Django pytest

Pytest · Reference cheat sheet

📋 Overview

pytest-django replaces manage.py test with pytest fixtures: client, admin_client, db, django_user_model, and DB access markers.

🔧 Core concepts

Fixture / mark	Role
`db` / `django_db`	Enable DB access
`client`	Django test client
`admin_client`	Logged-in staff
`rf`	RequestFactory
`settings`	Override settings
`live_server`	Live HTTP server

Configure DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE in pytest config or env.

💡 Examples

Install:

python -m pip install pytest-django

[tool.pytest.ini_options]
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE = "myproject.settings"
python_files = ["tests.py", "test_*.py", "*_tests.py"]

View test:

import pytest

@pytest.mark.django_db
def test_home(client):
    res = client.get("/")
    assert res.status_code == 200

Model + user:

@pytest.mark.django_db
def test_user(django_user_model):
    u = django_user_model.objects.create_user("ada", password="x")
    assert u.username == "ada"

Settings override:

def test_debug(settings):
    settings.DEBUG = True
    assert settings.DEBUG is True

Transactional / live:

@pytest.mark.django_db(transaction=True)
def test_signal():
    ...

@pytest.mark.django_db
def test_api(live_server, client):
    assert live_server.url.startswith("http")

⚠️ Pitfalls

Accessing DB without django_db / db fixture → error.
Relying on migration state without pytest-django DB setup.
Using unittest TestCase transactions mixed with pytest fixtures carelessly.
Factory Boy / fixtures creating data without cleanup in non-db tests.
Pointing DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE at production settings.

Django pytest

Django pytest

📋 Overview

🔧 Core concepts

💡 Examples

⚠️ Pitfalls

🔗 Related

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