django-read-only

What it is and what it does

django-read-only is a Django package that enforces read-only mode on your database by intercepting and rejecting data modification queries. It works by inspecting executed queries at the Django database instrumentation layer and raising an exception when a write is detected. The package is designed for interactive sessions—particularly shell environments in production or staging—where developers need to run exploratory queries without risking accidental data changes.

You control read-only mode via a setting or environment variable, and can temporarily or permanently re-enable writes within a session using provided functions and context managers. It also integrates with IPython as an extension for quick toggling. The package uses a "fail closed" philosophy, meaning unknown query patterns are blocked to be safe. Note that it cannot intercept queries bypassing Django's ORM entirely or operations within stored procedures.

Use it for:

• Enable read-only mode in production shell sessions to prevent developers from accidentally modifying data during exploratory queries.
• Protect staging environments during interactive debugging by blocking write queries while allowing reads.
• Temporarily allow writes within a context manager to run a specific management command or data fix without disabling read-only mode globally.
• Use the IPython extension to quickly toggle read-only mode on and off during interactive development sessions.
• Enforce a safe-by-default policy where writes are disabled in interactive shells but remain enabled for automated processes like WSGI servers.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Prevents Django database write operations by intercepting and blocking data modification queries, with the ability to selectively re-enable writes within a session.

Yes. This is a lightweight, actively maintained package with no security vulnerabilities that solves a real operational safety problem—preventing accidental database modifications in interactive sessions. The low install friction (one dependency), permissive MIT license, and production-stable status make it a practical choice for teams running Django in production or staging environments where shell access is common.

Install

django-read-only on PyPI

pip install django-read-only

uv add django-read-only

poetry add django-read-only

Installing django-read-only

Before you install

Low friction installation with a single runtime dependency on Django. The package is actively maintained with recent releases and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice

MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions, making it suitable for both open-source and proprietary projects.

Quickstart

pip install django-read-only

# Add to INSTALLED_APPS in settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [..., "django_read_only", ...]

# Enable via environment variable or setting
DJANGO_READ_ONLY = True

# In shell, writes are now blocked; re-enable with:
import django_read_only
django_read_only.enable_writes()

Requires Django 4.2 to 6.0 and Python 3.9 or later. Cannot block queries executed directly through the underlying database connection or stored procedures.

Verify before relying

• Performance overhead of query inspection during read-only sessions is not quantified in the fact sheet.
• Compatibility with custom database backends or non-standard query patterns beyond standard Django ORM is unclear.

Package facts

Evidence: django_read_only-1.21.0-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: Django

Tags

More Database packages