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Stop sending admin emails on every HTTP 500 in production #1356

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11 changes: 11 additions & 0 deletions config/settings/production.py
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -177,6 +177,17 @@
},
}

# Django's default mail_admins handler sends email synchronously, blocking a worker
# thread per HTTP 500; other (async/queued) handlers are recommended. Disabled by
# default and gated behind an env var; errors are already captured by Sentry.
ADMIN_ERROR_EMAILS = env.bool("DJANGO_ADMIN_ERROR_EMAILS", default=False)
if not ADMIN_ERROR_EMAILS:
LOGGING["loggers"]["django"] = {
"level": "INFO",
"handlers": ["console"],
"propagate": False,
}
Comment on lines +185 to +189
Comment on lines +184 to +189

@mihow mihow Jul 17, 2026

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The else (on) branch is implicit today: DJANGO_ADMIN_ERROR_EMAILS=True just falls through and inherits Django's DEFAULT_LOGGING mail_admins handler. That works, but it depends on Django internals and isn't visible at this line. Minimal fix — make the on-path explicit:

Suggested change
if not ADMIN_ERROR_EMAILS:
LOGGING["loggers"]["django"] = {
"level": "INFO",
"handlers": ["console"],
"propagate": False,
}
if not ADMIN_ERROR_EMAILS:
LOGGING["loggers"]["django"] = {
"level": "INFO",
"handlers": ["console"],
"propagate": False,
}
else:
# Admin error emails are on. Nothing here wires them: they come from Django's
# DEFAULT_LOGGING, which attaches the mail_admins handler to the "django" logger
# before this module's LOGGING is applied. Kept as an explicit branch so the
# "on" behaviour is visible at this line rather than hidden in Django's defaults.
pass

If you'd rather not depend on Django's defaults at all, the more robust version defines the mail_admins handler and the django logger explicitly in the else branch, so the on behaviour is fully self-contained in this file. Happy to draft that instead — this minimal version matches the intent without expanding scope.


# Sentry
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SENTRY_DSN = env("SENTRY_DSN")
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