diff --git a/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py b/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py
index b4cd823..359703c 100644
--- a/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py
+++ b/apiserver/apiserver/settings.py
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ INSTALLED_APPS = [
     'django.contrib.messages',
     'django.contrib.staticfiles',
     'django.contrib.sites',
+    'django_extensions',
     'rest_framework',
     'rest_framework.authtoken',
     'apiserver.api',
@@ -295,5 +296,7 @@ logger.info('Test logging for each thread')
 
 APP_VERSION = 3  # TODO: automate this
 
+SHELL_PLUS = 'ipython'
+
 #import logging_tree
 #logging_tree.printout()
diff --git a/apiserver/requirements.txt b/apiserver/requirements.txt
index bc2395a..48433e7 100644
--- a/apiserver/requirements.txt
+++ b/apiserver/requirements.txt
@@ -2,15 +2,18 @@ alabaster==0.7.12
 argon2-cffi==19.2.0
 asgiref==3.5.0
 Babel==2.9.1
+backcall==0.2.0
 bleach==3.3.0
 certifi==2019.11.28
 cffi==1.13.2
 chardet==3.0.4
 commonmark==0.9.1
+decorator==5.1.1
 defusedxml==0.6.0
 Django==3.1.14
 django-allauth==0.41.0
 django-cors-headers==3.11.0
+django-extensions==3.1.5
 django-rest-auth==0.9.5
 django-simple-history==2.8.0
 djangorestframework==3.11.2
@@ -20,12 +23,20 @@ gunicorn==20.0.4
 icalendar==4.0.9
 idna==2.8
 imagesize==1.2.0
+ipython==7.33.0
+jedi==0.18.1
 Jinja2==2.11.3
 logging-tree==1.8.1
 MarkupSafe==1.1.1
+matplotlib-inline==0.1.3
 oauthlib==3.1.0
 packaging==20.0
+parso==0.8.3
+pexpect==4.8.0
+pickleshare==0.7.5
 Pillow==8.3.2
+prompt-toolkit==3.0.29
+ptyprocess==0.7.0
 pycparser==2.19
 Pygments==2.7.4
 pyparsing==2.4.6
@@ -51,6 +62,8 @@ sphinxcontrib-jsmath==1.0.1
 sphinxcontrib-qthelp==1.0.2
 sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml==1.1.3
 sqlparse==0.3.0
+traitlets==5.1.1
 typing-extensions==4.0.1
 urllib3==1.25.11
+wcwidth==0.2.5
 webencodings==0.5.1