django-management-ui 0.4.0

Reusable Django app for executing management commands from Django Admin

django-management-ui

Run any Django management command from the admin panel. No models, no migrations — just install and go.

Documentation

The app introspects argparse definitions of your commands and dynamically builds forms with appropriate widgets: text inputs, checkboxes, dropdowns, number fields, file uploads for Path arguments.

Features

• Automatic discovery of all registered management commands
• Dynamic form generation from argparse argument types
• File upload with temp file lifecycle for Path arguments (upload or enter path as text)
• Grouped display: command-specific args + collapsible BaseCommand options
• Output capture (stdout/stderr) with execution time
• Superuser-only access
• Appears on the Django Admin index page in the app list as "Commands" section
• Command blacklist to hide dangerous commands
• Configurable execution timeout (default 30s)
• Output truncation for large command outputs

Quick start

1. Install

pip install django-management-ui

2. Add to INSTALLED_APPS

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    "management_ui",
]

3. Add URL configuration

# urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import include, path

urlpatterns = [
    path("admin/", include("management_ui.urls")),
    path("admin/", admin.site.urls),
]

That's it. Navigate to /admin/commands/ to see all available commands.

How it works

argparse introspection → ArgumentInfo → Django form field → execute command → CommandResult

1. Discovery — finds all registered management commands via django.core.management.get_commands()
2. Introspection — parses argparse _actions into ArgumentInfo dataclasses
3. Form generation — maps argument types to Django form fields:

Argument type	Form field
store_true / store_false	BooleanField (checkbox)
choices	ChoiceField (dropdown)
type=int	IntegerField
type=float	FloatField
type=Path	PathField (file upload + text input toggle)
default / type=str	CharField

4. Execution — runs command via call_command(), captures stdout/stderr, measures duration
5. Result — displays output with success/error styling

Path argument support

When a command argument has type=Path, the form renders a dual-mode widget:

• File upload mode (default) — upload a file, it's saved to /tmp/ with a unique name, path passed to command, temp file cleaned up after execution
• Text path mode — enter a server path as text (toggle via "or enter path as text" link)

Requirements

• Python >= 3.11
• Django >= 4.2

License

MIT