Nakarthiksurya Talos Django Expert

Django Expert Skill

Goal

Implement production-grade Django/DRF backend features with clean model design, serializer validation, ViewSet-based APIs, and comprehensive test coverage.

When to Use

• The project uses Django or Django REST Framework.
• A new model, serializer, viewset, permission, or signal must be implemented.
• An existing Django feature has a bug or architecture violation.

Project Structure Convention

project/
  apps/
    <feature>/
      models.py
      serializers.py
      views.py          # ViewSets or APIViews
      urls.py
      permissions.py
      signals.py
      tasks.py          # Celery tasks
      tests/
        test_models.py
        test_serializers.py
        test_views.py
  config/
    settings/
      base.py
      development.py
      production.py
    urls.py

Implementation Rules

Models

• Use verbose_name and verbose_name_plural on every model.
• created_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True).
• updated_at = models.DateTimeField(auto_now=True).
• Soft delete via is_deleted + custom Manager.
• Every ForeignKey has on_delete explicitly set.

Serializers

• Use ModelSerializer for CRUD. Override validate_<field>() for field-level validation.
• Use SerializerMethodField for computed values.
• Separate serializers for list (minimal) and detail (full) representations.
• Use read_only_fields = (...) to prevent mass assignment.

ViewSets & Permissions

• Use ModelViewSet for full CRUD. Use GenericAPIView mixins for partial sets.
• Apply permissions via permission_classes on the ViewSet or per-action via get_permissions().
• Apply filtering via django-filter or custom get_queryset().
• Always use select_related and prefetch_related to avoid N+1 queries.

Settings

• Separate settings files for development, testing, production.
• All secrets via environment variables with python-decouple or django-environ.
• DEBUG = False enforced in production settings.

Database

• All schema changes via Django migrations. Never modify DB directly.
• Use database_transactions in tests.

Review Checklist

• Models have created_at, updated_at, and __str__ method
• Serializers have validation for all required fields
• ViewSets use select_related/prefetch_related to prevent N+1
• Permissions applied at viewset level
• Tests cover model, serializer, and viewset layers

Source: naKarthikSurya/Talos — distributed by TomeVault.