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The Django API uses Django REST Framework for its browsability and ease of use when developing CRUD endpoints. It uses django's default SQLite database, and pulls the data from the /data directory.
To do any python development on the django application itself, I would suggest using django's built-in server as it allows for various things (such as debug mode and quick reloads). Here's the general process for getting that up and running.
First, install pipenv from here (https://pipenv.readthedocs.io/en/latest/).
Once pipenv is installed locally, you can then use it to install of the project dependencies defined in the Pipfile.
pipenv install
If you want to work with existing data sources and just get working you can quickly stand up the server with
pipenv run python manage.py quicksetup
followed by
pipenv run python manage.py runserver
This will stand up the server with full content and search index at http://localhost:8000.
If you want to customize your setup, particularly useful if adding new content sources, then you will need to use the built-in django migration function to define your database, making sure to run it within the pipenv environment.
pipenv run python manage.py migrate
You will then need to collect the static files (this makes django-resk-framework look presentable when viewing it in html).
pipenv run python manage.py collectstatic --noinput
Finally, you will need to load the SRD data from the json files in the /data folder. This is using the custom populatedb command.
pipenv run python manage.py populatedb --flush ./data/WOTC_5e_SRD_v5.1/
At that point, you will be able to run the django server normally (within the pipenv environment).
pipenv run python manage.py runserver
And your server should be available at http://localhost:8000.