🔥 superreload

True hot reload for Django and Python web frameworks — no server restart needed.

superreload watches your Python files and automatically reloads modules when they change, then refreshes your browser via WebSocket. This dramatically speeds up the development feedback loop.

Features

• Instant reload: Python modules reload without restarting the server
• Browser auto-refresh: WebSocket-based browser refresh on file changes
• CSS hot reload: Stylesheets update without page refresh
• Error overlay: Beautiful error display with stack traces and local variables
• Keyboard shortcuts: Manual reload via Ctrl+Shift+R (browser) or 'r' + Enter (console)
• Django-first: Deep Django integration with view, template, and URL cache clearing
• Script mode: Run any Python script with hot reloading via CLI
• Gitignore support: Automatically exclude files matching .gitignore patterns
• Extensible: Framework-agnostic core with pluggable framework adapters
• Zero config: Works out of the box with sensible defaults

Installation

pip install superreload[django]

Or with uv:

uv add superreload[django]

Quick Start (Django)

1. Add to INSTALLED_APPS

# settings.py

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ...
    'superreload.frameworks.django',
    # ...
]

2. Add the Middleware

# settings.py

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'superreload.frameworks.django.SuperReloadMiddleware',
    # ... other middleware
]

3. Run the Development Server

python manage.py superreload

Or with an address:

python manage.py superreload 0.0.0.0:8000

That's it! Edit any Python, HTML, CSS, or JS file and watch your browser update automatically.

How It Works

1. File Watcher: Monitors your project for .py, .html, .css, .js changes
2. Module Reloader: Intelligently reloads changed Python modules and their dependents
3. WebSocket Server: Notifies connected browsers to refresh
4. Middleware: Injects a tiny JavaScript client into HTML responses
5. CSS Hot Reload: Swaps stylesheets without full page refresh
6. Error Overlay: Shows reload errors with full stack traces in the browser

Configuration

WebSocket Host and Port

Default is localhost:9877. Change it via:

python manage.py superreload --ws-host 0.0.0.0:9999

WebSocket Path

Default path is /superreload. Useful for Docker/reverse proxy setups:

python manage.py superreload --ws-path /my-custom-path

Disable superreload

Run without hot reloading:

python manage.py superreload --no-reload

Manual Reload

Trigger a manual reload at any time:

• Browser: Press Ctrl+Shift+R (or Cmd+Shift+R on Mac)
• Console: Press r + Enter in the terminal running superreload

Production

The middleware only activates when DEBUG = True. In production, it does nothing.

Running Python Scripts

Run any Python script with hot reloading (no framework required):

superreload run script.py

By default, superreload uses jurigged for surgical code patching - your functions and classes are updated in-place while preserving state.

Watch Directories

# Watch additional directories
superreload run script.py --watch src/ --watch lib/

# Watch project, respecting .gitignore
superreload run script.py --watch . --gitignore

Reload Modes

# Default: jurigged (surgical patching, preserves state)
superreload run script.py

# Simple mode: re-execute on change (no state preservation)
superreload run script.py --simple

# Full restart: restart process on any change
superreload run script.py --full-reload

Pass Arguments to Your Script

superreload run server.py -- --port 8080 --debug

Mode	Behavior	State Preserved
Default (jurigged)	Surgical code patching	Yes
--simple	Re-execute script	No
--full-reload	Process restart	No

Supported Frameworks

• ✅ Django (4.2+)
• 🔜 Flask (coming soon)
• 🔜 FastAPI (coming soon)

Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• Django 4.2+ (for Django integration)

Development

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/aareman/superreload.git
cd superreload

# Install dependencies
uv sync --dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Lint
uv run ruff check src tests

# Type check
uv run mypy src

Architecture

superreload/
├── cli.py              # CLI entry point ('run' command)
├── core/
│   ├── errors.py       # Error formatting with local variables
│   ├── framework.py    # Base framework abstraction
│   ├── gitignore.py    # Parse .gitignore files for filtering
│   ├── reloader.py     # Python module reloading
│   ├── script_runner.py # Run scripts with hot reload/restart
│   ├── watcher.py      # File system watching
│   └── websocket.py    # WebSocket server
└── frameworks/
    └── django/
        ├── framework.py      # Django-specific reload logic
        ├── middleware.py     # Auto-inject JS client + error overlay
        └── reload_server.py  # Orchestrates everything

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.