feat: implement autodiscover mechanism for automatic model registration

AUTHORS.rst

@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ Authors
 - `Sridhar Marella <https://github.com/sridhar562345>`_
 - `Mattia Fantoni <https://github.com/MattFanto>`_
 - `Trent Holliday <https://github.com/trumpet2012>`_
+- `Remigio Furini <https://github.com/remifu93>`_
 
 Background
 ==========

CHANGES.rst

@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@ Changes
 Unreleased
 ----------
 
+3.10.2 (2025-07-15)
+-------------------
+
+- Add autodiscovery mechanism to auto-register models in historical.py (gh-1504)
+
 3.10.1 (2025-06-20)
 -------------------
 

docs/historical_model.rst

@@ -566,3 +566,23 @@ You will see the many to many changes when diffing between two historical record
 
     # Output:
     # categories changed from [{'poll': 1, 'category': 1}, { 'poll': 1, 'category': 2}] to [{'poll': 1, 'category': 2}]
+
+Organizing history registrations with `historical.py`
+-----------------------------------
+To keep your project clean and maintainable, place all your `register()` calls
+inside a dedicated `historical.py` file within each app.
+
+With the autodiscover feature, `simple_history` automatically imports these
+modules at Django startup, so you don’t need to manually import or register
+your historical models elsewhere.
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+    # myapp/historical.py
+
+    from simple_history import register
+    from .models import Product
+
+
+    # Register models to track their history
+    register(Product, inherit=True)

simple_history/__init__.py

@@ -37,3 +37,6 @@ def register(
     records.cls = model
     records.add_extra_methods(model)
     records.finalize(model)
+
+
+default_app_config = "simple_history.apps.SimpleHistoryConfig"

simple_history/apps.py

@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+from django.apps import AppConfig
+
+
+class SimpleHistoryConfig(AppConfig):
+    name = "simple_history"
+    verbose_name = "Simple History"
+
+    def ready(self):
+        from simple_history.utils import autodiscover_history_modules
+
+        autodiscover_history_modules()

simple_history/utils.py

@@ -241,3 +241,23 @@ def get_change_reason_from_object(obj):
         return getattr(obj, "_change_reason")
 
     return None
+
+
+def autodiscover_history_modules():
+    """
+    Auto-import `<app>.historical` modules and fail silently if not present.
+    This triggers simple_history.register(...) calls inside those modules.
+    Typically called at app startup.
+    """
+    from django.apps import apps
+    from django.utils.module_loading import import_module, module_has_submodule
+
+    for app_config in apps.get_app_configs():
+        module = f"{app_config.name}.historical"
+        try:
+            import_module(module)
+        except ImportError:
+            # Only re-raise if the module exists but failed to import
+            # Silently ignore if the module doesn't exist, as expected
+            if module_has_submodule(app_config.module, "historical"):
+                raise