dmr

django-modern-rest (dmr)

django-modern-rest is a typed, sync-and-async REST layer for Django: Controller classes with one method per HTTP verb, DTOs parsed from Body, Query, Headers, Cookies, and Path annotations, Router based URLs, built-in auth and throttling, and OpenAPI generated from the types.

When to use

• Any file that imports from dmr, or a project with django-modern-rest in its dependencies.
• Requests for a "typed", "modern", or "async" Django REST API.
• Reviews of existing dmr code: use the checklist at the end.

For migrations from other frameworks use dmr-from-drf, dmr-from-django-ninja, or dmr-from-dj-rest-auth. For version bumps use dmr-upgrade. For scaffolding from an OpenAPI document use dmr-openapi-skeleton.

Workflow

1. Check the installed version and extras: uv pip show django-modern-rest (or the lock file). The API changes between minor releases, so read the docs for the installed version, not the latest one.
2. Load the docs you need, they are versioned and LLM friendly:
   • index: https://django-modern-rest.readthedocs.io/en/<version>/llms.txt
   • one page as Markdown: replace .html with .md in any docs URL, for example https://django-modern-rest.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pages/routing.md
   • everything at once: https://django-modern-rest.readthedocs.io/en/<version>/llms.txt
3. Read the reference for the area you are changing (see the table below), it holds the full rules with correct and wrong examples.
4. Verify: run python manage.py check, the project's type checker, and tests written with the dmr_client / dmr_rf fixtures. For OpenAPI changes, run python manage.py dmr_export_schema <path> and review the diff.

Non-negotiable rules

Install django-modern-rest[msgspec] even for pydantic projects, it makes JSON parsing fastest. Add django-stubs[compatible-mypy] to dev dependencies, dmr relies on Django types.