Configuration

Register the application

Add 'django_rmq' to INSTALLED_APPS in your Django settings:

INSTALLED_APPS: list[str] = [
    # ...
    'django_rmq',
]

When Django starts, RabbitMQAppConfig.ready() reads RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS and builds, for every alias, a RabbitMQConnectionManager, a SetupRegistry, and a ConsumersRegistry. These are stored as module-level attributes on django_rmq and are available from that point on.

If RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS is missing or empty when ready() runs, Django raises ImproperlyConfigured and refuses to start.

RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS

RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS is a dict that maps an alias name to a connection parameters dict. All nine keys are required for every alias.

RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS: dict[str, dict[str, object]] = {
    'default': {
        'HOST': 'localhost',
        'PORT': 5672,
        'VIRTUAL_HOST': '/',
        'USER': 'guest',
        'PASSWORD': 'guest',
        'HEARTBEAT': 600,
        'BLOCKED_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT': 300,
        'RECONNECT_INITIAL_BACKOFF': 1.0,
        'RECONNECT_MAX_BACKOFF': 30.0,
    },
}

Parameter reference

Key	Type	RabbitMQConfig field	Description
HOST	str	host	Broker hostname or IP address.
PORT	int	port	Broker AMQP port (typically 5672).
VIRTUAL_HOST	str	virtual_host	AMQP virtual host to connect to.
USER	str	user	Username for PlainCredentials authentication.
PASSWORD	str	password	Password for PlainCredentials authentication.
HEARTBEAT	int	heartbeat	Heartbeat interval in seconds negotiated with the broker.
BLOCKED_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT	int	blocked_connection_timeout	Seconds to wait while the broker blocks the connection before failing.
RECONNECT_INITIAL_BACKOFF	float	reconnect_initial_backoff	Initial consumer reconnect delay in seconds.
RECONNECT_MAX_BACKOFF	float	reconnect_max_backoff	Maximum consumer reconnect delay (cap for exponential backoff).

RabbitMQConfig is a frozen dataclass. After ready() completes each alias has its own immutable config instance; modifying the settings dict at runtime has no effect.

Single connection vs multiple connections

When exactly one alias is defined you may omit the using parameter on Producer, Consumer, and the management commands — the single alias is resolved automatically.

When two or more aliases are defined you must pass using='<alias>' explicitly. Omitting it raises ImproperlyConfigured with a message listing the configured aliases.

Single alias:

from django_rmq.producer import Producer

producer: Producer = Producer(queue='orders')
producer.publish(body='{"id": 1}')

Multiple aliases — using required:

from django_rmq.producer import Producer

orders_producer: Producer = Producer(queue='orders', using='default')
analytics_producer: Producer = Producer(queue='events', using='analytics')

See Multiple Connections for a complete multi-alias example.

Error cases

Situation	Exception	Message
RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS missing or empty	ImproperlyConfigured	django_rmq requires RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS …
'django_rmq' not in INSTALLED_APPS	ImproperlyConfigured	django_rmq is not initialized. Add "django_rmq" to INSTALLED_APPS.
using omitted with multiple aliases	ImproperlyConfigured	Multiple RabbitMQ connections configured (…); pass using='<alias>' explicitly.
using set to an unknown alias	ImproperlyConfigured	Unknown RabbitMQ alias '<alias>'.

Reading credentials from environment variables

Storing credentials directly in settings files is not recommended for production. A common approach is to read them from environment variables:

import os
from typing import Any

RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS: dict[str, dict[str, Any]] = {
    'default': {
        'HOST': os.environ.get('RMQ_HOST', 'localhost'),
        'PORT': int(os.environ.get('RMQ_PORT', '5672')),
        'VIRTUAL_HOST': os.environ.get('RMQ_VIRTUAL_HOST', '/'),
        'USER': os.environ.get('RMQ_USER', 'guest'),
        'PASSWORD': os.environ.get('RMQ_PASSWORD', 'guest'),
        'HEARTBEAT': int(os.environ.get('RMQ_HEARTBEAT', '600')),
        'BLOCKED_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT': int(os.environ.get('RMQ_BLOCKED_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT', '300')),
        'RECONNECT_INITIAL_BACKOFF': float(os.environ.get('RMQ_RECONNECT_INITIAL_BACKOFF', '1.0')),
        'RECONNECT_MAX_BACKOFF': float(os.environ.get('RMQ_RECONNECT_MAX_BACKOFF', '30.0')),
    },
}

You can also use django-environ, python-decouple, or any other env-loading library — RABBITMQ_CONNECTIONS is a plain Python dict, so any value source works.