manage.py startapp <name> <directory> fails to create new app

[Kenneth Love]

Current 5.2 ​documentation says that manage.py startapp name destination should create a new app in the destination directory. This _does_ work with django-admin but fails with manage.py.

Steps to reproduce

• Create a new virtual environment with uv venv
• Install Django with uv pip install django
• Create a new Django project with uv run django-admin startproject example_project
• cd into example_project
• Create a new destination directory with mkdir destination
• Create a new app in the destination directory with uv run manage.py startapp example destination
• Get the error: CommandError: 'destination' conflicts with the name of an existing Python module and cannot be used as an app directory. Please try another directory.

Expectation

A new Django app named example would be created in the destination directory.

[Mridul]

Hi everyone,
I am a new contributor to Django. I have recently resolved an easy pickings bug ticket and am looking for my next ticket to work on. I came across this ticket and it seems like an interesting issue to work on. Before beginning, I wanted to check whether this would be a suitable task for someone at my stage. I am still getting familiar with the codebase, but I am willing to put in the time to understand the issue thoroughly and work through and involved complexity.

Would this be a good ticket for me to work on, or would you recommend looking for something else?
Thanks in advance for the guidance

[suhail vs]

I think this is the expected behaviour, since he already created the directory destination
so you must remove the directory destination before running the startapp command.

[Abhimanyu Singh Negi]

Hi,

I’d like to work on this ticket if it’s still available. I’ve reproduced the issue on Django 5.2 and confirmed that django-admin startapp works as documented, while manage.py startapp fails due to a module conflict check being applied to the destination directory.

My plan is to align manage.py startapp with django-admin by ensuring the conflict check applies to the app name, not the destination path, and to add a regression test for both cases.

If that approach sounds reasonable and the ticket isn’t already being actively worked on, I’d be happy to take it.

Thanks.