Django RestFramework JSON Renderer Backed by orjson

1.8.0 · active · verified Wed Apr 15

drf-orjson-renderer is a highly performant JSON renderer and parser for Django Rest Framework (DRF), leveraging the `orjson` library, which is backed by Rust for speed, safety, and correctness. It significantly boosts API response times by replacing DRF's default JSON renderer and also supports pretty-printed JSON for the Browsable API. The current version is 1.8.0, with ongoing active maintenance and updates.

Warnings

gotcha When configuring `ORJSON_RENDERER_OPTIONS` in `settings.py`, ensure that any `orjson.OPT_*` flags are correctly imported from `orjson` within your settings file or defined as constants.
Fix: Import `orjson` directly in `settings.py` to reference `orjson.OPT_*` flags, or define the integer values of these flags if `orjson` cannot be directly imported at `settings.py` parse time (though direct import is generally preferred and recommended in the official documentation).
gotcha For custom serialization of objects not natively supported by `orjson` (e.g., custom Python classes), you may need to provide a `default` function. This is typically done by overriding the `get_renderer_context()` method within your DRF `APIView` or `ViewSet`.
Fix: Override `get_renderer_context` in your view and pass a custom `default` callable in the context that `orjson` can use to serialize unrecognized types. For example: `context['default'] = your_custom_serializer_func`.
gotcha If you are manually creating and returning `ORJsonResponse` instances (rather than letting DRF's renderer handle it), you might encounter a `TypeError` for non-dictionary root objects. This is because `orjson` (and standard JSON) expects the top-level object to be a dictionary or list.
Fix: When instantiating `ORJsonResponse` directly with a non-dictionary or non-list object as the top level, you must pass `safe=False` (e.g., `ORJsonResponse(data, safe=False)`). The library's renderer handles this automatically, but direct usage requires explicit handling. Ensure your response data is serializable by `orjson`.
breaking Version 1.8.0 specifically added support for NumPy 2.0. While `orjson` generally handles NumPy types, older `drf-orjson-renderer` versions might have had specific internal encoders or different compatibility with newer NumPy versions.
Fix: Upgrade to `drf-orjson-renderer` version 1.8.0 or higher to ensure full compatibility with NumPy 2.0 and potentially improved handling of NumPy data types.

Install

pip install drf-orjson-renderer Install stable version

Imports

ORJSONRenderer

from drf_orjson_renderer.renderers import ORJSONRenderer

ORJSONParser

from drf_orjson_renderer.parsers import ORJSONParser

Quickstart

To quickly integrate `drf-orjson-renderer`, add `ORJSONRenderer` and `ORJSONParser` to your `DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES` and `DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES` respectively in your Django `settings.py`. You can also configure `orjson` specific serialization options using `ORJSON_RENDERER_OPTIONS`.

import os

# settings.py

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    "DEFAULT_RENDERER_CLASSES": (
        "drf_orjson_renderer.renderers.ORJSONRenderer",
        "rest_framework.renderers.BrowsableAPIRenderer",
    ),
    "DEFAULT_PARSER_CLASSES": (
        "drf_orjson_renderer.parsers.ORJSONParser",
        "rest_framework.parsers.FormParser",
        "rest_framework.parsers.MultiPartParser",
    ),
    "ORJSON_RENDERER_OPTIONS": (
        # Example options for orjson
        # import orjson # You would import orjson in settings.py to use these
        # orjson.OPT_NON_STR_KEYS,
        # orjson.OPT_SERIALIZE_DATACLASS,
        # orjson.OPT_SERIALIZE_NUMPY,
    ),
}

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