---

description: A Django + React framework that stays a versioned dependency: declare models and access, and the API, admin, permissions, tests, seed data and React screens follow.

Karni

Karni is a framework, not boilerplate: it stays a versioned dependency you upgrade, and it is built so an AI coding agent extends it instead of reinventing it. You declare models and access; the API, admin, permissions, tests, seed data and the React screens follow from those declarations.

class Event(BaseModel):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    starts_at = models.DateTimeField()
    organizer = models.ForeignKey(settings.AUTH_USER_MODEL, on_delete=models.CASCADE)


class EventViewSet(BaseViewSet):
    model = Event
    access = Access(read=Public(), write=Owned("organizer"))

That is a complete, documented REST resource with filtering, search, pagination, ?expand=, an N+1-free query plan, an admin page, a generated form and table in the frontend, and a test that proves the whole surface in one line (assert_crud). The reference application, EventHub, is an event ticketing platform with payments, a Celery email and four roles in 593 lines of project code, measured.

Where to go

You want to	Read
See it run in ten minutes	Quickstart
Build a real app step by step	Tutorial — EventHub
Drive Karni from Claude Code, Cursor or another agent	Building with an AI agent, Karni for AI agents
Build by hand, command by command	Building without one
Look something up	the Reference section: Models, API, the karni command, Error codes, …
Understand a design decision	the Concepts section, starting with why serializers are generated
Upgrade	Stability promise, then karni upgrade

The shape of a Karni project

myproject/
  config/settings.py      karni_settings(globals())  — one call, env-driven
  events/models.py        BaseModel subclasses
  events/viewsets.py      BaseViewSet + access       — the whole permission system
  events/listeners.py     @on_created / @on_updated  — events, queued or inline
  events/seeds.py         demo data for `karni seed`
  events/tests/           assert_crud, assert_isolated
  frontend/src/pages/     ResourceTable / ResourceForm / ResourceDetail compositions

Everything generic lives in the karni package, @karni/ui and the karni command. If something would be written in more than one project, it belongs there — and when it is missing, Karni's own reference app records it in FRICTION.md and the next release fixes it.