Django Project Structure
In this page:
The Outer Project Folder
The top-level folder created by startproject holds manage.py and the inner settings package; everything for the whole project lives under this one folder.
Example: The Outer Project Folder
ls right after startproject shows the outer folder contains just manage.py and one inner folder — everything for the whole project lives under this one directory.
django-admin startproject mysite
ls mysite/⚠️ Run this command in your terminal.
The Inner Settings Package
Inside the outer folder is another folder with the same project name, containing settings.py, urls.py, wsgi.py, and asgi.py — the actual configuration package.
Example: The Inner Settings Package
The inner folder shares the project's name and holds settings.py, urls.py, wsgi.py, asgi.py, and __init__.py — the actual configuration package.
ls mysite/mysite/⚠️ Run this command in your terminal.
What settings.py Controls
settings.py is the central configuration file where you set installed apps, database connections, static file paths, and other project-wide options.
Example: What settings.py Controls
grep-ing settings.py for these names shows exactly where each key project-wide option — installed apps, database connection, middleware stack, template config — is declared.
grep -n "INSTALLED_APPS\|DATABASES\|MIDDLEWARE\|TEMPLATES" mysite/mysite/settings.py⚠️ Run this command in your terminal.
The Role of urls.py
The project-level urls.py is the first place Django looks to match an incoming URL, and it typically delegates to each app's own urls.py using include().
Example: The Role of urls.py
The project-level urls.py is the first stop for every request; here it hands off anything under /blog/ to the blog app's own urls.py via include().
# mysite/urls.py
from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include
urlpatterns = [
path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
path('blog/', include('blog.urls')),
]- Confusing the outer project folder with the inner settings package that shares a similar name.
- Editing files inside migrations folders by hand instead of letting Django generate them.
- Placing app-specific code directly in the project settings folder instead of inside its own app.
- A new project has an outer folder and an inner settings package with the same name.
- settings.py holds project-wide configuration like installed apps and database settings.
- urls.py maps URLs to views at the project level.
- manage.py is the command-line entry point for running the project.
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