Django Parallel Readiness Assessment

Audit and prepare a Django codebase to support parallel development with multiple Claude Code agents.

Quick Start

Run the full assessment:

1. Analyze Django project structure and app organization
2. Score each readiness dimension
3. Identify blockers and risks
4. Generate remediation plan
5. Set up orchestration infrastructure

Automated Analysis

Run the analysis script from project root:

# From project root (default: analyzes 'apps/' directory)
python analyze-readiness.py

# Specify custom apps directory
python analyze-readiness.py src/apps

# Output saved to .claude/readiness-report.md

The script analyzes:

• App Boundaries: Cross-app imports, circular dependencies, god apps
• Shared State: Global variables, Django signals, mutable state
• Contracts: Mypy config, OpenAPI, serializer __all__ usage
• Tests: Test file count, pytest config, Factory Boy usage
• Documentation: CLAUDE.md, README, linting config
• Dependencies: Lock files, pinned versions, migration count

See references/analyze-readiness.py for the full script.

Assessment Dimensions

1. Django App Boundaries (Critical)

Check for:

• Clear app separation with single responsibility
• Minimal cross-app model imports
• No circular dependencies between apps
• Proper use of app namespacing

Red flags:

• God app that contains most models/views
• Heavy cross-app foreign keys
• Shared models across multiple apps
• Deeply nested cross-app imports

Scoring:

• ✅ Good: Each domain has dedicated app, <10% cross-app model imports
• ⚠️ Fair: Some separation exists, 10-30% cross-imports
• ❌ Poor: Single app structure, heavy coupling, >30% cross-imports

Detection commands:

# Count models per app
find . -name "models.py" -exec grep -l "class.*Model" {} \;

# Find cross-app imports
grep -r "from.*\.models import" --include="*.py" | grep -v "__pycache__"

# Check for circular imports
python -c "import sys; sys.setrecursionlimit(50); import myapp"

2. Shared State & Settings (Critical)

Check for:

• Global variables in settings.py
• Shared caches without isolation
• Signals causing side effects across apps
• Thread-local storage usage

Red flags:

• Mutable globals in apps
• Signals modifying models in other apps
• Shared file writes across apps
• Global middleware state

Scoring:

• ✅ Good: No global mutable state, dependency injection used
• ⚠️ Fair: Limited globals, documented shared resources
• ❌ Poor: Heavy global state, signals everywhere

Detection commands:

# Find global variables
grep -r "^[A-Z_]*\s*=" --include="*.py" | grep -v settings.py

# Find signal usage
grep -r "@receiver\|\.connect(" --include="*.py"

# Find cache usage
grep -r "cache\.\(get\|set\|delete\)" --include="*.py"

3. API Contracts & Serializers (High)

Check for:

• DRF serializers with explicit fields
• OpenAPI/Swagger documentation
• Type hints on views and serializers
• Versioned API endpoints

Red flags:

• fields = "__all__" in serializers
• Untyped view functions
• Undocumented internal APIs
• Implicit serializer behavior

Scoring:

• ✅ Good: Full OpenAPI spec, typed serializers, versioned APIs
• ⚠️ Fair: Partial typing, some documented endpoints
• ❌ Poor: No contracts, __all__ fields everywhere

Detection commands:

# Find serializers with __all__
grep -r 'fields\s*=\s*"__all__"\|fields\s*=\s*.__all__.' --include="*.py"

# Check for OpenAPI setup
grep -r "SpectacularAPIView\|swagger\|openapi" --include="*.py"

# Find untyped views
grep -r "def .*request.*:" --include="views.py" | grep -v ": HttpRequest"

4. Test Infrastructure (High)

Check for:

• pytest-django or Django TestCase setup
• Factory Boy or model fixtures
• Test isolation (TransactionTestCase where needed)
• CI pipeline with test coverage

Red flags:

• Tests that share database state
• Order-dependent tests
• Missing migration tests
• No integration test capability

Scoring:

• ✅ Good: Full test suite, isolated tests, >80% coverage
• ⚠️ Fair: Partial coverage, some test infrastructure
• ❌ Poor: Minimal tests, no CI

Detection commands:

# Find test files
find . -name "test*.py" -o -name "*_test.py" | wc -l

# Check for pytest
grep -r "pytest" pyproject.toml setup.cfg requirements*.txt 2>/dev/null

# Check for factories
grep -r "factory.Factory\|FactoryBoy" --include="*.py"

5. Documentation & Conventions (Medium)

Check for:

