Django Correlation IDs

Django Correlation IDs adds Correlation IDs into your log records to enhace their traceability, especially for distributed systems.

Each request is assigned a unique identifier--its Correlation ID. As the request is processed by your project, each Django subsystem and your apps' loggers have the ability to produce log messages that include this identifier:

2025-12-01T16:25:34 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc INFO: handling POST /foo/
2025-12-01T16:25:34 87654321-4321-4321-4321-fed987654321 INFO: handling GET /bar/
2025-12-01T16:25:34 87654321-4321-4321-4321-fed987654321 DEBUG: executing query "SELECT ..." with params (...)
2025-12-01T16:25:35 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc WARNING: found condition in payload data
2025-12-01T16:25:35 87654321-4321-4321-4321-fed987654321 INFO: responding 200 to GET /bar/
2025-12-01T16:25:36 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc DEBUG: executing query "SELECT ..." with params (...)
2025-12-01T16:25:36 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc DEBUG: executing query "INSERT ..." with params (...)
2025-12-01T16:25:36 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc INFO: reponding 201 to POST /foo/

Installation

Django Correlation IDs can be installed from PyPI:

uv add django-correlation-ids

Then, add the app to the list of installed apps in your project's settings.py file:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    "django_correlation_ids",
]

Next, add the appropriate middleware to your project's middleware list in settings.py:

MIDDLEWARE = [
    # ... other middleware
    "django_correlation_ids.middleware.CorrelationMiddleware",
    # or if your project is running on ASGI:
    # "django_correlation_ids.middleware.AsyncCorrelationMiddleware"
]

Settings

Django Correlation IDs does not require any additional settings to be used by your project. It does have optional settings that can be configured in your project's settings.py file.

The default settings for Django Correlation IDs are:

DJANGO_CORRELATION_IDS = {
    # Name of the HTTP header for responses. Will also be used as the name of
    # the HTTP header for requests when 'accept_correlation_id' is True.
    "correlation_id_header": "X-Correlation-Id",
    
    # Name of the HTTP header for requests and responses.
    "request_id_header": "X-Request-Id",
    
    # If a request has a Correlation ID header, should that value be used as
    # the Correlation ID by this software? This can be useful if your app is
    # part of a collection of APIs; e.g. a microservice architecture.
    "accept_correlation_id": True,
    
    # If the request has a Request ID header, should that value be used as
    # the Correlation ID by this software?
    "recycle_request_id": False,
    
    # If, for whatever reason, the Correlation ID is empty when returning a
    # response, should an empty header value be allowed to be sent?
    "allow_response_empty_correlation_id": False,
    
    # If the Request ID is empty when returning a response, should an empty
    # header value be allowed to be sent?
    "allow_response_empty_request_id": False,
}

Usage

The main interface of Django Correlation IDs is via logging. This software provides a custom logging filter object that will add the current request's Correlation ID, and optionally the Request ID, to log records.

LOGGING = {
    "version": 1,
    "disable_existing_loggers": False,
    "filters": {
        "correlation": {
            "()": "django_correlation_ids.logging.CorrelationFilter",
        },
    },
    "formatters": {
        "correlation": {
            "format": "{asctime} {correlation_id} {levelname}: {message}",
            "style": "{",
            "datefmt": "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z",
        },
    },
    "handlers": {
        "console": {
            "class": "logging.StreamHandler",
            "filters": ["correlation"],
            "formatter": "correlation",
        },
    },
    "loggers": {
        "your_app": {
            "handlers": ["console"],
            "propagate": True,
            "level": "DEBUG",
        },
        "django": {
            "handlers": ["console"],
            "propagate": True,
            "level": "INFO",
        },
    },
}

Django Correlation IDs also provides a simple interface to access the current Correlation and Request IDs:

>>> from django_correlation_ids import context
>>> context.get_correlation_id()
"some-correlation-id-string"
>>> context.get_request_id()
"some-request-id-string"