django-crispy-crud

Reusable Django CRUD views, forms, and template fragments with HTMX, Alpine.js, and Tailwind CSS.

Installation

With uv:

uv add django-crispy-crud

With pip:

pip install django-crispy-crud

For audit log support (optional):

uv add "django-crispy-crud[audit]"
# or
pip install "django-crispy-crud[audit]"

Setup

Add crispy_crud to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    "django.contrib.messages",
    "django.contrib.staticfiles",
    "crispy_forms",
    "crispy_tailwind",
    "django_htmx",
    "django_filters",
    "crispy_crud",
]

Add the required middleware:

MIDDLEWARE = [
    # ...
    "django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware",
    "django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware",
    "django_htmx.middleware.HtmxMiddleware",
]

Ensure the messages context processor is included in your template settings:

TEMPLATES = [
    {
        # ...
        "OPTIONS": {
            "context_processors": [
                "django.template.context_processors.request",
                "django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages",
                # ...
            ],
        },
    },
]

Set crispy forms to use Tailwind:

CRISPY_ALLOWED_TEMPLATE_PACKS = "tailwind"
CRISPY_TEMPLATE_PACK = "tailwind"

Your base template must load Alpine.js and HTMX (not bundled):

<script defer src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/alpinejs@3.x.x/dist/cdn.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://unpkg.com/htmx.org@2.0.0"></script>

Styling

The package templates use custom CSS classes (btn-primary, btn-secondary, btn-important, btn-disabled, form-link, readonly-form-field, toggle), shipped as a Tailwind CSS v4 entry point at static/crispy_crud/crispy_crud.css.

Setup

Run the crispy_crud_css management command, pointing --relative-to at your Tailwind input CSS file, and paste its output into that file after @import "tailwindcss";:

$ python manage.py crispy_crud_css --relative-to theme/static_src/src/styles.css
/* django-crispy-crud — paste after @import "tailwindcss"; */
@import "../../../.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crispy_crud/static/crispy_crud/crispy_crud.css";
@source "../../../.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crispy_tailwind/templates";

@import "tailwindcss";
@import "../../../.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crispy_crud/static/crispy_crud/crispy_crud.css";
@source "../../../.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/crispy_tailwind/templates";

The @source line is needed because {% crispy %} forms render crispy-tailwind's template pack, whose utility classes your build must scan to generate CSS for. Paths are printed relative to --relative-to's parent directory (matching how @import/@source resolve); omit the flag to get absolute paths instead.

Requirements

Requires tailwindcss >= 4.1 — earlier 4.x releases ignore an explicit @source that points into a .gitignore'd directory such as a uv-managed .venv (tailwindlabs/tailwindcss#15452).

Theming

Every colour in the component classes routes through a --crud-* CSS custom property with a package default as its fallback:

Override a variable in your own CSS to rebrand a component — no fork or package rebuild needed:

:root {
  --crud-btn-primary-bg: var(--color-indigo-600);
  --crud-btn-primary-bg-hover: var(--color-indigo-500);
}

See the test app's static_src/styles.css for a working example.

Caveats

• Re-run the command after a Python minor version upgrade (the python3.X segment of the path changes) or if the virtualenv moves.
• The pasted paths must also resolve wherever your production CSS is built (e.g. in Docker) -- this holds as long as that build installs the virtualenv at the project root with the same Python version.
• Projects with no Tailwind build step aren't supported as a first-class case yet.
• static/crispy_crud/css/components.css is deprecated and will be removed in a future release; use crispy_crud_css instead.

Usage

View mixins

from django.views.generic import CreateView, UpdateView
from django_filters.views import FilterView
from crispy_crud.views import (
    BaseModelAppMixin, CrispyFormArgsMixin,
    FilterFormMixin, HtmxFilterListMixin,
)

class WidgetListView(BaseModelAppMixin, FilterFormMixin, HtmxFilterListMixin, FilterView):
    model = Widget
    filterset_class = WidgetFilter
    template_name = "myapp/widget_list.html"
    partial_template_name = "myapp/fragments/widget_table.html"
    section = "widget-list"
    create_view_name = "widget-create"
    filter_form_class = WidgetFilterForm

class WidgetUpdateView(BaseModelAppMixin, CrispyFormArgsMixin, UpdateView):
    model = Widget
    form_class = WidgetForm
    template_name = "myapp/widget_detail.html"
    section = "widgets"
    delete_view_name = "widget-delete"
    success_url = reverse_lazy("widget-list")

