Installation

Conjure attaches to an existing project with two lines of code plus one migration. It reads your models; it never edits them.

1. Install the package

pip install django-conjure

The import name is conjure (the PyPI distribution is django-conjure). The only hard dependencies are django.contrib.auth and Django REST Framework.

2. Add the app

settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS += [
    "rest_framework",  # Conjure builds on Django REST Framework (skip if already installed)
    "conjure",
]

CONJURE = {  # (1)!
    "AUTH": "session",  # reuse your Django login everywhere; or "jwt"
    "BRAND": {"name": "Acme Admin", "accent": "#4f46e5"},
}

1. The top-level settings key is CONJURE. Every key is optional — the block above is just to show the two you most often set. See the Configuration reference for all keys and defaults.

On app ready(), Conjure auto-discovers an admin_config.py in each installed app, the same way Django finds admin.py. There is no central registry file to maintain.

Authentication is self-contained

Conjure's endpoints authenticate themselves according to CONJURE["AUTH"] — session by default, or JWT (pip install "django-conjure[jwt]"). You don't need to change DRF's global DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES, so enabling JWT for the admin won't affect your project's other APIs.

Session mode + a separately-served dev SPA

Session writes are CSRF-protected. Conjure issues the csrftoken cookie on login/auth/me and the SPA sends it back as X-CSRFToken automatically. When the dashboard runs on a different origin than Django (e.g. the Vite dev server on :5173 proxying to :8000), add that origin to Django's CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS:

settings.py

CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS = ["http://localhost:5173"]

Same-origin deploys (dist served by Django/your proxy) need nothing. Or use "jwt" mode, which carries a bearer token and skips CSRF entirely.

3. Wire up the URLs

urls.py

from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns += [
    path("conjure/", include("conjure.urls")),          # REST API (schema + CRUD)
]

Serving the dashboard

conjure.urls is the REST API. The React dashboard is served separately: in codegen mode ✅ you scaffold the dashboard into your project, then build it and host its dist/ (your own static hosting, WhiteNoise, or a CDN) pointed at this API:

python manage.py conjure_dump_schema > schema-snapshot.json   # dump your models
npx @terracelab/conjure-web init conjure-admin                # scaffold + codegen
cd conjure-admin && pnpm install && pnpm build                # → dist/ to host

A bundled zero-build runtime SPA mounted at conjure.spa_urls is 📋 planned (see the roadmap). Either way, the conjure/ API include above is all the backend needs.

4. Migrate the audit log

python manage.py migrate conjure

This creates a single table, AdminAuditLog, used to record a diff of every write.

CRUD works before you migrate

The schema, CRUD, and widget endpoints all work without this migration — conjure only silently skips audit writes if the table is missing. Run it when you want the "recent activity" widget and the audit log page to fill in.

5. Verify

Start your server and hit the schema endpoint with a staff session or token:

curl -s http://localhost:8000/conjure/schema/ | head

A JSON object keyed by app.Model confirms the install. You haven't registered anything yet, so it may be empty — that's expected. Next: register your first model →

Compatibility

Component	Supported
Python	3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13
Django	4.2 LTS, 5.x
Django REST Framework	3.15+
Node (codegen mode only)	18+

The REST contract (/conjure/* + the schema JSON) is the public API and follows SemVer. Once the dashboard is published to npm (planned), the Python and npm packages are intended to ship the same X.Y.Z.