django-newadmin

A modern, extensible light-and-dark theme for Django's built-in admin.

Status: 0.1.0a1 alpha candidate. Django 6.0 and 6.1 on Python 3.13 and 3.14 are tested locally; GitHub Actions repeats this matrix after the code is pushed. TestPyPI publication is manual; PyPI publication runs only when a GitHub Release uses the matching version tag. License: BSD-3-Clause.

Documentation: CARocha.github.io/django-newadmin will be published by GitHub Actions after Pages is enabled for this repository.

Development setup

python3.14 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/python -m pip install -e '.[dev,docs]'
npm ci
.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests --ignore=tests/browser -q
.venv/bin/python -m playwright install chromium
.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/browser -q
npm run build:css
npm run build:charts
npm run build:icons
npm run test:js

The npm commands are for developing NewAdmin's assets. Installing the Python package includes the compiled files and does not require Node.js.

Activate NewAdmin

Add newadmin before Django's admin app. No model changes, middleware, or migrations are required in a consuming project:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    "newadmin",
    "django.contrib.admin",
    # Other Django apps.
]

The theme works with its defaults. Optional site branding and appearance can be set in settings.py:

NEWADMIN = {
    "SITE_TITLE": "Studio",
    "SITE_HEADER": "Studio control room",
    "DEFAULT_MODE": "auto",  # light, dark, or auto
}

Run the demo

After installing the project in editable mode, prepare the sample catalog and create a local administrator:

.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py migrate
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py seed_demo
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py createsuperuser
.venv/bin/python demo/manage.py runserver

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ and sign in with the account you created. The demo is a local development project and uses SQLite.

See the project specification, design, and task list for scope and progress.

Custom dashboards

Use a Python provider and a template to show data from your own models. Optional Apache ECharts graphs are bundled locally under Apache 2.0, with light/dark mode, responsive SVG output and an HTML data alternative. No chart license purchase or Node installation is required by a package consumer.

See the dashboard guide for configuration, permissions, per-site providers, templates and examples. The demo enables an editorial provider with entry counts, category charts and recent articles.

Menus and extensions

Configure model/app icons, named links with permission checks, per-AdminSite settings and custom CSS. Public template blocks let a consuming project extend the branding, sidebar and footer while retaining Django's native controls. See the configuration and extension guide.

Documentation (Sphinx)

The Spanish user guides cover installation, configuration, dashboards, accessibility and release steps. Build the searchable HTML documentation locally:

.venv/bin/python -m sphinx -n -W --keep-going -b html docs docs/_build/html
.venv/bin/python -m http.server 8002 --directory docs/_build/html

Open http://127.0.0.1:8002/. Read the changelog and alpha limitations before using this release. .readthedocs.yaml is ready for connecting a Read the Docs project; hosted documentation has not been published yet.