# Use `ipython` shell with Django
Ordinary Django shell

```bash
$ python manage.py shell
```
does not do autocompletion, doc pretty-printing or other nice-to-have-things.

A way around this is using the `ipython` shell.
We'll assume that both `django` and `ipython` are installed (in an active `virtualenv`),
and that the django project in question is called `mysite` (e.g. made via `$ django-admin startproject mysite`).

1st set up the environment:

```bash
$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=mysite.settings
```
then launch `ipython` and wire in django:

```ipython
In [1]: import django
In [2]: django.setup()
```