Django Configuration Recipe

This recipe treats Django models as persistence adapters and views as the interface layer. It is regular Deply configuration, not a built-in preset. Adapt the directories and boundaries when the project uses Django Active Record models as its domain model.

The example assumes domain and application code are separated from Django adapters:

src/app/
├── domain/
├── application/
├── infrastructure/
└── web/

Complete Configuration

deply:
  paths:
    - "."

  exclude_files:
    - '.*/\.venv/.*'
    - '.*/tests?/.*'
    - '.*/migrations/.*'

  layers:
    - name: domain
      collectors:
        - type: directory
          directories:
            - "src/app/domain"

    - name: application
      collectors:
        - type: directory
          directories:
            - "src/app/application"

    - name: infrastructure
      collectors:
        - type: bool
          any_of:
            - type: directory
              directories:
                - "src/app/infrastructure"
            - type: class_inherits
              base_class: "django.db.models.Model"
            - type: class_inherits
              base_class: "django.contrib.auth.models.AbstractUser"

    - name: interface
      collectors:
        - type: file_regex
          regex: '.*/views\.py$|.*/views/.*\.py$'

  ruleset:
    domain:
      disallow_layer_dependencies:
        - application
        - infrastructure
        - interface
      disallow_external_imports:
        - django
        - rest_framework
        - celery
        - requests
        - sqlalchemy

    application:
      disallow_layer_dependencies:
        - infrastructure
        - interface

Validate and run the configuration from the project root:

deply validate --config=deply.yaml
deply analyze --parallel --config=deply.yaml

Django REST Framework

For class-based DRF views, combine file and inheritance collectors:

- name: interface
  collectors:
    - type: bool
      any_of:
        - type: file_regex
          regex: '.*/views\.py$|.*/views/.*\.py$|.*/api/.*\.py$'
        - type: class_inherits
          base_class: "rest_framework.views.APIView"
        - type: class_inherits
          base_class: "rest_framework.generics.GenericAPIView"

Add the concrete base classes used by the project rather than trying to match every DRF class.

Active Record as the Domain Model

Some Django projects intentionally use ORM models as domain entities. In that case, include Django model inheritance in the domain collector:

- name: domain
  collectors:
    - type: bool
      any_of:
        - type: directory
          directories:
            - "src/app/domain"
        - type: class_inherits
          base_class: "django.db.models.Model"
        - type: class_inherits
          base_class: "django.contrib.auth.models.AbstractUser"

Remove django from the domain import restriction and remove the same model collectors from infrastructure. Keep rest_framework, celery, and HTTP clients restricted unless they are also intentional domain dependencies.

Migrations

Generated migrations should normally stay outside architecture analysis:

exclude_files:
  - '.*/migrations/.*'

Analyze migrations only when dependencies inside migration code are part of the architecture contract.

Celery Tasks

Add a task layer when task entrypoints are architecturally relevant:

- name: tasks
  collectors:
    - type: bool
      any_of:
        - type: file_regex
          regex: '.*/tasks\.py$|.*/tasks/.*\.py$'
        - type: decorator_usage
          decorator_regex: '.*task|shared_task'

Do not enforce a task decorator on every function when task modules also contain helper functions.