Invisible, layered form protection for Django. Honeypot fields, signed timestamps, and a pluggable check pipeline.
Project description
django-formguard
Invisible, layered form protection for Django. Combines honeypot fields, signed timestamps, and a pluggable check pipeline to block bots without user friction. Bots receive a fake success response indistinguishable from a real one.
Installation
pip install django-formguard
Add 'formguard' to your INSTALLED_APPS:
INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
'formguard',
]
Quick Start
1. Define your form
# forms.py
from django import forms
from formguard.forms import GuardedFormMixin
class ContactForm(GuardedFormMixin, forms.Form):
name = forms.CharField()
email = forms.EmailField()
message = forms.CharField(widget=forms.Textarea)
2. Include {{ form.media }} in your template
FormGuard's CSS and JS are declared as widget media. Include {{ form.media }}
in your template's <head> so the honeypot field is hidden and the JS check
runs.
<!-- contact.html -->
<head>
{{ form.media }}
</head>
<body>
<form method="post">
{% csrf_token %}
{{ form }}
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>
</body>
3. Check submissions in your view
Class-based views - use GuardedFormViewMixin:
from django.views.generic import FormView
from formguard.views import GuardedFormViewMixin
class ContactView(GuardedFormViewMixin, FormView):
form_class = ContactForm
template_name = 'contact.html'
success_url = '/thanks/'
def form_valid(self, form):
if self.is_bot(form):
return self.bot_response()
send_email(form.cleaned_data)
return super().form_valid(form)
Function-based views - use the @guard_form decorator:
from formguard.decorators import guard_form
@guard_form(form_class=ContactForm, success_url='/thanks/')
def contact_view(request, form=None):
# only reached if the form is clean (bots were already redirected)
send_email(form.cleaned_data)
return redirect('/thanks/')
The decorator passes the bound form as a form keyword argument. Set
auto_reject=False to annotate the request instead of auto-redirecting:
@guard_form(form_class=ContactForm, success_url='/thanks/', auto_reject=False)
def contact_view(request, form=None):
if getattr(request, 'formguard_reasons', None):
# bot detected, but you decide what to do
return render(request, 'thanks.html')
send_email(form.cleaned_data)
return redirect('/thanks/')
How It Works
FormGuard runs a pipeline of checks against each form submission:
- Field trap - A hidden honeypot field that should always be empty. Bots that fill all visible fields get caught.
- Timing - A signed timestamp records when the form was loaded. Submissions
faster than
FORMGUARD_MIN_SECONDSare flagged. - Signature - The timestamp token is cryptographically signed. Tampered or expired tokens are rejected.
- JS challenge - A JavaScript snippet sets a hidden field value that bots without JS execution can't fake.
All checks are invisible to real users. The honeypot field is hidden via CSS, and the timing/signature checks happen server-side.
Settings
All settings are optional. Defaults work out of the box.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
FORMGUARD_FIELD_NAME |
'website' |
Honeypot field name (label is derived via .title()) |
FORMGUARD_MIN_SECONDS |
3 |
Minimum seconds before a submission is accepted |
FORMGUARD_MAX_SECONDS |
3600 |
Maximum token age before expiry |
FORMGUARD_SUCCESS_MESSAGE |
None |
Fake success message shown to bots |
FORMGUARD_CHECKS |
['formguard.checks.field_trap', 'formguard.checks.timing', 'formguard.checks.signature', 'formguard.checks.js_challenge'] |
Ordered list of check callables |
Custom Checks
Write a function that takes (request, form) and returns False if the
submission is clean, or a reason string if it should be blocked:
# myapp/checks.py
def rate_limit(request, form):
ip = request.META.get('REMOTE_ADDR')
if is_rate_limited(ip):
return 'rate limited'
return False
Register it in settings:
FORMGUARD_CHECKS = [
'formguard.checks.field_trap',
'formguard.checks.timing',
'formguard.checks.signature',
'formguard.checks.js_challenge',
'myapp.checks.rate_limit',
]
If a custom check raises an exception, it is logged and skipped (fail-open).
Signals
The guard_triggered signal is emitted whenever a submission is flagged:
from formguard.signals import guard_triggered
def on_guard_triggered(sender, request, form, reasons, **kwargs):
# log to monitoring, increment counter, etc.
pass
guard_triggered.connect(on_guard_triggered)
Testing
FormGuard ships test helpers to make testing guarded forms easy:
from formguard.test import GuardedFormTestMixin, make_guard_token
class TestContactView(GuardedFormTestMixin, TestCase):
def test_submission_works(self):
data = {
'name': 'Test',
'email': 'test@example.com',
'message': 'Hello',
**self.guard_data(), # adds valid token + empty honeypot
}
response = self.client.post('/contact/', data)
assert response.status_code == 302
make_guard_token() creates a valid signed token for use in test POST data.
GuardedFormTestMixin.guard_data() returns a dict with all required guard
fields pre-filled.
CSP Compatibility
FormGuard uses external static files for CSS and JS (no inline styles or
scripts), so it works with Content Security Policy out of the box when
'self' is in your script-src and style-src.
For strict nonce-based CSP policies, use
django-csp-helpers to add
nonces to the {{ form.media }} output.
License
This software is released under the MIT license.
Copyright (c) 2026 Luke Rogers
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
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