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This guide walks you through everything you need to get the Gobarau Academy Backend running on your local machine. By the end you will have a fully functional Django REST Framework development server connected to a local SQLite database, a superuser account for the admin panel, and all project dependencies installed in an isolated Python virtual environment.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure the following are available on your system:
  • Python 3.12+ — the committed virtual environment was created with Python 3.12.1; using the same version avoids compatibility issues
  • Git — to clone the repository
  • A Cloudinary account — Gobarau Academy uses Cloudinary for all media uploads (logos, profile images, etc.); sign up for free at cloudinary.com

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Installation Steps

1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/muhammadbugaje/gobarau_backend.git
cd gobarau_backend
2

Create and activate a virtual environment

A venv/ folder is already committed to the repository (see note below), but creating a fresh virtual environment is strongly recommended for Linux and macOS users.Linux / macOS
python3.12 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
Windows (PowerShell)
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
Windows (Command Prompt)
python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate.bat
Once activated, your terminal prompt will be prefixed with (.venv).
3

Install dependencies

All required packages are tracked inside the committed venv/ folder. Generate a requirements.txt from it, or install directly into your fresh environment by re-installing the packages that are present in venv/Lib/site-packages/. The core packages you need include Django 6.0.6, djangorestframework, djangorestframework-simplejwt, django-cors-headers, cloudinary, django-cloudinary-storage, and django-unfold.If a requirements.txt has been added to the project root:
pip install -r requirements.txt
4

Run database migrations

The project uses SQLite by default. Apply all migrations to create the local database:
python manage.py migrate
Django will create a db.sqlite3 file in the project root automatically.
5

Create a superuser

Create an admin account to access the django-unfold admin interface:
python manage.py createsuperuser
Follow the prompts to set a username, email address, and password.
6

Run the development server

Start the local development server:
python manage.py runserver
By default, the server listens on http://127.0.0.1:8000/.

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Verifying the Setup

Once the server is running, confirm everything is working correctly with these two checks: Admin panel — Open http://127.0.0.1:8000/admin/ in your browser and log in with the superuser credentials you just created. You should see the django-unfold admin interface listing all registered models (School Settings, Academic Sessions, Terms, and more). Sample API endpoint — Visit http://127.0.0.1:8000/api/administration/school-settings/ to confirm the REST API is responding. You should receive a JSON response (an empty list if no school settings have been configured yet).

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Project Structure

The top-level layout of the repository is: 
gobarau_backend/
├── apps/         # Domain application modules
│   ├── accounts/
│   ├── academics/
│   ├── administration/
│   ├── admissions/
│   ├── communication/
│   ├── content/
│   ├── finance/
│   ├── people/
│   ├── services/
│   └── welfare/
├── core/         # Shared base models, permissions, choices
├── gobarau/      # Django project config (settings, urls, wsgi, asgi)
├── manage.py
└── venv/         # Committed virtual environment (Windows)
The committed venv/ directory was created on Windows — its pyvenv.cfg points to C:\Users\muham\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312 and its Scripts/ directory contains .exe and .bat files. Linux and macOS users cannot use this venv and must create their own with python3.12 -m venv .venv as shown in Step 2 above.

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