LiteAdmin

Django Admin–style admin panel for Litestar and FastAPI, with Tortoise ORM and SQLAlchemy.

React UI ships in litedmin/static/ — no npm needed for normal use.

Install

pip install litedmin
pip install "litedmin[fastapi,sqlalchemy]"   # FastAPI + SQLAlchemy
pip install "litedmin[litestar,tortoise]"    # Litestar + Tortoise
pip install "litedmin[all]"                  # both ORMs + frameworks + dev tools

Core symbols (AdminConfig, OrmSettings, register, ModelAdmin) import without ORM/framework extras. ORM and web stacks load only when you import their modules (or touch lazy attributes on litedmin).

From source (examples / development)

git clone https://github.com/ggb0yyyyyyy/litedmin.git
cd litedmin
pip install -e ".[litestar,tortoise]"      # examples/tortoise (port 8000)
pip install -e ".[litestar,sqlalchemy]"    # examples/sqlalchemy (port 8011)
pip install -e ".[fastapi,tortoise]"
pip install -e ".[all]"

Repository layout

liteDmin/
  litedmin/                 installable package
    backend/
      core/                 AdminSite, config, OrmSettings, decorators
      admin/                ModelAdmin, changelist, formsets, permissions
      api/                  AdminAPI / endpoints
      auth/                 session, backends, UserAdminMixin, system models
      orm/                  Tortoise / SQLAlchemy backends + repositories
      integration/          Litestar & FastAPI Admin mounts, DI helpers
      dto/ storage/
    static/                 bundled React UI
  frontend/                 React sources (rebuild → litedmin/static/)
  examples/                 Litestar + Tortoise / SQLAlchemy demos
  tests/

Quick start (Litestar + Tortoise)

Superuser is not created on app startup. Create it once via CLI, then run the example:

# optional credentials for CLI
export ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
export ADMIN_PASSWORD=admin

py -3.11 -m litedmin createsuperuser --settings examples.tortoise.settings:orm_settings
py -3.11 -m uvicorn examples.tortoise.app:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Open http://localhost:8000/admin

SQLAlchemy example: same flow with examples.sqlalchemy.settings:orm_settings and port 8011. Details: examples/README.md, examples/CREDENTIALS.md.

Minimal wiring

from litestar import Litestar, get

# Shared Starlette Admin ASGI app; Litestar/FastAPI only provide mount helpers.
from litedmin.backend.integration.litestar import Admin
from litedmin.backend.integration import init_tortoise_with_litedmin, close_tortoise
# FastAPI: from litedmin.backend.integration.fastapi import Admin
#      or: from litedmin import Admin
# Then: app.mount(admin.prefix, admin.as_asgi_app())

from examples.tortoise.admin_config import ExampleAdminConfig
from examples.tortoise.settings import AUTO_DISCOVER_MODULES, orm_settings

admin = Admin(
    prefix='/admin',
    config=ExampleAdminConfig(),          # AdminConfig: theme / UI / auth_user_model
    auto_discover_modules=AUTO_DISCOVER_MODULES,
)

async def on_startup():
    await init_tortoise_with_litedmin(orm_settings)  # OrmSettings: ORM + DB
    await admin.ensure_started()  # validate admin + sync permissions (no user seed)

async def on_shutdown():
    await close_tortoise()

@get('/')
async def root() -> dict:
    return {'admin': '/admin'}

app = Litestar(
    route_handlers=[root, admin.as_mount()],
    on_startup=[on_startup],
    on_shutdown=[on_shutdown],
)

File / rich-text media storage

Pass any StorageBackend (save / delete / url) into Admin(storage=...). Rich editor uploads go to POST /admin/media/upload and embed the returned url in HTML.

Examples use LocalFileStorage + /media static route — see examples/README.md. Swap in S3/MinIO by implementing the same protocol in your app.

SQLAlchemy apps also call admin.configure_sqlalchemy(...) after init_sqlalchemy_with_litedmin_async — see examples/sqlalchemy/app.py.

