How to Structure a Django Project

Django's default project structure works well for small applications, but as projects grow, the standard layout can become unwieldy. A well-structured Django project improves maintainability, makes it easier for new developers to understand the codebase, and helps prevent circular dependencies.

The first principle is to organize by feature rather than by file type. Instead of having all models in one massive models.py file, break them into logical apps. For example, in an e-commerce site, you might have separate apps for users, products, orders, and payments. Each app should be focused on a single area of functionality and be as self-contained as possible.

Within each app, consider breaking large files into modules. Convert models.py into a models/ directory with files like models/user.py and models/profile.py, using __init__.py to maintain backwards compatibility. The same approach works for views, serializers, and other components. This prevents any single file from becoming too large to navigate effectively.

For project-wide concerns, create specialized directories at the project root. A core/ app can hold abstract models, custom middleware, and shared utilities. Static files and templates can be organized by app or kept in project-level directories, depending on your team's preferences. Configuration should be split into environment-specific files (development, staging, production) inheriting from a base configuration. This structure scales well from small projects to large applications with dozens of apps and hundreds of models.