Form helpers

from django import forms
from crispy_crud.forms import CrispyFormMixin

class WidgetForm(CrispyFormMixin, forms.ModelForm):
    cancel_action = "widget-list"

    class Meta:
        model = Widget
        fields = ["name", "description", "is_active"]

CrispyFormMixin provides a crispy FormHelper, cancel link, and Alpine.js dirty-state submit button out of the box. You need to set the layout in your form's __init__ and include self.button_holder at the end:

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
    super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
    self.helper.layout = Layout(
        Field("name"),
        Field("description"),
        Field("is_active"),
        self.button_holder,
    )

Filter forms

Create a filter form with a crispy helper using BaseFilterFormHelper:

from crispy_crud.forms import BaseFilterFormHelper
from crispy_forms.layout import Field, Layout

class WidgetFilterFormHelper(BaseFilterFormHelper):
    q_field_placeholder = "Search widgets..."

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.form_class = self.form_css
        self.layout = Layout(
            self.q_field,
            Field("is_active", wrapper_class="w-40"),
            self.button_holder,
        )

class WidgetFilterForm(forms.Form):
    q = forms.CharField(required=False)
    is_active = forms.BooleanField(required=False)

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self.helper = WidgetFilterFormHelper()

Set filter_form_class on your list view, and include the HTMX filter form fragment in your list template:

{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/forms/hx_filter_form.html' with view_name="widget-list" %}

This renders a form that auto-submits via HTMX on input changes -- the search field fires after a 500ms debounce, and select/checkbox fields fire on change. The filter_form_fields template tag automatically generates the correct HTMX trigger selectors for your filter fields.

You also need a django-filter FilterSet on your view:

import django_filters

class WidgetFilter(django_filters.FilterSet):
    q = django_filters.CharFilter(field_name="name", lookup_expr="icontains")

    class Meta:
        model = Widget
        fields = ["q", "is_active"]

Template fragments

The package provides reusable template fragments under crispy_crud/fragments/. Include them in your own templates:

{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/common/messages.html' %}
{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/common/page_heading.html' %}
{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/table/table_heading.html' with text="Name" first_column=True %}
{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/table/table_cell.html' with text=widget.name first_column=True %}
{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/table/hx_pagination.html' with page=page_obj %}
{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/details/delete_action.html' %}
{% include 'crispy_crud/fragments/loaders/loading_spinner.html' %}

Static files

Include the Alpine.js components for form state tracking and pagination:

<script src="{% static 'crispy_crud/js/formState.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'crispy_crud/js/pagination.js' %}"></script>

Configuration

All settings are optional and have sensible defaults:

Running the test app

The test app in tests/testapp/ is a working example you can clone as a starting point. To run it locally:

git clone https://github.com/howieweiner/django-crispy-crud.git
cd django-crispy-crud
uv run python manage.py migrate
uv run python manage.py runserver

Then visit http://localhost:8000/widgets/ to see the list view with filtering, pagination, create/update forms, and delete with confirmation modal.

Development

uv run pytest                    # run tests
uv run ruff check src/ tests/    # lint
uv run ruff format src/ tests/   # format

What's included

View mixins (crispy_crud.views)

• PaginationMixin -- page size from query param, cookie, or config
• HtmxPaginationMixin -- extends PaginationMixin with HTMX URL push
• CrispyFormArgsMixin -- injects request into form kwargs
• BaseAppMixin -- section/heading context
• BaseModelAppMixin -- auto-generated headings, create/delete actions, related-object protection
• HtmxFilterListMixin -- switches to partial template on HTMX requests
• FilterFormMixin -- populates filter form in context
• AuditLogMixin -- paginated audit history (requires django-auditlog)

Form helpers (crispy_crud.forms)

• CrispyFormMixin -- crispy FormHelper with cancel link and Alpine.js dirty-state
• AlpineSubmit -- submit button with Alpine.js attributes
• BaseFilterFormHelper -- filter form helper with search field and reset link

Model mixins (crispy_crud.models)

• AuditOnUpdateOnly -- suppresses auditlog on creation, only logs updates

Template fragments (crispy_crud/fragments/)

• common/ -- messages, alerts, page heading
• table/ -- pagination, table heading/cell, OOB add button
• details/ -- delete action with confirmation modal, audit history table
• forms/ -- filter form, field errors, submit/cancel, read-only fields
• loaders/ -- HTMX loading spinner and busy indicator

Template tags (crispy_crud_tags)

• filter_form_fields -- generates HTMX trigger selectors for filter form fields