django-sqllogging 1.0.1

Pretty, useful SQL logging for Django development

django-sqllogging

Pretty, useful SQL logging for Django development.

• Re-formats and syntax-highlights SQL queries in the terminal
• Color-codes mutation queries (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER); syntax-highlights SELECTs
• Logs queries before execution with inlined parameters
• Logs query duration with slow-query highlighting
• Shows the request path that triggered each query
• Shows stack traces to find where queries originate
• Detects implicitly loaded relations (forward FK, forward/reverse one-to-one)

Installation

pip install django-sqllogging

Quick Start

Add django_sqllogging to your installed apps:

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

Then control SQL logging via the sqldebug environment variable:

# Log all queries
sqldebug=query python manage.py runserver

# Log queries with stack traces
sqldebug=query,stack python manage.py runserver

# Log queries with the request path (requires middleware, see below)
sqldebug=query,request python manage.py runserver

# Log implicitly loaded relations
sqldebug=rels python manage.py runserver

# Everything
sqldebug=query,stack,rels,request python manage.py runserver

That's it — when sqldebug is set and no explicit logging configuration exists, a default handler is added automatically.

For custom logging setups (file output, different formatters, etc.), see Advanced Configuration.

Example Output

With sqldebug=query:

[django_sqllogging] ===>
  SELECT id, name, email
  FROM myapp_user
  WHERE active = 1
  AND role = 'admin'
  ORDER BY created_at;
  SQL Time: 0.0023

With sqldebug=rels:

[django_sqllogging] ===> 'profile' implicitly fetched on 'User'

Mutation queries (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) are color-coded. Slow queries (>0.1s by default) show the duration in red. In stack mode, a filtered stack trace appears above each query showing the application code that triggered it.

Shortcuts

Value	Equivalent
1 or t	query
2	query,stack
trace	stack
0 or f	disabled

Request Path Tracking

To display the request path that triggered each query, add the middleware early in the list — queries from middleware above it won't have request context:

MIDDLEWARE = [
    "django_sqllogging.middleware.sql_logging_middleware",
    # ... other middleware
]

Then use sqldebug=query,request or sqldebug=query,stack (stack mode includes the request path automatically).

The middleware supports both WSGI and ASGI (sync and async Django).

Third-party compatibility

If you already have django-crum or django-threadlocals middleware active in your MIDDLEWARE, the built-in middleware is unnecessary — django-sqllogging auto-detects these libraries and reads the current request from them. No configuration needed.

Without any middleware (built-in or third-party), request path display silently shows nothing.

How It Works

When django_sqllogging is in INSTALLED_APPS and the logger is configured, the library patches Django's CursorDebugWrapper (used when DEBUG = True) to log queries before execution with inlined parameters. It also patches relation descriptors to detect implicit relation loading.

These patches are dormant when the sqldebug env var is not set — the overhead is negligible (one attribute check per query or relation access).

Request path tracking uses a lightweight ContextVar-based middleware (or auto-detects compatible third-party middleware) instead of walking the call stack.

Advanced Configuration

Using SqlFormatter with a different handler

SqlFormatter can be used independently with any handler (FileHandler, SysLogHandler, etc.):

LOGGING = {
    "version": 1,
    "disable_existing_loggers": False,
    "formatters": {
        "sql": {
            "()": "django_sqllogging.SqlFormatter",
            "project_name": "myapp",
        },
    },
    "filters": {
        "sql_debug": {"()": "django_sqllogging.SqlDebugFilter"},
    },
    "handlers": {
        "sql_file": {
            "class": "logging.FileHandler",
            "filename": "sql.log",
            "formatter": "sql",
            "filters": ["sql_debug"],
        },
    },
    "loggers": {
        "django_sqllogging": {"level": "DEBUG", "handlers": ["sql_file"], "propagate": False},
    },
}

SqlDebugFilter suppresses records when the sqldebug env var is not set. Without it, all SQL records are written regardless of sqldebug.

Overriding SQL_DEBUG programmatically

The sqldebug env var is auto-detected at startup. To override it in settings:

SQL_DEBUG = {"query", "stack"}  # Always enable query + stack mode

If SQL_DEBUG is set explicitly in settings (even to None), the env var is ignored.

Formatter Options

Option	Default	Description
project_name	Last component of BASE_DIR	Controls how stack trace paths are shortened
slow_threshold	0.1 (seconds)	Duration above this is highlighted red
max_sql_length	10000 (chars)	SQL longer than this is truncated

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• Django 5.2+ with DEBUG = True (pre-execution logging uses CursorDebugWrapper)

See also

• nplusone — N+1 query detection for Django and SQLAlchemy with middleware-based profiling, eager-load analysis, and test-mode exceptions. Unmaintained since 2020 but stable.

License

BSD 3-Clause. See LICENSE for details.