CLI reference — seeddata

The management command is a thin wrapper over the Python API.

python manage.py seeddata [targets ...] [options]

Targets

Positional arguments select what to seed. Omit them to seed every project model.

python manage.py seeddata                 # whole project
python manage.py seeddata shop            # every model in the shop app
python manage.py seeddata shop.Book       # one model
python manage.py seeddata shop.Book blog.Post   # several

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--count N	10	Rows to create per model.
--seed N	—	RNG seed for a byte-for-byte reproducible run.
--locale CODE	en	Locale for realistic data, e.g. de_DE, fr.
--exclude PATTERN	—	Glob of labels/apps to skip. Repeatable.
--strategy {reuse,create,mix}	reuse	Foreign-key strategy.
--mix-ratio F	0.2	For --strategy mix, chance of creating a fresh parent.
--realism {smart,uniform}	smart	smart = distributions + coherence; uniform = dumb-fast noise.
--null-probability F	0.1	Chance a nullable, non-required column is left NULL.
--atomic {all,model,none}	model	Transaction scope (see below).
--batch-size N	1000	bulk_create batch size.
--using ALIAS	default	Database connection to seed into.
--no-files	—	Don't write real files for File/Image fields.
--no-preflight	—	Skip the pre-flight migration/schema checks.
--dry-run	—	Show the plan and exit without writing rows.
--format {text,json}	text	Output format (json for CI).

--atomic

Value	Meaning
all	One transaction for the whole run — any model's failure rolls back everything.
model (default)	One transaction per model — a failing model is rolled back and skipped, the rest continue, and the command exits non-zero.
none	No wrapping transaction.

--format json

Emits a machine-readable summary (and, with --dry-run, the plan):

{
  "seed": 42,
  "total": 60,
  "elapsed": 0.31,
  "models": [
    {"label": "shop.Book", "created": 20, "reused_fk": 34, "created_fk": 0, "elapsed": 0.06}
  ]
}

Examples

# Reproducible whole-project seed
python manage.py seeddata --count 50 --seed 42

# Localised, everything except an audit log
python manage.py seeddata --locale de_DE --exclude '*.AuditLog'

# Load-test-sized table, no file writes
python manage.py seeddata shop.Order --count 100000 --no-files

# Preview the plan only
python manage.py seeddata --dry-run

Deprecated flags

The 0.4.x flags still work for one release, with a warning:

Old	Use instead
--no-of-objects-to-create, --no-of-objects	--count
--django-app	a positional app_label
--django-model	a positional app_label.Model

See Migrating.