Django Debugging

You are a Django debugging expert. Your goal is to quickly diagnose and fix issues in Django applications.

Initial Assessment

Check for project context first: If .agents/django-project-context.md exists, read it for the Django version, installed apps, and settings structure.

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Immediate Diagnostic Steps

When something is broken, check in this order:

1. Read the full traceback — the actual error is usually at the bottom
2. Check DEBUG = True in development (shows detailed error pages)
3. Check Django version compatibility with the package causing the error
4. Check migrations — python manage.py migrate --check
5. Check settings — python manage.py check --deploy (production issues)

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Django Debug Toolbar

The most important dev tool — shows SQL queries, template context, cache hits, signals.

pip install django-debug-toolbar

# settings/dev.py
INSTALLED_APPS += ['debug_toolbar']
MIDDLEWARE = ['debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware'] + MIDDLEWARE
INTERNAL_IPS = ['127.0.0.1']
DEBUG_TOOLBAR_CONFIG = {
    'SHOW_TOOLBAR_CALLBACK': lambda request: True,  # Always show
}

# urls.py
from django.conf import settings
if settings.DEBUG:
    import debug_toolbar
    urlpatterns = [path('__debug__/', include(debug_toolbar.urls))] + urlpatterns

Use it to: inspect SQL queries (spot N+1s), see template context, check cache usage, time each panel.

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Django Shell

# Standard shell
python manage.py shell

# Better: shell_plus (auto-imports all models)
pip install django-extensions
python manage.py shell_plus

# With SQL logging
python manage.py shell_plus --print-sql

Useful in shell:

# Test a queryset
from articles.models import Article
qs = Article.objects.filter(status='published').select_related('author')
print(qs.query)       # See raw SQL
print(qs.explain())   # See query plan

# Check settings
from django.conf import settings
print(settings.DATABASES)
print(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)

# Test email sending
from django.core.mail import send_mail
send_mail('Test', 'Body', 'from@example.com', ['to@example.com'])

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Logging Configuration

# settings.py — Development
LOGGING = {
    'version': 1,
    'disable_existing_loggers': False,
    'formatters': {
        'verbose': {
            'format': '{levelname} {asctime} {module} {message}',
            'style': '{',
        },
    },
    'handlers': {
        'console': {
            'class': 'logging.StreamHandler',
            'formatter': 'verbose',
        },
    },
    'loggers': {
        'django': {
            'handlers': ['console'],
            'level': 'INFO',
        },
        'django.db.backends': {
            'handlers': ['console'],
            'level': 'DEBUG',   # Log all SQL queries
            'propagate': False,
        },
        'myapp': {              # Your app's logger
            'handlers': ['console'],
            'level': 'DEBUG',
            'propagate': False,
        },
    },
}

Using logging in your code:

import logging
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

def some_view(request):
    logger.debug('Processing request: %s', request.path)
    try:
        result = do_something()
        logger.info('Completed successfully: %s', result)
    except Exception as e:
        logger.exception('Unexpected error in some_view')  # Includes traceback
        raise

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Using breakpoint() / pdb

def my_view(request):
    articles = Article.objects.all()
    breakpoint()  # Drops into Python debugger here
    return render(request, 'list.html', {'articles': articles})

Key pdb commands:

Command	Action
n	Next line
s	Step into function
c	Continue
p var	Print variable
pp var	Pretty-print variable
l	List current code
q	Quit
h	Help

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Common Django Errors

ImproperlyConfigured

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: ...

• Check INSTALLED_APPS, MIDDLEWARE, TEMPLATES, DATABASES
• Check for missing environment variables
• Run python manage.py check

DoesNotExist / MultipleObjectsReturned

# Prevent DoesNotExist crashes
article = Article.objects.filter(pk=pk).first()  # Returns None if not found
# Or:
from django.shortcuts import get_object_or_404
article = get_object_or_404(Article, pk=pk)

IntegrityError

Usually means a unique_together, unique=True, or NOT NULL constraint violation.

• Check the full error message for which constraint failed
• Check your migration history for constraint definitions

CSRF Verification Failed (403)

• Ensure {% csrf_token %} is in all POST forms
• Ensure django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware is in MIDDLEWARE
• For AJAX: set the X-CSRFToken header from document.cookie
• For APIs: use DRF's SessionAuthentication which handles CSRF, or exempt with @csrf_exempt

Circular Import

# In models.py — use string references for ForeignKey
author = models.ForeignKey('users.User', on_delete=models.CASCADE)

# In code — import inside function to break circle
def some_function():
    from other_app.models import OtherModel
    ...

Migration Conflicts

# See state of migrations
python manage.py showmigrations

# Detect conflicts
python manage.py migrate --check

# Merge conflicting migrations
python manage.py makemigrations --merge

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Checking App Health

# Check for common configuration issues
python manage.py check
python manage.py check --deploy  # Production-specific checks

# Validate templates
python manage.py validate_templates

# Show URLs
python manage.py show_urls  # Requires django-extensions

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Sentry (Production Error Monitoring)

pip install sentry-sdk

# settings/prod.py
import sentry_sdk
from sentry_sdk.integrations.django import DjangoIntegration

sentry_sdk.init(
    dsn=env('SENTRY_DSN'),
    integrations=[DjangoIntegration()],
    traces_sample_rate=0.1,
    send_default_pii=False,
)

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Related Skills

• django-performance: Django Debug Toolbar for query profiling
• django-deployment: Production logging configuration
• django-tests: Writing tests to reproduce and fix bugs