• CLAUDE.md or contributing guide
• Type hints (mypy configuration)
• Code formatters (ruff, black, isort)
• Architecture documentation

Red flags:

• No documented conventions
• Inconsistent patterns across apps
• Missing setup instructions
• No type checking

Scoring:

• ✅ Good: CLAUDE.md exists, mypy strict, ruff configured
• ⚠️ Fair: Some docs, partial linting
• ❌ Poor: No conventions documented

Detection commands:

# Check for config files
ls -la pyproject.toml setup.cfg mypy.ini .ruff.toml 2>/dev/null

# Check for type hints
grep -r "-> " --include="*.py" | head -20

# Check for CLAUDE.md
ls -la CLAUDE.md .claude/ 2>/dev/null

6. Migration & Dependency Management (Medium)

Check for:

• Migration squashing strategy
• Clear migration dependencies
• requirements.txt or pyproject.toml with pinned versions
• No phantom dependencies

Scoring:

• ✅ Good: Squashed migrations, pinned deps, reproducible installs
• ⚠️ Fair: Some migration issues, mostly pinned deps
• ❌ Poor: Migration conflicts, unpinned deps

Detection commands:

# Count migrations per app
find . -path "*/migrations/*.py" -not -name "__init__.py" | cut -d/ -f3 | sort | uniq -c

# Check for merge migrations
find . -path "*/migrations/*.py" -exec grep -l "merge" {} \;

# Check dependency pinning
grep -E "^[a-zA-Z].*==" requirements*.txt 2>/dev/null | wc -l

Assessment Output

Generate .claude/readiness-report.md:

# Django Parallelization Readiness Report

## Overall Score: X/100

## Dimension Scores
| Dimension | Score | Status |
|-----------|-------|--------|
| App Boundaries | X/20 | ✅/⚠️/❌ |
| Shared State | X/20 | ✅/⚠️/❌ |
| API Contracts | X/20 | ✅/⚠️/❌ |
| Test Infrastructure | X/15 | ✅/⚠️/❌ |
| Documentation | X/15 | ✅/⚠️/❌ |
| Migrations & Deps | X/10 | ✅/⚠️/❌ |

## Blockers (Must Fix)
1. [Critical issue]

## Risks (Should Fix)
1. [High-risk issue]

## Recommendations
1. [Improvement suggestion]

## Django-Specific Notes
- Apps suitable for parallel work: [list]
- Apps requiring sequential work: [list]
- Migration conflict risk: [assessment]

## Parallelization Potential
- Estimated parallel tracks: N
- Suggested app boundaries: [list]
- Sequential dependencies: [list]

Remediation Actions

After assessment, apply fixes. See references/remediation-checklist.md for detailed steps.

Quick Fixes (Do Immediately)

1. Create .claude/ directory structure
2. Create/update CLAUDE.md with Django conventions
3. Add ruff/mypy config if missing
4. Document existing API endpoints

Structural Fixes (Plan Required)

1. Split god apps into smaller domain apps
2. Refactor cross-app signals into explicit service calls
3. Add serializer type hints and explicit fields
4. Set up integration test harness

Infrastructure Setup

After remediation, set up orchestration:

project/
├── .claude/
│   ├── readiness-report.md    # Assessment results
│   ├── architecture.md        # System design
│   ├── tasks/                 # Task specs
│   └── contracts/             # Interface definitions
├── CLAUDE.md                  # Project conventions
├── pyproject.toml             # Dependencies & tool config
└── apps/
    ├── users/                 # Example: User domain app
    ├── orders/                # Example: Order domain app
    └── shared/                # Shared utilities only

See references/infrastructure-setup.md for setup scripts.

Django-Specific Considerations

Migration Coordination

When parallel agents modify models in different apps:

• Each agent works on a separate app with isolated migrations
• Use --merge only during integration phase
• Consider migration squashing before parallel work
• Document migration dependencies in task specs

App Isolation Strategies

Strong isolation (preferred):

• Each agent owns entire app(s)
• Cross-app communication via services/APIs
• No direct model imports across boundaries

Soft isolation:

• Shared read-only models in shared/ app
• Write operations only in owning app
• Explicit service layer for cross-app writes

Signal Handling

• Avoid cross-app signals during parallel development
• Convert signals to explicit service calls
• Document signal side effects in contracts