name: flask description: | Build Python web applications with Flask, using the application factory pattern, Blueprints, and Flask-SQLAlchemy. Covers project structure, authentication, and configuration management.

Use when: creating Flask projects, organizing with blueprints, implementing authentication, or troubleshooting circular imports, application context errors, or blueprint registration.

Flask Skill

Production-tested patterns for Flask with the application factory pattern, Blueprints, and Flask-SQLAlchemy.

Latest Versions (verified December 2025):

Flask: 3.1.2
Flask-SQLAlchemy: 3.1.1
Flask-Login: 0.6.3
Flask-WTF: 1.2.2
Werkzeug: 3.1.3

Quick Start

Project Setup with uv

# Create project
uv init my-flask-app
cd my-flask-app

# Add dependencies
uv add flask flask-sqlalchemy flask-login flask-wtf python-dotenv

# Run development server
uv run flask --app app run --debug

Minimal Working Example

# app.py
from flask import Flask

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/")
def hello():
    return {"message": "Hello, World!"}

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True)

Run: uv run flask --app app run --debug

Project Structure (Application Factory)

For maintainable applications, use the factory pattern with blueprints:

my-flask-app/
├── pyproject.toml
├── config.py                # Configuration classes
├── run.py                   # Entry point
│
├── app/
│   ├── __init__.py          # Application factory (create_app)
│   ├── extensions.py        # Flask extensions (db, login_manager)
│   ├── models.py            # SQLAlchemy models
│   │
│   ├── main/                # Main blueprint
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   └── routes.py
│   │
│   ├── auth/                # Auth blueprint
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── routes.py
│   │   └── forms.py
│   │
│   ├── templates/
│   │   ├── base.html
│   │   ├── main/
│   │   └── auth/
│   │
│   └── static/
│       ├── css/
│       └── js/
│
└── tests/
    ├── conftest.py
    └── test_main.py

Core Patterns

Application Factory

# app/__init__.py
from flask import Flask
from app.extensions import db, login_manager
from config import Config


def create_app(config_class=Config):
    """Application factory function."""
    app = Flask(__name__)
    app.config.from_object(config_class)

    # Initialize extensions
    db.init_app(app)
    login_manager.init_app(app)

    # Register blueprints
    from app.main import bp as main_bp
    from app.auth import bp as auth_bp

    app.register_blueprint(main_bp)
    app.register_blueprint(auth_bp, url_prefix="/auth")

    # Create database tables
    with app.app_context():
        db.create_all()

    return app

Key Benefits:

Multiple app instances with different configs (testing)
Avoids circular imports
Extensions initialized once, bound to app later

Extensions Module

# app/extensions.py
from flask_sqlalchemy import SQLAlchemy
from flask_login import LoginManager

db = SQLAlchemy()
login_manager = LoginManager()
login_manager.login_view = "auth.login"
login_manager.login_message_category = "info"

Why separate file?: Prevents circular imports - models can import db without importing app.

Configuration

# config.py
import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()


class Config:
    """Base configuration."""
    SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get("SECRET_KEY", "dev-secret-key")
    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL", "sqlite:///app.db")
    SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS = False


class DevelopmentConfig(Config):
    """Development configuration."""
    DEBUG = True


class TestingConfig(Config):
    """Testing configuration."""
    TESTING = True
    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = "sqlite:///:memory:"
    WTF_CSRF_ENABLED = False


class ProductionConfig(Config):
    """Production configuration."""
    DEBUG = False

Entry Point

# run.py
from app import create_app

app = create_app()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

Run: flask --app run run --debug

Blueprints

Creating a Blueprint

# app/main/__init__.py
from flask import Blueprint

bp = Blueprint("main", __name__)

from app.main import routes  # Import routes after bp is created!

# app/main/routes.py
from flask import render_template, jsonify
from app.main import bp


@bp.route("/")
def index():
    return render_template("main/index.html")


@bp.route("/api/health")
def health():
    return jsonify({"status": "ok"})

Blueprint with Templates

# app/auth/__init__.py
from flask import Blueprint

bp = Blueprint(
    "auth",
    __name__,
    template_folder="templates",  # Blueprint-specific templates
    static_folder="static",       # Blueprint-specific static files
)

from app.auth import routes

Database Models

# app/models.py
from datetime import datetime
from flask_login import UserMixin
from werkzeug.security import generate_password_hash, check_password_hash
from app.extensions import db, login_manager


class User(UserMixin, db.Model):
    """User model for authentication."""
    __tablename__ = "users"

    id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
    email = db.Column(db.String(120), unique=True, nullable=False, index=True)
    password_hash = db.Column(db.String(256), nullable=False)
    is_active = db.Column(db.Boolean, default=True)
    created_at = db.Column(db.DateTime, default=datetime.utcnow)

    def set_password(self, password):
        self.password_hash = generate_password_hash(password)

    def check_password(self, password):
        return check_password_hash(self.password_hash, password)

    def __repr__(self):
        return f"<User {self.email}>"


@login_manager.user_loader
def load_user(user_id):
    return User.query.get(int(user_id))

