django-include-apps

A powerful CLI tool to intelligently manage Django apps in your INSTALLED_APPS setting. Install, add, remove, and maintain Django packages with smart package mapping and automatic requirements.txt management.

Features

• Smart Package Mapping — 85+ pre-configured mappings (e.g., djangorestframework → rest_framework)
• Extended Configs — Auto-apply middleware, settings, URL patterns, and imports per package
• Auto Migrations — Prompt to run python manage.py migrate when adding/removing packages that need it
• Version Specifiers — Install exact versions (djangorestframework==3.14.0, django-filter>=2.0)
• Unused App Detection — Scan your project and remove apps not imported anywhere
• requirements.txt Sync — Automatically add, update, and remove packages
• Backup & Rollback — Auto-backup settings.py with one-command restore
• Security — Move secrets to .env with secure-settings
• Health Checks — Run doctor to audit your configuration
• Interactive Prompts — Confirmations, multi-select, and skip options throughout
• Shell Completion — Tab-completion for bash, zsh, and fish

Installation

pip install django-include-apps

Quick Start

Add a Package

django-include-apps add-app djangorestframework

 IMPORTANT: Configurations applied are based on the latest package documentation.

✅ djangorestframework installed via pip
✅ Added 'rest_framework' to INSTALLED_APPS

Configuration for: djangorestframework
  • URL Pattern: path('api-auth/', include('rest_framework.urls', namespace='rest_framework'))
  • Settings:
      REST_FRAMEWORK = {
          "DEFAULT_PERMISSION_CLASSES": ["rest_framework.permissions.IsAuthenticated"],
          "DEFAULT_PAGINATION_CLASS": "rest_framework.pagination.PageNumberPagination",
          "PAGE_SIZE": 10,
          ...
      }

? Found additional configuration for package 'djangorestframework' (Space to toggle):
  [x] URL Patterns
  [x] Required Settings
? Proceed? Yes, apply changes

✅ Added URL pattern 'api-auth/'
✅ Added REST_FRAMEWORK settings
✅ Added djangorestframework==3.15.2 to requirements.txt

Add Multiple Packages

django-include-apps add-app djangorestframework django-cors-headers django-filter

Remove an App

# Remove a specific app
django-include-apps remove-app rest_framework

# Or scan for unused apps (interactive)
django-include-apps remove-app

Install from requirements.txt

django-include-apps install-requirements -r requirements.txt

Installs all packages, detects Django-related ones, and offers to add them to INSTALLED_APPS with extended configuration.

Custom Project Directory

django-include-apps add-app djangorestframework -d /path/to/django/project

All commands accept --start-dir / -d to target a specific project.

Commands Overview

Command	Description
add-app	Add one or more apps to INSTALLED_APPS
remove-app	Remove apps or scan for unused ones
install-requirements	Install from requirements.txt and configure apps
status	Show project configuration overview
doctor	Run health checks on your project
show-config	Display extended config for a package
view-mappings	Browse all 85+ package mappings
diff	Preview changes before applying (dry run)
sync	Compare INSTALLED_APPS ↔ requirements.txt
update-configs	Check for updated package configurations
graph	Visualize package dependencies
profile	Save/apply/export configuration profiles
init-env	Create a virtual environment
secure-settings	Move secrets to .env
rollback	Restore settings.py from backup
setup-hooks	Set up pre-commit hooks
docker-init	Generate Docker configuration
tutorial	Interactive learning guide
completion	Shell auto-completion setup
mapping	Manage custom package mappings

📖 Full Command Reference → — Every command with all flags, variants, and sample output.

Supported Packages

85+ pre-configured Django packages with smart mapping:

Package	INSTALLED_APPS Name
djangorestframework	rest_framework
django-cors-headers	corsheaders
django-filter	django_filters
django-allauth	allauth
django-debug-toolbar	debug_toolbar
django-crispy-forms	crispy_forms
django-extensions	django_extensions
channels	channels
celery	celery
django-storages	storages

Note: Packages like pillow, psycopg2, gunicorn, and mysqlclient are dependency-only and aren't added to INSTALLED_APPS.

Disclaimer on configurations: The automatic configuration settings provided by django-include-apps (for MIDDLEWARE, urls.py, etc.) are based on the standard and latest documentation of the respective packages at the time of mapping.

Use django-include-apps view-mappings to see the complete list. Unmapped packages are handled interactively with an option to save for future use.

Protected Django Apps

Core Django apps (django.contrib.*) are automatically protected from removal:

admin · auth · contenttypes · sessions · messages · staticfiles

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Django project with settings.py
• Virtual environment (recommended)

Example Project

A ready-to-use demo project is included to try every command hands-on:

cd django-include-apps/examples/demo_project
django-include-apps add-app djangorestframework
django-include-apps status

📂 See the demo project →

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! To add a new package mapping:

1. Fork the repository
2. Add the mapping to package_configs.json
3. Submit a pull request

Have a feature idea? Open an issue.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.

Author

ROHAN — GitHub · Email

Contributors

• Rohan Shirude — remove-app functionality and feature enhancements

Links

• Repository: https://github.com/Rohan7654/django-include-apps
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/django-include-apps/
• Issues: https://github.com/Rohan7654/django-include-apps/issues
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Demo Project: examples/