DRF Template

An opinionated template repository for building REST APIs with Django Rest Framework.

Getting Started

• Get started by cloning the repo.
• Use uv to install the dependencies by running uv sync.
• Create a .env file copying .env.example and fill out the values you need.
• Initialize the git repository (if needed) by running git init
• Install the pre-commit hooks by running uv run pre-commit install
• Find all TODO comments to see what needs to be updated

Opinions

• The python version set in .python-version. Update to whatever you want.
• The main configuration is in the api folder. Settings are set per environment. Names are self-explanatory.
• Expects a postgres database outside of unit testing.
• DRF is setup to use a custom standardized error response that is useful for 400 validation errors.
• It is expected to use synchronous python and gunicorn + gevent workers at deployment.
• There is a custom user model based on AbstractUser from django.
• Testing uses pytest instead of unittest.
• If you want to run things locally, run make run-infra and then make run-server.
• It is setup for simple Railway deployment but easily adaptable to any cloud provider really.
• Common commands are in the Makefile. Use them.

Adding more

• Background tasks can be built using celery or huey. I recommend huey for a simpler experience. Both can use a Redis or KeyVal broker.