Stop building the same auth flow over and over: Why I built fast-dj

Hernan Gustavo — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 03:25:52 +0000

As a backend developer, I have spent a significant portion of my career setting up the same foundations: secure login, registration, organization management, AI gateway and API structures. Every time I had a new idea or wanted to launch a project with my agency, I felt the friction of those first forty hours of coding.

I wanted to create value and impact people through software, but I was constantly slowed down by a lack of a truly fast, professional process. I realized that if I was feeling this frustration, other developers in the same position probably were too.

That is why I built fast-dj.

Filling the gap in the Django ecosystem
When looking at the current landscape of boilerplates, I noticed two major things missing.

First, while there are many great foundations out there, very few are built from the ground up to handle the current AI wave. Most developers are still manually stitching together OpenAI proxies and tracking tokens in a way that feels like an afterthought.

Second, for those of us working in markets like LATAM, the pricing of existing "professional" boilerplates is often out of reach or doesn't account for our local payment realities. I wanted to build something that offers a complete, high-tier system—the kind of architecture used by top silicon valley startups—at a price point that makes sense for developers who want to scale without breaking the bank.

What is under the hood
The goal of fast-dj is to provide a "production-ready" state on day one. Here is how it handles the heavy lifting:

Advanced Multi-tenancy: It is built for SaaS. You get full data isolation between organizations, RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) with Owner, Admin, and Member roles, and the ability for users to switch between multiple teams seamlessly.

The AI Gateway: Instead of just calling an API, fast-dj includes a unified proxy for major providers. It supports streaming responses via Server-Sent Events (SSE) and, most importantly, precise token tracking and spending limits so you never get a surprise bill.

Hybrid Billing: This was a priority for me. It integrates Stripe for traditional subscriptions and metered billing, but it also includes Mercado Pago for "Credit Packs." This is a game-changer for markets where prepaid models are preferred.

Developer Experience: It comes with a built-in debug dashboard (using Django Orbit) for real-time inspection, a clean Makefile for local development, and extensive documentation to get you from zero to deployed.

Building for impact
I believe that the ability to ship fast is what separates successful projects from those that stay in a folder on your desktop. By automating the "boring" parts—auth, multi-tenancy, and billing—we can focus on the actual value: the AI implementation and the user experience.

If you are a Django developer looking to launch a professional SaaS this year, fast-dj is designed to be your head start. It’s the result of my own need for a faster process, refined into a tool that I hope will help others build their own multi-million dollar ideas.

You can check out the full feature list here: fast-dj website

I’m offering a 20% discount to the first 10 builders.
CODE: FIRST10CLIENTS

Let's build!

Connect: x.com/capitanbuild or hernang.work@gmail.com

Why I built Django Orbit: Reimagining observability for the 2026 Django developer

Hernan Gustavo — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 22:35:39 +0000

I have spent over five years working deep in the backend trenches with Python and Django. During that time, my workflow usually involved a handful of go-to tools for debugging and monitoring. But as our applications grew more complex, I started hitting a wall.

The tools I relied on daily began to feel like they were falling behind. I found myself struggling with messy DOM injections that broke my frontend layouts, complex installation processes that felt like a chore, and a general lack of a unified, modern way to see what was actually happening under the hood of my apps. I wanted something that worked with me, not against my stack.

That is why I created Django Orbit.

The concept of Satellite Observability
The core philosophy behind Orbit is what I call satellite observability. I wanted a tool that could observe a Django application from a distance without interfering with it.

Most existing tools tend to inject themselves directly into your templates or pollute your HTML. This is fine for simple monoliths, but it becomes a nightmare when you are working with React, Vue, or even heavy HTMX implementations. Orbit lives on its own isolated URL. It sees everything—requests, SQL queries, logs, exceptions, and cache operations—without touching your DOM or creating CSS conflicts.

Building for the modern ecosystem
We are in 2026, and our integration needs have changed. We aren't just looking at SQL queries anymore; we are managing Celery jobs, Redis operations, and complex permission gates.

I built Orbit to be modular from the ground up. If a specific component like Celery isn't installed in your project, Orbit doesn't crash. It fails gracefully, keeping the rest of your monitoring intact. It is designed to be plug-and-play, letting you get a high-level health dashboard of your entire system in minutes.

Driven by the community and constant growth
Django Orbit was born out of personal frustration, but it is growing because I am listening to what other developers actually need. The feedback loop has been vital. Developers don't want more noise; they want clarity. They want to find N+1 queries without digging through endless logs and to see performance metrics like Apdex scores in a clean, dark-themed interface that doesn't look like it was designed in 2010.

My goal is for Django Orbit to be the standard choice for Django developers this year. It is about moving away from legacy debugging patterns and moving toward a more streamlined, professional experience.

If you are tired of fighting your tools and just want to focus on shipping clean code, I invite you to try it out.

Explore the project
You can find the full documentation and the source code on GitHub. I am constantly updating it based on the problems we face in our daily dev cycles.

labs.wearehik.com/django-orbit

DEV Community: Hernan Gustavo

Stop building the same auth flow over and over: Why I built fast-dj

Why I built Django Orbit: Reimagining observability for the 2026 Django developer