manage.py: Django commands

manage.py is Django’s command-line utility. Every interaction with a project goes through it.

Core commands

# Start the development server
python manage.py runserver
python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000  # accessible on the network

# Migrations
python manage.py makemigrations          # create migration files
python manage.py migrate                 # apply migrations
python manage.py showmigrations          # status of all migrations

# Create an application
python manage.py startapp blog

# Superuser
python manage.py createsuperuser

# Interactive shell
python manage.py shell
python manage.py dbshell                 # SQL console

# Static files
python manage.py collectstatic           # collect static files into STATIC_ROOT

makemigrations vs migrate

# makemigrations — only creates migration files (does not apply them)
python manage.py makemigrations tasks
# → tasks/migrations/0001_initial.py

# migrate — applies migrations to the database
python manage.py migrate
# → Applied tasks.0001_initial

shell — working with the ORM in the console

python manage.py shell

# Inside the shell
from tasks.models import Task

Task.objects.all()
Task.objects.create(title="Первая задача", status="todo")
Task.objects.filter(status="todo").count()

Checking the project

python manage.py check          # check configuration
python manage.py check --deploy # check production readiness

Tests

python manage.py test                    # run all tests
python manage.py test tasks              # tests for a specific app
python manage.py test tasks.tests.TaskModelTest