django-currentuser

What it is and what it does

django-currentuser is a Django middleware and model field that automatically captures and stores the currently logged-in user at the thread level, making it accessible throughout your request lifecycle without explicitly passing it as a parameter. It provides two main components: a middleware class that captures the user from each request, and a CurrentUserField that automatically populates model fields with the current user when instances are created or updated.

The package solves the common problem of tracking who created or modified a record without cluttering your views and model methods with user-passing logic. It stores the user reference at the moment a model instance is initialized, allowing you to override it before saving if needed. The middleware is compatible with Django 4.2, 5.2, and 6.0, and supports modern Python versions.

Use it for

• Automatically populate created_by and updated_by fields on models without passing user through every layer
• Access the current user in model methods, signals, or business logic without threading it through function parameters
• Audit logging: track which user performed each database operation without explicit parameter passing
• Multi-tenant applications where you need the current user context available globally within a request
• Testing: retain user context after request completion for test assertions

Worth the install?

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Install

django-currentuser on PyPI

Before you install

Low install friction with a single Django dependency. Maintenance status is aging—last release was 205 days ago—but the repository remains active and the package supports current Python versions (3.10–3.14) and recent Django versions (4.2, 5.2, 6.0).

Requires Django 4.2 or later; if you need an unsupported Django version, set DJANGO_CURRENTUSER_USE_UNSUPPORTED_DJANGO=1 before install.

License in practice

Licensed under BSD (permissive), which allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

pip install django-currentuser

# In settings.py MIDDLEWARE:
MIDDLEWARE = (
    ...,
    'django_currentuser.middleware.ThreadLocalUserMiddleware',
)

# In models.py:
from django_currentuser.db.models import CurrentUserField
class Foo(models.Model):
    created_by = CurrentUserField()
    updated_by = CurrentUserField(on_update=True)

Package facts

Evidence: django_currentuser-0.10.0-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Dynamic Content packages

See also django-crum · django-browser-reload · django-dirtyfields · django-request-id · django-registration · django-cprofile-middleware · django-decorator-include · django-structlog · django-upgrade · django-model-utils