Building an Odoo Coding Agent with Claude Agent SDK

What Is the Claude Agent SDK?

The Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic's framework for building custom AI agents that can use tools, maintain context, and execute multi-step workflows. For Odoo development, this means building a coding agent that understands your specific Odoo version, reads your module structure, generates code, and runs tests — all orchestrated through a Python program rather than a chat interface.

The advantage over using Claude Code directly is programmability. You can integrate the coding agent into your CI/CD pipeline, trigger it from webhooks, or embed it in your own development tools.

Architecture

┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Your Python Application               │
│                                         │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Claude Agent SDK                 │  │
│  │  - Model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514│  │
│  │  - Tools: file_read, file_write,  │  │
│  │    shell_exec, odoo_rpc           │  │
│  │  - System prompt: Odoo v19 context│  │
│  └──────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                         │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  Knowledge Base                   │  │
│  │  - Odoo v19 ORM docs             │  │
│  │  - View syntax guide             │  │
│  │  - Security patterns             │  │
│  │  - Testing conventions           │  │
│  └──────────────────────────────────┘  │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘

Setting Up the Agent

Step 1: Install the SDK

pip install anthropic claude-agent-sdk

Step 2: Define Tools

The agent needs tools to interact with the filesystem and Odoo:

from claude_agent_sdk import Agent, Tool

# Tool: Read a file from the project
def read_file(path: str) -> str:
    """Read a file from the Odoo module directory."""
    with open(path, 'r') as f:
        return f.read()

# Tool: Write a file to the project
def write_file(path: str, content: str) -> str:
    """Write a file to the Odoo module directory."""
    os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(path), exist_ok=True)
    with open(path, 'w') as f:
        f.write(content)
    return f"Written {len(content)} bytes to {path}"

# Tool: Run a shell command (for testing)
def run_command(command: str) -> str:
    """Execute a shell command and return output."""
    result = subprocess.run(
        command, shell=True, capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120
    )
    return result.stdout + result.stderr

# Tool: Query Odoo via XML-RPC
def odoo_rpc(model: str, method: str, args: list) -> str:
    """Call an Odoo model method via XML-RPC."""
    result = models_proxy.execute_kw(
        db, uid, password, model, method, args
    )
    return json.dumps(result, default=str)

Step 3: Create the System Prompt

SYSTEM_PROMPT = """
You are an Odoo 19 module developer agent. You generate complete,
production-quality Odoo modules.

Key Odoo 19 conventions:
- Use <list> not <tree> in XML views (changed in v18)
- No attrs= in XML views (removed in v17) — use invisible/readonly/required directly
- Use Constraint() and Index() classes, not _sql_constraints
- Import from odoo (re-exports work despite ORM package split)
- Use fields.Date.today not datetime.now for date defaults
- Use models.Constraint("UNIQUE(field)", "message") for unique constraints

Always generate:
1. __manifest__.py with correct depends and data files
2. Models in models/ with __init__.py
3. Views in views/ as XML
4. Security in security/ir.model.access.csv
5. Tests in tests/ with __init__.py

After generating code, run the tests. If tests fail, read the error
and fix the code. Iterate until tests pass.
"""

Step 4: Run the Agent

agent = Agent(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    system_prompt=SYSTEM_PROMPT,
    tools=[read_file, write_file, run_command, odoo_rpc],
    max_iterations=20,
)

result = agent.run(
    "Create an Odoo 19 module called 'equipment_tracking' with a model "
    "for tracking equipment. Fields: name (required), serial_number "
    "(unique), department_id (many2one to hr.department), status "
    "(selection: available/in_use/maintenance/retired), purchase_date, "
    "warranty_expiry, assigned_to (many2one to hr.employee). Add form, "
    "list, search views. Add to the Maintenance menu."
)

What the Agent Generates

Given the prompt above, the agent creates these files:

• equipment_tracking/__manifest__.py
• equipment_tracking/__init__.py
• equipment_tracking/models/__init__.py
• equipment_tracking/models/equipment.py
• equipment_tracking/views/equipment_views.xml
• equipment_tracking/security/ir.model.access.csv
• equipment_tracking/tests/__init__.py
• equipment_tracking/tests/test_equipment.py

Then it runs the tests, reads any failures, fixes the code, and repeats until all tests pass.

Advanced: Multi-Agent Pipeline

For complex modules, use multiple specialized agents:

1. Architect agent — Reads requirements, designs the model structure and relationships
2. Model agent — Generates Python models, compute methods, constraints
3. View agent — Generates XML views, menus, and actions
4. Security agent — Generates access rules and record rules
5. Test agent — Writes comprehensive test cases
6. Review agent — Reviews all generated code for anti-patterns and security issues

Integration with CI/CD

# In your CI pipeline:
# 1. Developer pushes a spec file (module_spec.yaml)
# 2. CI triggers the coding agent
# 3. Agent generates the module
# 4. CI runs Odoo tests
# 5. If tests pass, agent creates a PR
# 6. Human reviews and merges

Limitations

• Complex business logic — The agent handles standard CRUD and workflows well, but highly custom business logic (complex tax calculations, industry-specific algorithms) needs human review
• Frontend (OWL) — JavaScript/OWL component generation is less reliable than Python model generation
• Performance optimization — The agent generates correct code but may not produce the most performant implementation without specific guidance

Getting Started

Deploy Odoo on DeployMonkey for your development and testing environment. Build your coding agent using the Claude Agent SDK, and use DeployMonkey's Git integration to deploy generated modules automatically. The combination of AI code generation and managed Odoo hosting creates a fully automated development-to-deployment pipeline.