Django 6.0 Framework Reference

Route the task to the matching reference file below and read only what the task needs. Workflow enforcement — migrations, linting, N+1 prevention, import discipline, rename safety, testing guardrails — lives solely in the django-discipline skill, which applies to every change in a Django project alongside this reference.

Critical Gotchas

1. Model field verification — Read the actual model definition before writing queries or test fixtures. Do not guess field names.
2. auto_now=True bypass — Fields with auto_now=True cannot be set via .save(). Use .objects.filter().update(field=value) to override.
3. TemplateResponse for deferred rendering — Use TemplateResponse when middleware must inspect or modify template context after the view returns. Use render() for simple views where context is final.
4. URL patterns are hierarchical — Child URLconf should NOT repeat the parent prefix. Catch-all patterns (path("")) must be LAST in urlpatterns.
5. Template tags don't work in static files — {{ var|safe }} and {% url ... %} are NOT processed in external .js / .css files — they're served as static assets. Solutions: inline <script> config block, data attributes on DOM elements, or a JSON endpoint view.
6. JSON traps — Values stored in TextField are strings; call json.loads() before dictionary-style access. Django renders Python lists in templates as [\'item\'] (single quotes); use json.dumps() in the view context for valid JS/JSON.
7. Templates own markup — Inline HTML in Python is last resort and stays under ~60 characters (hard max 66) per indentation block; beyond that, move it into a template/include/partial.
8. Form validation at the model level — Django forms inherit model validation. Define custom validation in model clean() and form clean_*() methods.

Routing