Fixed #35515 -- Added automatic model imports to shell management command.

Thanks to Bhuvnesh Sharma and Adam Johnson for mentoring this Google
Summer of Code 2024 project. Thanks to Sarah Boyce, David Smith, Jacob
Walls and Natalia Bidart for reviews.

1 files changed, 57 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/howto/custom-shell.txt b/docs/howto/custom-shell.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..07034dd197
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+======================================
+How to customize the ``shell`` command
+======================================
+
+The Django :djadmin:`shell` is an interactive Python environment that provides
+access to models and settings, making it useful for testing code, experimenting
+with queries, and interacting with application data.
+
+Customizing the :djadmin:`shell` command allows adding extra functionality or
+pre-loading specific modules. To do this, create a new management command that subclasses
+``django.core.management.commands.shell.Command`` and overrides the existing
+``shell`` management command. For more details, refer to the guide on
+:ref:`overriding commands <overriding-commands>`.
+
+.. _customizing-shell-auto-imports:
+
+Customize automatic imports
+===========================
+
+.. versionadded:: 5.2
+
+To customize the automatic import behavior of the :djadmin:`shell` management
+command, override the ``get_namespace()`` method. For example:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+    :caption: ``polls/management/commands/shell.py``
+
+    from django.core.management.commands import shell
+
+
+    class Command(shell.Command):
+        def get_namespace(self):
+            from django.urls.base import resolve, reverse
+
+            return {
+                **super().get_namespace(),
+                "resolve": resolve,
+                "reverse": reverse,
+            }
+
+The above customization adds :func:`~django.urls.resolve` and
+:func:`~django.urls.reverse` to the default namespace, which includes all
+models from all apps. These two functions will then be available when the
+shell opens, without a manual import statement.
+
+If you prefer to not have models automatically imported, create a custom
+``get_namespace()`` that excludes the ``super().get_namespace()`` call:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+    :caption: ``polls/management/commands/shell.py``
+
+    from django.core.management.commands import shell
+
+
+    class Command(shell.Command):
+        def get_namespace(self):
+            return {}