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Run the project locally

This tutorial takes you from a fresh clone of the repository to a working site in your browser. Just follow the steps in order — at the end you will see the home page at http://127.0.0.1:8000.

For local development the project uses SQLite (the db.sqlite3 file), so a separate database and Docker are not needed — everything works out of the box.

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.12 or 3.13
  • uv — dependency and virtual environment manager
  • Git

Step 1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Skerter/django-plastic-landing.git
cd django-plastic-landing

Step 2. Install the dependencies

uv sync --extra dev

The command creates the .venv virtual environment and installs Django together with the dev tools (pytest, playwright).

Step 3. Create the .env file

Copy the template:

cp .env.example .env

Open .env and replace SECRET_KEY=change-me with any random string — that is enough for a local run. The remaining values (SMTP, Telegram, amoCRM) are only needed in production and can be left alone locally.

Why the commands below omit DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE

If you run manage.py without .env (or outside uv run), Django will pick the non-existent config.settings module and fail. In that case pass the settings explicitly: 

DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.dev uv run python manage.py <command>

A full description of every variable is in the Environment variables reference.

Step 4. Apply the migrations

uv run python manage.py migrate

The command creates the db.sqlite3 file with all the tables.

Step 5. Create an administrator

uv run python manage.py createsuperuser

The account is needed to sign in to the /admin/ panel and fill the catalog.

Step 6. Build the CSS (Tailwind)

uv run python manage.py tailwind build

Without this step the pages open unstyled. After editing templates the CSS is rebuilt with the same command (or keep tailwind start running — watch mode).

Step 7. Start the server

uv run python manage.py runserver

Open http://127.0.0.1:8000 and you will see the home page. The admin panel is at http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/.

What next