You need to specify NAME in your Django settings file.

.env

# put local variants on settings.py here to be used by foreman

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
        'NAME': 'soundfit',
        'USER': 'postgres',
        'PASSWORD': 'obscured',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': '',
    }
}

gistfile1.txt

(env)13:45:00-~/github/soundfit$ python manage.py syncdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 443, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 382, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 196, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 232, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 371, in handle
    return self.handle_noargs(**options)
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 57, in handle_noargs
    cursor = connection.cursor()
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/__init__.py", line 306, in cursor
    cursor = self.make_debug_cursor(self._cursor())
  File "/Users/lklrmn/github/soundfit/env/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/postgresql_psycopg2/base.py", line 162, in _cursor
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("You need to specify NAME in your Django settings file.")
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: You need to specify NAME in your Django settings file.

in the settings.py file

import dj_database_url
import os
DATABASES = {'default': dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://localhost')}
if bool(os.environ.get('LOCAL_DEV', False)):
DATABASES = {'default': dj_database_url.config(default='postgres://postgres:obscured@localhost/soundfit')}