u/yassi_dev

This release significantly expands theme compatibility for DCR to many more alternative admin packages used in the Django ecosystem.

• Automatic theme switching: There is no longer any need to explicitly load any adapter css; If you are using a different admin (e.g. unfold, or jazzmin) The appropriate theme adapter will be loaded automatically if it exists and for all panels. You can always turn this feature off and control exactly what css or adapters are loaded.
• New theme adapter for django-admin-interface. This is a popular alternative admin package that lets you switch themes at run time by virtue of theme data being persisted in the database. It also provides a mechanism for you to build your own custom themes and comes with several examples. DCR now supports themes created by this package.
• New theme adapter for Dracula: The popular color theme for code editors and other places has a django admin theme dedicated to it. This is a very light color scheme for the admin that I think more people should try. DCR now supports it via a direct theme adapter.
• Generic theme adapters: While larger footprint packages (unfold, jazzmin, etc) have dedicated theme adapters built for them, this is not a scalable strategy given how many possible admin packages may exist. General theme adapters have now been built that are loaded for many different packages. This allows DCR to work for many more packages than the themes and packages given first party support. You can see a full compatibility matrix here: https://django-control-room.github.io/dj-control-room/themes/

This release marks the completion of a wave of changes aimed at allowing DCR to function in most admin environments. It's also the end of a series of migrations for existing panels toward using a common core library that normalizes how panels operate (giving them all theme abilities for example)

Next:

• A panel dedicated to errors
• making it easier to build panels
• simplifying messaging/docs
• No more theme stuff, but will gladly accept PRs for themes

Repo: https://github.com/django-control-room/dj-control-room

Roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/django-control-room/projects/1/views/3?filterQuery=-status%3ATodo

Edit:

quick way to update all your panels:

pip install --upgrade "dj-control-room[all]"

Django Control Room 1.6.0 (dj-control-room==1.6.0) has been released, adding official support for django-grappelli. This is part of an ongoing effort to allow DCR tooling in alternative admin environments. We now have support for unfold, jazzmin, and grappelli.

Django Grappelli has been around since about 2010 (probably earlier) and has impressively remained current all this time. Among alternative admins, It has been a pillar of the ecosystem and currently has many active users still. Supporting it is an important milestone for DCR.

This release is accompanied by dj-celery-panel==0.5.0 which migrates the celery panel to the shared framework provided by dj-control-room-base. As a result, Celery panel now enjoys a new look and also works across alternate admins as well

Next up:

I'll be wrapping up theme support and panel migrations next week. I think the most widely used admin replacements/themes are now supported; Even ones that don't have official support yet seem to work well. If you are using something that you would want some official support for, please open a ticket for it.

I find the following command useful for updating DCR and all official panels.

pip install --upgrade "dj-control-room[all]"

Repo: https://github.com/django-control-room/dj-control-room

Roadmap: https://github.com/orgs/django-control-room/projects/1/views/3?filterQuery=-status%3ATodo

Django Control Room 1.5.0 is out, along with several updates across the DCR ecosystem.

Continuing the work that brought support for admin themes like Django Unfold, this release adds support for Django Jazzmin.

Most notably, dj-urls-panel has now been migrated to the core libraries provided by dj-control-room-base, bringing it onto DCR's common plugin architecture and adding both Jazzmin support and new MCP tools for agents.

dj-control-room-base 1.3.0

A new Django Jazzmin theme adapter has been added. Any panel or plugin built on dj-control-room-base can now work seamlessly with Jazzmin.

dj-signals-panel 0.5.0

• Added Jazzmin support
• Overhauled scope definitions and documentation

dj-urls-panel 0.4.0

The URL panel has been migrated to the core libraries in dj-control-room-base.

Along with Jazzmin support, the migration adds a new set of MCP tools for URL introspection:

• list_urls: search and explore registered URLs
• get_url_detail: retrieve deeper metadata, including serializer information
• inspect_view: inspect view source code

This means DCR's URL introspection capabilities are now available to both humans through the Django admin and agents through MCP

dj-control-room 1.5.0

• Added Jazzmin support
• Documentation updates

Permissions and scopes

DCR also provides its own permission system built around scopes and Django groups.

Panel authors can define granular permissions for the capabilities their panels expose. There is now a guide covering how to integrate with this system:

https://djangocontrolroom.com/guides/control-room-permissions-and-scopes

What’s next

Migration work continues, with four panels remaining. dj-celery-panel will likely be next.

As panels are migrated, I’ll also continue expanding their MCP capabilities, alongside more documentation and guidance for building agent-facing tools with DCR.

The public DCR roadmap is available here:

https://github.com/orgs/django-control-room/projects/1

Thanks to everyone using and following the project. Issues, contributions, feedback, and other support are always welcome:

https://github.com/django-control-room/dj-control-room

A few upgrades have just been released across the Django Control Room ecosystem.

The two biggest additions are support for alternate Django admin themes and the introduction of MCP tooling throughout the platform.

Theme Adapters:

dj-control-room-base==1.2.0

A new theme adapter system has been added to the core library.

The first built-in adapter provides support for django-unfold, allowing any panel built on dj-control-room-base to optionally adopt Unfold's color scheme and styling. Support for additional admin themes will be added over time.

MCP Support:

Panels can now expose MCP tools, and Django Control Room itself can expose an MCP endpoint that can be enabled for your project.

The first implementation ships with:

dj-signals-panel==0.3.0

In addition to adopting the new core package and theme adapter system (including Unfold support), this release introduces a set of MCP tools for inspecting Django signals:

• list_signals
• list_receivers
• find_signal_by_sender
• inspect_receiver (source code retrieval)

These tools expose the same operational information previously available to humans through the Django admin, but now make it accessible to AI agents as well.

They can answer questions such as:

• How many signals in my project have at least one receiver?
• Is this receiver actually being registered?
• Why isn't my receiver firing?
• Show me the implementation of this receiver.

Django Control Room:

dj-control-room==1.4.0

The Django Control Room hub has also been updated to use the shared core package, bringing the new theme adapter system and django-unfold support to the main application.

What's Next:

Four additional panels will be migrated to dj-control-room-base over the coming weeks. This shared foundation allows the entire ecosystem to benefit from common UI integrations, theme adapters, and future platform capabilities without each panel having to implement them independently.

The MCP story is also just getting started.

You can expect additional MCP tools across the remaining panels, further work around authentication and authorization, and significantly expanded documentation. The long-term goal is to provide everything needed to build admin-native operational tooling for Django, whether those tools are used by humans or AI agents.

And, of course...

More panels.

github: https://github.com/yassi/dj-control-room

Can your Django Admin run DOOM?

It can now.

dj-doom-panel installs inside your Django admin and is compatible with Django Control Room. Now go fight the hordes.

Official Site:

https://djangocontrolroom.com/panels/dj-doom-panel

Github:

https://github.com/yassi/dj-doom-panel