Getting started

Anvil installs into an existing Django + REST Framework project — it isn't a replacement for either. If you don't have a project yet, make one first:

# new project, if you need one
python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install django djangorestframework django-filter
django-admin startproject config .
python manage.py startapp products

Install into a project

pip install django-anvil

Register it in settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...,
    "rest_framework",
    "django_filters",
    "django_anvil",
    "products",
]

Define a model and a Resource

# products/models.py
class Product(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    price = models.DecimalField(max_digits=10, decimal_places=2)
    stock = models.IntegerField(default=0)

# products/resources.py
from django_anvil.core.resource import Resource
from .models import Product

class ProductResource(Resource):
    model = Product
    fields = ["id", "name", "price", "stock"]
    read_only_fields = ["id"]
    searchable = ["name"]
    filters = []
    sortable = ["price"]

Generate everything

python manage.py migrate
python manage.py anvil resource Product

That writes/merges into products/api/serializers.py, products/api/views.py, products/api/urls.py, registers ProductAdmin, and writes products/tests/test_product_api.py. If the app has more than one Resource, a second anvil resource Coupon adds its classes alongside Product's in the same files — the way a person would by hand, not by overwriting them.

Wire the URLs

One-time, the first time you generate a Resource in a given app:

# config/urls.py
path("api/", include("products.api.urls")),

Run it: python manage.py runserver, then /api/products/ is a full CRUD API with search, filtering, and ordering already wired from searchable/filters/sortable.

Regenerating with --force

By default, re-running anvil resource never touches a file that already has content — safe to run repeatedly, and safe against clobbering hand-edits. Once you change a Resource's declaration (add a field, turn on tenant_scoped, add permissions), regenerate that Resource's block specifically:

python manage.py anvil resource Product --force

--force only replaces that Resource's block in each shared file — it never touches another Resource's code in the same file, and it never touches admin.py's registration (which routinely holds hand-written admin customizations) — see multiple Resources in one app.