settings
│   ├── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py
└── apps/               # Your apps (optional)
    └── users/

Single Folder Layout

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── project/            # Configurable folder name
│   ├── settings/
│   ├── urls.py
│   ├── models/         # All models here
│   ├── api/            # API views & serializers
│   │   └── your_model_name/
│   │       ├── views.py
│   │       ├── serializers.py
│   │       └── urls.py
│   └── wsgi.py

Predefined Structure

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── config/             # Django config
│   ├── settings/
│   └── urls.py
├── apps/               # Business logic
│   ├── users/
│   └── core/
└── api/                # API routes
    └── v1/

Unified Structure

myproject/
├── manage.py
├── core/               # Django config
│   ├── settings/
│   └── urls.py
└── apps/               # Main application package
    ├── admin/
    ├── models/
    ├── serializers/
    ├── views/
    ├── urls/
    └── api/            # API routes

Development Workflow

Your project ships with a Justfile for common tasks:

just dev              # Start dev server
just migrate          # Run migrations
just makemigrations   # Create migrations
just shell            # Django shell
just test             # Run tests
just format           # Format code
just lint             # Lint code
just vite             # Start Vite dev server (if Vite selected)
just dev-full         # Run Django + Vite together (if Vite selected)

If you don’t have just installed, these are just shortcuts for the equivalent Django commands.

What's Included

Packages

Django – Web framework
Django REST Framework – API toolkit
djangorestframework‑simplejwt – JWT authentication
drf‑yasg – OpenAPI/Swagger docs
django‑cors‑headers – CORS handling
django‑jazzmin – Modern admin UI
whitenoise – Static file serving
psycopg2‑binary – PostgreSQL driver
gunicorn – Production WSGI server
python‑dotenv – .env handling
django‑tailwind‑cli – Tailwind CSS integration (optional)
django‑htmx – HTMX integration (optional)
django‑vite – Vite bundler integration (optional)

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
`/admin/`	Django admin
`/token/`	Obtain JWT token
`/token/refresh/`	Refresh JWT token
`/docs/`	Swagger UI (dev only)
`/schema/`	ReDoc API docs (dev only)

Settings Overview

Development – SQLite, DEBUG=True, console email backend, permissive CORS.
Production – PostgreSQL, hardened security settings, SMTP email backend, strict CORS.

Environment Setup

Copy the sample file and fill in your values:

cp .env.sample .env

SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-here  # Generate with: djinit secret
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host:5432/db
ALLOWED_HOSTS=yourdomain.com,www.yourdomain.com

SQLite works out of the box for development—no extra DB setup required.

Contributing

Found a bug or have an idea? Open an issue or submit a pull request. Contributions are always welcome!

Fork the repository.
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/awesome-feature).
Make your changes and ensure tests pass (just test).
Submit a pull request with a clear description of the change.

Please follow the existing code style (ruff + black) and include tests for new functionality.

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djinit