Using a UUID as a primary key in Django models (generic relations impact)

Question

For a number of reasons^, I\'d like to use a UUID as a primary key in some of my Django models. If I do so, will I still be able to use outside apps like \"contrib.comments\

Answer 1

A UUID primary key will cause problems not only with generic relations, but with efficiency in general: every foreign key will be significantly more expensive—both to store, and to join on—than a machine word.

However, nothing requires the UUID to be the primary key: just make it a secondary key, by supplementing your model with a uuid field with unique=True. Use the implicit primary key as normal (internal to your system), and use the UUID as your external identifier.