DORM

A browser playground for the Django ORM: run Python/ORM code against your database in notebook-style cells and see results as a table.

DORM executes arbitrary Python in your Django process. Read Access before enabling it anywhere but your laptop.

Install

pip install dorm-plg            # add [redis] for the Redis storage backend

# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [..., "django_htmx", "dorm"]
MIDDLEWARE     = [..., "django_htmx.middleware.HtmxMiddleware"]

# urls.py
from dorm import get_url_prefix
urlpatterns = [..., path(f"{get_url_prefix()}/", include("dorm.urls", namespace="dorm"))]

Open /__dorm__/. DORM has no models and needs no migrations.

Features

• Cells: each run commits a cell and opens a new one. Running a cell re-executes every cell above it first, so variables carry over. Hover a cell to run, save or remove it.
• Editor: Python highlighting, auto-closed quotes and brackets. Ctrl/Cmd+Enter runs, Alt/Option+↑/↓ steps through recent executions, Ctrl/Cmd+/ comments.
• Auto-imports: all models plus Q, F, Count, Sum, Avg, Max, Min, Value, OuterRef and Subquery.
• History: a modal with Recents and Saved tabs; copy an entry, or insert it into the focused cell.
• Export: CSV (;) or JSON. Previews show 200 rows; when a result is truncated, you choose between the loaded rows and the full result. The full result re-runs the query, and over 1,500 rows it arrives as a .zip of 1,500-row files.

Access

• DEBUG=True: open to everyone, unless you turn on the auth or permission settings.

• DEBUG=False: every DORM URL returns 404 unless all of these hold:

  • DORM_URL_NAME is a custom value
  • DORM_AUTH_ACCESS = True
  • DORM_PERMISSION_ACCESS = True
  • the user is logged in and has the permission

  manage.py check reports dorm.W001 when a setting is missing.

DORM defines no permission itself. Create it on one of your models, usually the user model:

class User(AbstractUser):
    class Meta:
        permissions = [("can_access_dorm_plg", "Can access DORM")]

With the stock auth.User, create the same Permission in a data migration (content_type = User). Then grant it in the admin.

Storage

History, saved commands and settings are stored in a pluggable backend. The default is in-memory.

DORM_STORAGE = {
    "BACKEND": "json",                                # memory | json | redis | sql | dotted.path
    "OPTIONS": {"path": BASE_DIR / "dorm_db.json"},
    "HISTORY_LIMIT": 100,
}

To write a custom backend, subclass dorm.storage.BaseStorage and implement get, set, delete, all, push, range and clear.

Development

git clone https://github.com/almamydev/DORM && cd DORM
uv sync --extra dev
uv run pytest
cd sandbox && uv run python manage.py migrate && uv run python manage.py runserver