Management commands are perfect for scripts that need Django's ORM and settings. I create them in management/commands/ and extend BaseCommand. The add_arguments method defines CLI options using argparse. I use self.stdout.write with style helpers for

Signals allow different parts of the application to respond to model events without tight coupling. I use post_save for actions after an object is created or updated, like sending notifications or updating related records. The @receiver decorator is c

The N+1 query problem is Django's most common performance trap. I use select_related for foreign key and one-to-one relationships (performs SQL JOIN), and prefetch_related for many-to-many and reverse foreign keys (separate queries with Python join).

I create custom permission classes to encapsulate authorization logic outside of views. This IsOwnerOrReadOnly pattern is useful for resources where anyone can read but only the owner can modify. By implementing has_object_permission, I can make granu

Using email instead of username for authentication is a common requirement. I extend AbstractBaseUser and create a custom user manager early in the project because switching later means complex data migrations. The key is setting USERNAME_FIELD = 'ema

A “quick view” is basically a show page rendered inside a frame. I implement it by adding a turbo_frame_tag 'quick_view' on the index page, and making item links target that frame. If Turbo is disabled or if the response doesn’t include the frame, the

Sorting is a great candidate for Turbo Frames: clicking “Newest” shouldn’t reload your whole page shell. I wrap the list in a frame (e.g., id='results') and make sort links target that frame. The controller reads params[:sort] and applies an order sco

Turbo Frames can trigger lots of small requests, so caching matters. For expensive frame endpoints (like an activity panel), I use stale? with an ETag that includes a cache key and the latest update timestamp. If the content hasn’t changed, Rails retu

Presence is usually overkill, but for collaboration features it’s valuable: show who’s online in a room. I identify connections with current_member in ApplicationCable::Connection, then in a channel I broadcast updates when members subscribe/unsubscri

Most of the time I prefer *.turbo_stream.erb templates, but for small one-off responses it can be nice to generate streams directly in the controller using Turbo::Streams::TagBuilder. This keeps the logic close to the action and avoids creating a temp

After a successful inline create, I usually want to clear the form. You can replace the whole form partial, but sometimes you want to preserve other state (like which field was focused) and simply reset values. A clean Hotwire approach is a custom Tur

For apps that ingest emails (support inbox, replies), Action Mailbox is a natural fit. When a message arrives, I create a record and broadcast it into a Turbo Stream feed so the UI updates in realtime. This is essentially “email as an event source”. T