Authentication with Flask-Login

Auth Forms

# app/auth/forms.py
from flask_wtf import FlaskForm
from wtforms import StringField, PasswordField, BooleanField, SubmitField
from wtforms.validators import DataRequired, Email, Length, EqualTo, ValidationError
from app.models import User


class LoginForm(FlaskForm):
    email = StringField("Email", validators=[DataRequired(), Email()])
    password = PasswordField("Password", validators=[DataRequired()])
    remember = BooleanField("Remember Me")
    submit = SubmitField("Login")


class RegistrationForm(FlaskForm):
    email = StringField("Email", validators=[DataRequired(), Email()])
    password = PasswordField("Password", validators=[DataRequired(), Length(min=8)])
    confirm = PasswordField("Confirm Password", validators=[
        DataRequired(), EqualTo("password", message="Passwords must match")
    ])
    submit = SubmitField("Register")

    def validate_email(self, field):
        if User.query.filter_by(email=field.data).first():
            raise ValidationError("Email already registered.")

Auth Routes

# app/auth/routes.py
from flask import render_template, redirect, url_for, flash, request
from flask_login import login_user, logout_user, login_required, current_user
from app.auth import bp
from app.auth.forms import LoginForm, RegistrationForm
from app.extensions import db
from app.models import User


@bp.route("/register", methods=["GET", "POST"])
def register():
    if current_user.is_authenticated:
        return redirect(url_for("main.index"))

    form = RegistrationForm()
    if form.validate_on_submit():
        user = User(email=form.email.data)
        user.set_password(form.password.data)
        db.session.add(user)
        db.session.commit()
        flash("Registration successful! Please log in.", "success")
        return redirect(url_for("auth.login"))

    return render_template("auth/register.html", form=form)


@bp.route("/login", methods=["GET", "POST"])
def login():
    if current_user.is_authenticated:
        return redirect(url_for("main.index"))

    form = LoginForm()
    if form.validate_on_submit():
        user = User.query.filter_by(email=form.email.data).first()
        if user and user.check_password(form.password.data):
            login_user(user, remember=form.remember.data)
            next_page = request.args.get("next")
            flash("Logged in successfully!", "success")
            return redirect(next_page or url_for("main.index"))
        flash("Invalid email or password.", "danger")

    return render_template("auth/login.html", form=form)


@bp.route("/logout")
@login_required
def logout():
    logout_user()
    flash("You have been logged out.", "info")
    return redirect(url_for("main.index"))

Protecting Routes

from flask_login import login_required, current_user

@bp.route("/dashboard")
@login_required
def dashboard():
    return render_template("main/dashboard.html", user=current_user)

API Routes (JSON)

For REST APIs without templates:

# app/api/__init__.py
from flask import Blueprint

bp = Blueprint("api", __name__)

from app.api import routes

# app/api/routes.py
from flask import jsonify, request
from flask_login import login_required, current_user
from app.api import bp
from app.extensions import db
from app.models import User


@bp.route("/users", methods=["GET"])
@login_required
def get_users():
    users = User.query.all()
    return jsonify([
        {"id": u.id, "email": u.email}
        for u in users
    ])


@bp.route("/users", methods=["POST"])
def create_user():
    data = request.get_json()
    if not data or "email" not in data or "password" not in data:
        return jsonify({"error": "Missing required fields"}), 400

    if User.query.filter_by(email=data["email"]).first():
        return jsonify({"error": "Email already exists"}), 409

    user = User(email=data["email"])
    user.set_password(data["password"])
    db.session.add(user)
    db.session.commit()

    return jsonify({"id": user.id, "email": user.email}), 201

app.register_blueprint(api_bp, url_prefix="/api/v1")

Critical Rules

Always Do

Use application factory pattern - Enables testing, avoids globals
Put extensions in separate file - Prevents circular imports
Import routes at bottom of blueprint __init__.py - After bp is created
Use current_app not app - Inside request context
Use with app.app_context() - When accessing db outside requests

Never Do

Never import app in models - Causes circular imports
Never access db before app context - RuntimeError
Never store secrets in code - Use environment variables
Never use app.run() in production - Use Gunicorn
Never skip CSRF protection - Keep Flask-WTF enabled

Common Errors & Fixes

Circular Import Error

Error: ImportError: cannot import name 'X' from partially initialized module

Cause: Models importing app, app importing models

Fix: Use extensions.py pattern:

# WRONG - circular import
# app/__init__.py
from app.models import User  # models.py imports db from here!

# RIGHT - deferred import
# app/__init__.py
def create_app():
    # ... setup ...
    from app.models import User  # Import inside factory

Working Outside Application Context

Error: RuntimeError: Working outside of application context

Cause: Accessing current_app, g, or db outside request

Fix:

# WRONG
from app import create_app
app = create_app()
users = User.query.all()  # No context!

# RIGHT
from app import create_app
app = create_app()
with app.app_context():
    users = User.query.all()  # Has context

Blueprint Not Found

Error: werkzeug.routing.BuildError: Could not build url for endpoint

Cause: Using wrong blueprint prefix in url_for()