drf-choices-mixin

A Django REST Framework mixin that automatically generates API endpoints for model field choices. Drop ChoicesMixin into any DRF viewset and it will expose every field that defines choices through list-level endpoints — no manual serializer or view code required.

Features

• Zero configuration — add the mixin and endpoints appear automatically.
• Fully configurable — customize endpoint names, URL structure, exposed fields, and response format.
• Works with all choice types — TextChoices, IntegerChoices, plain tuples, and grouped choices.
• Two endpoints per viewset — one for all choices, one for a specific field.

Installation

pip install drf-choices-mixin

Quick start

Given a model with choices:

from django.db import models


class Status(models.TextChoices):
    ACTIVE = "active", "Active"
    INACTIVE = "inactive", "Inactive"


class Priority(models.IntegerChoices):
    LOW = 1, "Low"
    MEDIUM = 2, "Medium"
    HIGH = 3, "High"


class Task(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    status = models.CharField(max_length=20, choices=Status.choices)
    priority = models.IntegerField(choices=Priority.choices)
    description = models.TextField()

Add the mixin to your viewset (place it before the base viewset class):

from drf_choices_mixin import ChoicesMixin
from rest_framework.viewsets import ModelViewSet


class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer

Register the viewset with a router as usual:

from rest_framework.routers import DefaultRouter

router = DefaultRouter()
router.register("tasks", TaskViewSet)

Two new endpoints are now available:

Endpoint	Description
GET /tasks/choices/	All choices for every field
GET /tasks/choices/{field_name}/	Choices for a specific field

Response examples

All choices — GET /tasks/choices/

{
  "status": [
    {"value": "active", "display": "Active"},
    {"value": "inactive", "display": "Inactive"}
  ],
  "priority": [
    {"value": 1, "display": "Low"},
    {"value": 2, "display": "Medium"},
    {"value": 3, "display": "High"}
  ]
}

Single field — GET /tasks/choices/status/

[
  {"value": "active", "display": "Active"},
  {"value": "inactive", "display": "Inactive"}
]

Requesting a field that has no choices or does not exist returns a 404:

{"detail": "Field 'title' does not have choices."}

Configuration

All configuration is done through class attributes on the viewset. Every option has a sensible default, so none of them are required.

Attribute	Type	Default	Description
choices_endpoint_name	str	"choices"	URL segment used for both endpoints
choices_field_first	bool	False	Put the field name before the endpoint segment in URLs
choices_fields	list[str] | None	None	Restrict which fields are exposed (None = all)
choices_value_key	str	"value"	Key name for the choice value in the response
choices_display_key	str	"display"	Key name for the display text in the response

Custom endpoint name

Rename the URL segment to avoid conflicts with other actions or to match your API conventions:

class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer
    choices_endpoint_name = "options"

This changes the endpoints to:

Before	After
GET /tasks/choices/	GET /tasks/options/
GET /tasks/choices/status/	GET /tasks/options/status/

URL order — field-first mode

By default the endpoint name comes first (/choices/status/). Set choices_field_first = True to invert the order, which can read more naturally in some APIs:

class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer
    choices_field_first = True

Default	Field-first
GET /tasks/choices/status/	GET /tasks/status/choices/

The all-choices endpoint stays the same (GET /tasks/choices/).

Both options can be combined:

class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer
    choices_endpoint_name = "options"
    choices_field_first = True

Endpoint	Description
GET /tasks/options/	All choices
GET /tasks/status/options/	Choices for the status field

Field filtering

By default every field with choices is exposed. Use choices_fields to restrict the output to a specific subset:

class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer
    choices_fields = ["status"]

GET /tasks/choices/ now returns only the status field:

{
  "status": [
    {"value": "active", "display": "Active"},
    {"value": "inactive", "display": "Inactive"}
  ]
}

Fields not in the list return 404 when accessed directly (GET /tasks/choices/priority/ → 404).

Custom response keys

If your frontend expects different key names, override choices_value_key and choices_display_key:

class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer
    choices_value_key = "key"
    choices_display_key = "label"

GET /tasks/choices/status/ now returns:

[
  {"key": "active", "label": "Active"},
  {"key": "inactive", "label": "Inactive"}
]

Full example

All options together:

class TaskViewSet(ChoicesMixin, ModelViewSet):
    queryset = Task.objects.all()
    serializer_class = TaskSerializer
    choices_endpoint_name = "options"
    choices_field_first = True
    choices_fields = ["status", "priority"]
    choices_value_key = "id"
    choices_display_key = "text"

Endpoint	Response
GET /tasks/options/	{"status": [{"id": "active", "text": "Active"}, ...], "priority": [...]}
GET /tasks/status/options/	[{"id": "active", "text": "Active"}, ...]
GET /tasks/description/options/	404

Supported choice formats

The mixin works with every way Django lets you define choices:

TextChoices / IntegerChoices enums (Django 3.0+):

class Status(models.TextChoices):
    ACTIVE = "active", "Active"
    INACTIVE = "inactive", "Inactive"

status = models.CharField(choices=Status.choices)

Plain tuples:

status = models.CharField(choices=[("active", "Active"), ("inactive", "Inactive")])

Grouped choices (automatically flattened):

COLOR_CHOICES = [
    ("Warm", [("red", "Red"), ("orange", "Orange")]),
    ("Cool", [("blue", "Blue"), ("green", "Green")]),
]
color = models.CharField(choices=COLOR_CHOICES)

Response for grouped choices:

[
  {"value": "red", "display": "Red"},
  {"value": "orange", "display": "Orange"},
  {"value": "blue", "display": "Blue"},
  {"value": "green", "display": "Green"}
]

Development

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync --group dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint & format
uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format .

# Build documentation locally
uv sync --group docs
make docs

Credits

This project was built with the assistance of Grok, an AI model by xAI.

License

MIT