ModelAdmin

• Prefer TortoiseModelAdmin / SQLAlchemyModelAdmin (repository save/delete).
• Register with @register / AdminSite.register — admin_site is always injected; do not construct ModelAdmin without a site.
• Permission / persist hooks are async (has_*, get_permissions, get_list_scope_filters, save_model, delete_model, process_extra_fields). Sync getters (get_list_display, …) stay sync.
• Users with password field: UserAdminMixin.
• Long readonly textareas: pass options on the widget itself (SPA preview + “Show full text” dialog):

from litedmin import Textarea

class AnalysisAdmin(SQLAlchemyModelAdmin):
    widgets = {
        'error': Textarea(collapse_chars=280),
    }

Field references (SQLAlchemy)

Settings accept plain names ('title', 'author__username') for any ORM. For SQLAlchemy you can also pass the model's own attributes (and Link(...) for relation paths), so a type checker catches a misspelt field:

from litedmin import Link, action, display, register
from litedmin.backend.orm.sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemyModelAdmin

@register(Post)
class PostAdmin(SQLAlchemyModelAdmin):
    list_display = [Post.id, Post.title, Link(Post.author, User.username), 'title_upper']
    search_fields = [Post.title, Link(Post.author, User.email)]
    ordering = [Post.created_at.desc()]
    list_filter = [Post.published, Post.status]

Tortoise models have no field attributes on the class — keep using strings there ('title', 'author__username'). Computed @display columns are always strings.

Tortoise example

from litedmin import action, register, display
from litedmin.backend.orm.tortoise import TortoiseModelAdmin

@action(description='Publish selected', row=True)
async def make_published(modeladmin, request, objects):
    # ``objects`` is a list of instances (not an ORM queryset)
    ...
    # Optional: return a status string for the SPA toast (e.g. background job accepted)
    # return 'Export queued'

@action(description='Refresh cache', toolbar=True, bulk=False, row=False)
async def refresh_cache(modeladmin, request, objects):
    # Page toolbar button (no selection); same POST /{model}/action with ids=[]
    ...
    return 'Refresh queued'

@register(Post)
class PostAdmin(TortoiseModelAdmin):
    list_display = ['title', 'title_upper']
    actions = [make_published, refresh_cache]  # each entry must use @action

    @display(label='Upper title')
    def title_upper(self, obj):
        return obj.title.upper()

    async def has_export_permission(self, request=None, obj=None):
        return True

List actions require @action (Django @admin.action style). Use row=True for per-row buttons; bulk=False to hide from the bulk dropdown; toolbar=True for page-level tools above the list (always empty selection). Signature is always (modeladmin, request, objects).

Auth

• Default: session cookie login (SessionAuthBackend + SessionAuth).
• SSO (Keycloak gateway handoff): GatewayWebAuthBackend — see examples/tortoise/app_gateway_web.py and examples/README.md.

CLI

litedmin createsuperuser --settings examples.tortoise.settings:orm_settings
# or
python -m litedmin createsuperuser --settings module.path:orm_settings

--username / --password / --email, or ADMIN_USERNAME / ADMIN_PASSWORD / ADMIN_EMAIL.

Config split

Features

• @register / AdminSite.register ModelAdmin API
• SQLAlchemy field attributes / Link(...) in ModelAdmin settings (strings for Tortoise)
• @display computed list columns
• @action list actions (bulk dropdown + optional row=True buttons)
• CSV/JSON export (has_export_permission)
• Django-like permissions, groups, LogEntry audit trail
• list_editable, date_hierarchy, bulk actions, inlines
• Row-level scope via get_list_scope_filters + object-level has_*
• Double-submit CSRF cookie for session auth (AdminConfig.csrf_protect)
• StorageBackend protocol for file uploads

Typing

Package is typed; project mypy config is in pyproject.toml ([tool.mypy]).

pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m mypy litedmin

Change the React UI

pip install -e ".[all]"
# or: pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
bash scripts/build_frontend.sh
git add litedmin/static/

License

MIT