This is the redesigned and improved WebTeddy project. It is a traditional Django app, with a React frontend framework. For information about how to run and modify Django applications, please read the excellent Django Tutorial.
By default, the project assumes you're running a MySQL database. If you choose not to, please update src/project/settings.py accordingly. Create and setup a database according to the values you put in passwords.py
Next, make sure you have a happy virtual environment set up.
virtualenv --python=python3.13 env
source env/bin/activate
From there, make sure you have all the Python libraries installed
python -m ensurepip --upgrade
pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
Now you'll need to make sure you have all the passwords you need.
cp src/passwords_template.py passwords.py
Fill in all the fields in passwords.py with whatever you want.
Now, create the logging directory. Django will need this to run properly.
sudo mkdir /var/log/django
sudo chmod 777 /var/log/django
Install all our database tables and migrations.
python src/manage.py makemigrations
python src/manage.py migrate
Django should all be set up! One last step to be able to access your dev instance's admin console: Create an admin superuser for yourself.
python src/manage.py createsuperuser
You don't have to fill out the email, and make the username and password whatever you want. It's all stored locally in your DB.
Now you should be all set up to run locally! Start the dev server:
python src/manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
While the dev server is running, you can access the admin console at http://localhost:8000/admin/
You will want to set up the React frontend development server as well. See the React README for more information.
You'll want to add some reels to the app so you can show videos to the users.
Add video files in static/reels/.
Update TeddyReels in ReelsScreen.tsx to list all your reels (sorry this is manual).
MIT License
Copyright (c) [2026] [MIT Media Lab]
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction privileges, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
The Teddy character is used under Creative Commons 4.0 from JcToon at Rive.