What is django-debug-toolbar?

django-commons/django-debug-toolbar — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 8,359PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Debug Toolbar))
    What it shows
      Database queries
      Cache usage
      HTTP headers
      Template rendering
    How to use
      Dev only
      Floating panel
      Click to expand
    Setup
      Add to INSTALLED_APPS
      Include URLs
      Dev settings only
    Compatibility
      Django 5.2+
      Async views beta

mindmap root((Debug Toolbar)) What it shows Database queries Cache usage HTTP headers Template rendering How to use Dev only Floating panel Click to expand Setup Add to INSTALLED_APPS Include URLs Dev settings only Compatibility Django 5.2+ Async views beta

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Identify slow or redundant database queries causing page lag by seeing every SQL statement and its execution time.

USE CASE 2

Debug unexpected HTTP redirects or missing cache hits during Django development without digging through server logs.

USE CASE 3

Inspect which templates and context variables rendered a specific page to track down display bugs.

What is it built with?

PythonDjangoJavaScriptHTMLCSS

How does it compare?

	django-commons/django-debug-toolbar	kernc/backtesting.py	readthedocs/readthedocs.org
Stars	8,359	8,356	8,351
Language	Python	Python	Python
Setup difficulty	easy	easy	hard
Complexity	2/5	2/5	4/5
Audience	developer	developer	developer

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Never enable on a production site, the toolbar exposes internal app details to anyone who can load the page.

Use, modify, and distribute freely for any purpose including commercial projects, as long as you keep the BSD copyright notice.

So what is it?

Django Debug Toolbar is a developer tool that adds a floating panel to Django web applications while you are building them. Django is a Python framework for building websites and web apps. The toolbar appears in the browser during local development and shows detailed information about what is happening behind the scenes for each page request. The toolbar is organized into separate panels, each covering a different aspect of a request. One panel might show all the database queries a page triggered and how long each one took. Others show information about the HTTP headers, cache usage, template rendering, signals, logging output, and more. Clicking any panel expands it to show the full details. This makes it much easier to spot slow database queries, unexpected redirects, or configuration issues without having to dig through server logs. The toolbar is intended only for use during development, not on a live production site. It adds overhead and exposes internal details that should not be visible to end users. Installation involves adding it to your Django project's settings file, listing it as an installed app, and including its URL configuration. The README is short and points to a separate documentation site for full setup instructions. The current release is version 6.3.0 and requires Django 5.2 or newer. It has experimental support for Django's asynchronous views, though the README notes it cannot yet handle concurrent requests reliably and asks users to report any bugs they find. The project was originally created in 2008 and is now maintained under the django-commons GitHub organization. It is released under the BSD license.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1

Walk me through installing django-debug-toolbar in a Django 5.2 project: the INSTALLED_APPS setting, middleware order, URL config, and how to verify the panel appears in the browser.

Prompt 2

My Django list page is slow and I suspect N+1 database queries. Using django-debug-toolbar's SQL panel, how do I identify the repeated queries and fix them with select_related() or prefetch_related()?

Prompt 3

Show me how to create a custom debug panel for django-debug-toolbar that tracks and displays all outbound HTTP requests my Django views make to external APIs.

Frequently asked questions