Ditch requirements.txt: Elevate Your Django Projects with Poetry! 🚀

If you’re still managing dependencies with requirements.txt, it's time for an upgrade. While pip and virtualenv have served Django developers well for years, Poetry is a modern dependency management tool that simplifies the process and offers more control.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to set it up poetry for your Django project, and the best practices to streamline your workflow.

Setting Up Poetry for Your Django Project

1️. Install Poetry

Before using Poetry, you need to install it.

For Mac & Linux, run:

curl -sSL https://install.python-poetry.org | python3 -

For Windows, use:

(Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://install.python-poetry.org -UseBasicParsing).Content | python -

After installation, verify that Poetry is installed:

poetry --version

2. Create a New Django Project with Poetry

Instead of manually creating a virtual environment and installing dependencies, use Poetry to set up everything in one command:

poetry new my_django_project 
cd my_django_project

This creates a new project structure like this:

my_django_project/ 
│── pyproject.toml  # Defines dependencies 
│── poetry.lock     # Locks dependencies 
│── my_django_project/ 
│── tests/ 
└── README.md

3. Activate the Virtual Environment

Poetry automatically manages virtual environments, but you need to activate it. poetry shell command will activate the virtual environment:

poetry shell

4. Add Django as a Dependency

Now, install Django using Poetry:

poetry add django

This automatically updates pyproject.toml and locks the version in poetry.lock.

If you need development dependencies (e.g., black, pytest), add them with -G dev:

poetry add --group dev black pytest-django

5. Create Django Project:

Now you can use django-admin command to create a django project

django-admin startproject config .

You can delete some files or folder if don’t need them.

6. Running and Managing Your Django App

Once your project is set up, run the development server:

poetry run python manage.py runserver

All Django commands work normally inside the Poetry environment:

poetry run python manage.py migrate 
poetry run python manage.py createsuperuser

Bonus: Best Practices for Django with Poetry

✅ 1. Use poetry.lock for Reproducibility

Unlike requirements.txt, poetry.lock ensures everyone on your team gets the exact same package versions, preventing conflicts.

✅ 2. Run Tests with Poetry

poetry run pytest

or

poetry run python manage.py test

✅ 3. Deploy with Poetry

poetry install --without dev

This installs only production dependencies, reducing unnecessary bloat.

Final Thoughts: Time to Ditch requirements.txt!

Poetry is a game-changer for Django projects, offering a cleaner, more robust way to manage dependencies. With automatic virtual environments, smart dependency resolution, and better reproducibility, it’s time to say goodbye to requirements.txt!

Ready to switch to Poetry? Let me know in the comments! 🚀