Django Starter Project Setup Guide

This guide will help you create a new project repository based on the starter Django project template. The template has been slightly modified from William Vincent’s DjangoX project to match recent best practices and includes UV integration while removing Docker support.

Steps to Set Up Your New Project

1. Create an Empty Repository

On GitHub

1. Create a new repository (called 'my_new_project' hereafter). Do not initialize it with a README, .gitignore, or license file—this will be handled locally.

2. Clone the Starter Project

On your local machine:

1. Clone the starter project without including its Git history:

   git clone git@github.com:Copient-ai/django_start.git

3. Clone and Update Your New Project

1. Now clone your new project (in the same folder is assumed):

   git clone git@github.com:Copient-ai/my_new_project.git

2. Copy all the files from django_start project to my_new_project EXCEPT the .git folder:

   rsync -av --exclude='.git' django_start/ my_new_project/

4. Change the project name for pyproject.toml and uv.lock

1. Change the project name (and optionally the description) from cps to my_new_project in the pyproject.toml. Change this:

   [project]
   name = "cps"
   version = "0.1.0"
   description = "Add your description here"
   ...
   

   To this:

   [project]
   name = "my_new_project"
   version = "0.1.0"
   description = "Change if you want to..."
   ...
   

2. Change the package name from cps to my_new_project in the uv.lock. Change this (about half-way down the length of the file):

   [[package]]
   name = "cps"
   ...
   

   To this:

   [project]
   [[package]]
   name = "my_new_project"
   ...
   

5. Add/commit/push initial files to your new project

1. Initialize a new Git repository:

   cd my_new_project
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit based on django starter project files."
   git push

6. Sync Requirements

Sync your requirements using UV:

uv sync

7. Activate VM

Activate the VM (the following assumes OhMyZsh):

vrun .venv

8. Initial Migration (assumed sqlite)

If you want to go ahead and set up PostgreSQL now is the time. If not, migrate as follows:

uv run manage.py migrate

9. Confirm Setup

Make sure everything is set up. Run the server and you should see the django start page:

uv run manage.py runserver

You’re all set!