You can also route only read-only methods in urls.py, for example via: url( r'path/$', TheModelViewSetView.as_view({"get": "list"}),

You can also route only read-only methods in urls.py, for example via: url( r'path/$', TheModelViewSetView.as_view({"get": "list"}), name="thename" ) or "retrieve" instead of "list" for a route which includes PK. This of course makes the entire path read-only so it's not a way to make some fields writable and others not.