By golly, I think things are working!

I can't remember what all things I referenced to make this work. I've
been messing with it off and on all afternoon and evening createing and
recreating and recreating projects.

https://github.com/sloria/environs#reading-env-files

https://learndjango.com/tutorials/template-structure

evansd/whitenoise#191 (comment)

config/settings.py-tpl

@@ -10,20 +10,22 @@ For the full list of settings and their values, see
 https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/{{ docs_version }}/ref/settings/
 """
 
-import environs
+from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key
+from pathlib import Path
+from environs import Env
 
-env = environs.Env()
+env = Env()
+# Read .env into os.environ
+env.read_env()
 
 # Build paths inside the project like this: BASE_DIR / 'subdir'.
-BASE_DIR = environs.Path(__file__).resolve(strict=True).parent.parent
+BASE_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent
 
 # Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
 # See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/{{ docs_version }}/howto/deployment/checklist/
 
 # SECURITY WARNING: keep the secret key used in production secret!
-SECRET_KEY = env(
-    "SECRET_KEY", default="{{ secret_key }}"
-)
+SECRET_KEY = env("SECRET_KEY", default=get_random_secret_key())
 
 # SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
 DEBUG = env.bool("DJANGO_DEBUG", default=False)
@@ -46,11 +48,16 @@ INSTALLED_APPS = [
 
 # Third-party apps
 
-INSTALLED_APPS += []
+INSTALLED_APPS += [
+    "debug_toolbar",
+    "django_browser_reload",
+]
 
 # Our apps
 
-INSTALLED_APPS += []
+INSTALLED_APPS += [
+    "core",
+]
 
 MIDDLEWARE = [
     "django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware",
@@ -61,14 +68,18 @@ MIDDLEWARE = [
     "django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware",
     "django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware",
     "django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware",
+    "debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware",
+    "django_browser_reload.middleware.BrowserReloadMiddleware",
 ]
 
 ROOT_URLCONF = "config.urls"
 
 TEMPLATES = [
     {
         "BACKEND": "django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates",
-        "DIRS": [str(BASE_DIR.joinpath("templates")),],
+        "DIRS": [
+            str(BASE_DIR.joinpath("templates")),
+        ],
         "APP_DIRS": True,
         "OPTIONS": {
             "context_processors": [
@@ -88,9 +99,10 @@ WSGI_APPLICATION = "config.wsgi.application"
 # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/{{ docs_version }}/ref/settings/#databases
 
 DATABASES = {
-    "default": env.dj_db_url("DATABASE_URL", default="postgres:///{{ project_name }}"),
+    "default": env.dj_db_url("DATABASE_URL", default="sqlite:///db.sqlite3"),
 }
 
+AUTH_USER_MODEL = "core.User"
 
 # Password validation
 # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/{{ docs_version }}/ref/settings/#auth-password-validators
@@ -99,9 +111,15 @@ AUTH_PASSWORD_VALIDATORS = [
     {
         "NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.UserAttributeSimilarityValidator",
     },
-    {"NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator",},
-    {"NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator",},
-    {"NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator",},
+    {
+        "NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.MinimumLengthValidator",
+    },
+    {
+        "NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.CommonPasswordValidator",
+    },
+    {
+        "NAME": "django.contrib.auth.password_validation.NumericPasswordValidator",
+    },
 ]
 
 # Internationalization
@@ -118,13 +136,18 @@ USE_TZ = True
 # Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
 # https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/{{ docs_version }}/howto/static-files/
 
-STATIC_ROOT = str(BASE_DIR.joinpath("static"))
 STATIC_URL = "/static/"
-STATICFILES_DIRS = (str(BASE_DIR.joinpath("frontend")),)
-# STATICFILES_STORAGE = "whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage"
+STATICFILES_DIRS = [BASE_DIR / "static"]
+STATIC_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "staticfiles"
+
+STORAGES = {
+    "staticfiles": {
+        "BACKEND": "whitenoise.storage.CompressedManifestStaticFilesStorage",
+    },
+}
 
 MEDIA_URL = "/media/"
-MEDIA_ROOT = str(BASE_DIR.joinpath("media"))
+MEDIA_ROOT = BASE_DIR / "media"
 
 if DEBUG:
     EMAIL_BACKEND = "django.core.mail.backends.console.EmailBackend"

config/urls.py-tpl

@@ -2,10 +2,14 @@ from django.conf import settings
 from django.conf.urls.static import static
 from django.contrib import admin
 from django.urls import path
-
+from django.views.generic.base import TemplateView
 
 urlpatterns = [
-    path("", views.index, name="index"),
+    # TODO: Remove this template and add your own.
+    path(
+        "", TemplateView.as_view(template_name="placeholder.html"), name="placeholder"
+    ),
+    # TODO: Change the `admin/` path to something custom.
     path(settings.ADMIN_URL, admin.site.urls),
 ]
 

self-destruct/admin.py → core/admin.py

@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@
 from django.contrib.auth.admin import UserAdmin
 from .models import User
 
+
 admin.site.register(User, UserAdmin)

core/apps.py

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+from django.apps import AppConfig
+
+
+class CoreConfig(AppConfig):
+    default_auto_field = "django.db.models.BigAutoField"
+    name = "core"

core/tests.py-tpl

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+from django.test import TestCase
+
+# Create your tests here.

core/views.py-tpl

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+from django.shortcuts import render
+
+# Create your views here.

script/generate-django-key → dev/generate-django-key

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #!./.venv/bin/python
 
 from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key
+
 print(get_random_secret_key())

script/setup.sh → dev/setup.sh

@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+# This is to initially set up a project. You probably don't need to
+# ever run it again.
+
 raw_folder=${PWD##*/} # Get the name of the current folder.
 project_folder=${raw_folder//-/_} # Replace hyphens with underscores.
 
@@ -14,6 +17,15 @@ django-admin startproject \
   $project_folder .
 pip-compile --resolver=backtracking requirements/requirements.in
 python -m pip install -r requirements/requirements.txt
+pre-commit install
+echo "DEBUG=True" >> .env
+echo "ALLOWED_HOSTS=*" >> .env
+
+# Warm up the database and static files
+python manage.py collectstatic
+python manage.py makemigrations
+python manage.py migrate
+python manage.py createsuperuser
 
 # Setup JS stuff
 source $HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh
@@ -22,3 +34,5 @@ npm install
 
 # Start a new Git project
 git init --initial-branch=main&&git add .&&git commit -m "New project from Piepwork's Django Starter."
+
+echo "\nNow run `source .venv/bin/activate&&./manage.py runserver`"