Skip to content

Dashboard Guide

The Django Orbit dashboard is your mission control center, available at /orbit/ (by default). It provides a real-time, unified view of your application's telemetry.

All Events sits at the top as a standalone item — a unified feed of everything. Below it, entry types are organized into three collapsible groups so you're not faced with a flat list of every type at once. The group containing the type you're viewing opens automatically. The badge on each item shows its captured count; the Exceptions badge turns red when non-zero.

Core

Type Description
Requests HTTP requests (method, path, status, duration)
Queries SQL queries with N+1 detection
Exceptions Unhandled exceptions with tracebacks
Logs Python logging messages

Infrastructure

Type Description
Cache Cache operations (hits, misses, sets)
Redis Redis operations (GET, SET, DEL, HGET, etc.)
HTTP Client Outgoing HTTP requests (httpx, requests)
Mail Email sending operations
Storage File storage operations — save, open, delete (local + S3)

Application

Type Description
Models ORM signals (post_save, post_delete)
Jobs Background jobs (Celery, Django-Q, RQ, APScheduler)
Commands Management command executions
Signals Django signals
Gates Permission/authorization checks
Transactions Database atomic() blocks — commits and rollbacks with duration
Dumps Custom debug dumps via orbit.dump()

First-run tour

The first time you open the dashboard, a short onboarding overlay highlights the layout and shortcuts. Dismiss it with Got it — reopen any time from the ? button in the top bar.

Use the search bar in the header to find specific entries:

  • By UUID: Paste a specific Entry ID to jump to it
  • By Content: Text search searches inside the JSON payload

Metrics strip

When viewing All Events, a compact one-line metrics strip sits above the feed with the numbers that matter for debugging: requests/hr, queries/hr, average response time, and error-focused counts (errors, slow queries, N+1 duplicates). For full analytics, use the Full analytics link or the Stats button to open the Stats Dashboard.

Export

Open any entry and use the download link in the detail panel header to export it as JSON — handy for sharing a specific request or exception.

Detailed Views

Click on any row in the feed to open the Detail Panel.

JSON Payload

The core of every entry is its JSON payload. Orbit renders this with syntax highlighting, making it easy to explore complex data structures.

Orbit groups events by "Family". For example, if an HTTP Request triggers 5 SQL Queries and 1 Log message, they share the same family_hash.

When viewing the Request, you'll see the queries and logs listed in the "Related Entries" section.

Mail HTML Preview

When an email is sent via EmailMultiAlternatives with an HTML alternative, the Mail detail panel shows two tabs:

  • Plain text — the raw text body
  • HTML preview — the HTML body rendered in a sandboxed <iframe>

The iframe uses the sandbox attribute, so external scripts and forms are blocked. This is useful for testing and visually reviewing HTML email templates without sending real emails.

Plain-text-only emails (sent via EmailMessage) display the body directly with no tab switcher.

Note

HTML bodies are capped at 100 KB during capture. Templates larger than this will be truncated.

Duplicate Queries (N+1 Detection)

When viewing a query marked as duplicate, a special section appears showing all queries with the same SQL. This helps debug N+1 query issues:

  • Click any duplicate to view its details
  • Tips for optimization (select_related(), prefetch_related()) are shown

Actions

Action Description
Pause/Resume Stop live feed to inspect entries
Clear All Purge all recorded data
Refresh Manually reload current view
Stats Open the Stats Dashboard

Keyboard Shortcuts

With the detail panel open:

  • j / ↓: Next entry in the current feed
  • k / ↑: Previous entry
  • Escape: Close the detail panel
  • Click outside: Close the detail panel

The panel header also has prev/next buttons and a position indicator (e.g. 3/25).

Design system

The dashboard follows a documented design system — see DESIGN.md in the repository for tokens, components and UI principles.

Next Steps