📡 django-netcast

Instantly share your Django dev server with any device on your Wi-Fi — zero configuration required.

No more editing ALLOWED_HOSTS. No more Googling "what's my IP". No more 0.0.0.0 confusion.
Just run one command and open the URL on your phone.

python manage.py share_local

  ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │     django-netcast · LAN server running             │
  ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │  Local:    http://127.0.0.1:8000/                    │
  │  Network:  http://182.178.1.42:8000/                 │
  ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │  ⚠  Anyone on your Wi-Fi can access this!            │
  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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Features

Feature	Details
Zero config	No changes to settings.py needed
LAN IP auto-detection	Uses the OS routing table — works on macOS, Linux & Windows
ALLOWED_HOSTS injection	Automatically adds the LAN IP at runtime
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	Adds the correct http:// origin so Django admin & POST forms work from mobile
Static files	Inherits from staticfiles runserver — your CSS/JS just works
Auto-reload	Subclasses Django's runserver — file watching & auto-restart included
Offline-safe	Gracefully falls back to 127.0.0.1 when no network is found
No dependencies	Only uses the Python standard library + Django itself

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Installation

pip install django-netcast

Then add it to your INSTALLED_APPS:

# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    "netcast",
]

That's it. No middleware, no URLs, no database migrations.

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Usage

Basic (default port 8000)

python manage.py share_local

Custom port

python manage.py share_local 9000

All standard runserver flags work

python manage.py share_local --noreload --nothreading

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How It Works

1. Resolves your LAN IP — Opens a dummy UDP socket to 8.8.8.8 (no data is sent) and reads which local interface the OS would route through.
2. Patches ALLOWED_HOSTS — Adds 0.0.0.0, 127.0.0.1, localhost, and your LAN IP in-memory so Django doesn't reject the request.
3. Patches CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS — Adds http://<LAN-IP>:<PORT> so POST requests (forms, admin login) work from other devices without CSRF errors.
4. Binds to 0.0.0.0 — Tells the server to listen on all network interfaces instead of just localhost.
5. Prints a clean banner — Shows clickable local and network URLs, plus a security reminder.

Note: All changes are in-memory only — your settings.py file is never modified.

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Security

This tool is designed exclusively for local development.

• It binds your server to all network interfaces (0.0.0.0).
• Anyone connected to the same Wi-Fi network can access your dev server.
• Never use this in production. Use a proper WSGI/ASGI server behind a reverse proxy instead.

---

FAQ

Does this modify my settings.py?

No. All changes happen in-memory at runtime. Your files are completely untouched.

Does it work offline?

Yes. When no network is detected, it falls back to 127.0.0.1 and works like the normal runserver.

Can I use this with Docker?

It's designed for bare-metal local development. Inside Docker, network exposure is typically handled by port mapping (-p 8000:8000).

Does auto-reload still work?

Yes. share_local subclasses Django's own runserver, so file watching, auto-restart, and threading all behave exactly the same.

Does it serve static files?

Yes. It inherits from the staticfiles variant of runserver, so {% static %} tags work out of the box during development.

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Compatibility

	Supported
Python	3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13
Django	4.2, 5.0, 5.1+
OS	macOS, Linux, Windows

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue or submit a pull request.

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/sagar9187/django-netcast.git
cd django-netcast

# Install in editable mode with test dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

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Built with ❤️ for developers who test on their phones.