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Creating Your First Django Project

Django provides the django-admin command-line tool to create new projects with a proper directory structure. A Django project is a collection of settings, configurations, and apps that together form a web application.

15 min•By Priygop Team•Updated 2026

Creating a Project

Use django-admin startproject to scaffold a new project. This creates a directory with manage.py (the project's command-line utility) and an inner project directory containing settings, URLs, and WSGI/ASGI configuration files.

Diagram

Loading diagram…

QuerySets are LAZY - no DB hit until evaluated.

Project Creation Steps

Run: django-admin startproject mysite
This creates: mysite/ (outer) and mysite/mysite/ (inner)
manage.py - Command-line utility for the project
settings.py - All project configuration
urls.py - URL declarations (the 'table of contents')
wsgi.py - WSGI entry point for deployment
asgi.py - ASGI entry point for async deployment

Create & Explore Project

# Create a new Django project
# django-admin startproject mysite

# Project structure:
# mysite/
#     manage.py            <- Command-line utility
#     mysite/
#         __init__.py      <- Python package marker
#         settings.py      <- Project settings
#         urls.py          <- URL routing
#         wsgi.py          <- WSGI config (deployment)
#         asgi.py          <- ASGI config (async)

# Navigate into the project
# cd mysite

# Run the development server
# python manage.py runserver

# Visit: http://127.0.0.1:8000/
# You should see the Django welcome page!

Tip

Use path() for clean URLs and include() to modularize app URLs. Always name your URL patterns for use with {% url %} template tag.

Common Mistake

Warning

Hardcoding URLs in templates like <a href='/blog/1/'> breaks when URLs change. Always use {% url 'post_detail' pk=1 %} instead.

Practice Task

Note

(1) Create a URL pattern with a dynamic parameter. (2) Use include() to add app URLs. (3) Name all your URL patterns.

Quick Quiz

Key Takeaways

Django provides the django-admin command-line tool to create new projects with a proper directory structure.
Run: django-admin startproject mysite
This creates: mysite/ (outer) and mysite/mysite/ (inner)
manage.py - Command-line utility for the project

Topics in This Module

Creating a Project

Diagram

Loading diagram…

QuerySets are LAZY - no DB hit until evaluated.

Project Creation Steps

Run: django-admin startproject mysite

This creates: mysite/ (outer) and mysite/mysite/ (inner)

manage.py - Command-line utility for the project

settings.py - All project configuration

urls.py - URL declarations (the 'table of contents')

wsgi.py - WSGI entry point for deployment

asgi.py - ASGI entry point for async deployment

Create & Explore Project

# Create a new Django project
# django-admin startproject mysite

# Project structure:
# mysite/
#     manage.py            <- Command-line utility
#     mysite/
#         __init__.py      <- Python package marker
#         settings.py      <- Project settings
#         urls.py          <- URL routing
#         wsgi.py          <- WSGI config (deployment)
#         asgi.py          <- ASGI config (async)

# Navigate into the project
# cd mysite

# Run the development server
# python manage.py runserver

# Visit: http://127.0.0.1:8000/
# You should see the Django welcome page!

Topics in This Module