AI Coding Tools Are Now Built Into Your Odoo Dev Environment

The Problem — Copy-Paste Coding

Every Odoo developer using AI tools today runs the same loop: open ChatGPT or Claude in a browser tab, paste a chunk of Python, describe what the model should be looking at, wait for a response, copy the output back into your editor, run it, hit an error because the AI did not know about your _inherit chain or your custom field names, then start over.

The AI never sees your project structure. It does not know that your sale_order_extension module overrides _compute_amount in three places. It cannot read your __manifest__.py to understand dependencies. It has no access to the running container or the ORM. You are the bottleneck, manually shuttling context between two disconnected worlds.

What We Built

A project-level dev sidecar container. It runs alongside your Odoo environments on the same server, managed by OEC.sh. Inside it:

Your addon code is already mounted at /workspace/{env-name}/. The AI tools can read every file in your project, follow import chains, inspect __manifest__.py dependencies, and write changes that Odoo picks up immediately. No upload step. No copy-paste.

How to Enable It

Three clicks and about 30 seconds:

When the terminal opens, you will see this welcome banner:

  OEC.sh Dev Terminal — Project: my-erp
  ─────────────────────────────────────
  Available tools:
    claude    Claude Code (Anthropic)
    gemini    Gemini CLI (Google)
    codex     OpenAI Codex

  Quick start:
    claude "Explain the sale.order flow in this project"
    gemini "Generate unit tests for models/stock_move.py"
    codex  "Add a discount field to purchase.order.line"

  Workspace: /workspace/
  Docs: https://doc.oec.sh/product/developer-tools

Your Code Is Already There

The dev sidecar mounts every environment's addon source code into a unified workspace. You do not need to clone, download, or configure anything:

/workspace/
├── production/
│   └── my-custom-addon/
│       ├── __manifest__.py
│       ├── models/
│       ├── views/
│       └── security/
├── staging/
│   └── my-custom-addon/
│       ├── __manifest__.py
│       ├── models/
│       ├── views/
│       └── security/
└── dev/
    └── my-custom-addon/
        ├── __manifest__.py
        ├── models/
        ├── views/
        └── security/

Changes you make inside the terminal are written directly to the mounted volume. Odoo picks them up on the next request (or immediately if you are running in --dev=reload mode). No upload step, no deploy step, no waiting.

What You Can Do

Each tool runs as a CLI command inside the terminal. Here are real workflows Odoo developers are using:

$ claude "Review my sale.order extension and suggest test cases"

Analyzing /workspace/staging/my-custom-addon/models/sale_order.py...

Found 3 overrides of _compute_amount with conditional logic.
Suggested test cases:
  1. Test discount computation when qty > 100
  2. Test tax recalculation after manual price override
  3. Test multi-currency rounding in _compute_amount
  ...

$ gemini "What does the _compute_margin method actually do?
         Walk me through it step by step."

Reading /workspace/staging/my-custom-addon/models/sale_order.py...

The _compute_margin method:
  1. Iterates over order lines with product_id set
  2. Pulls standard_price from the product (cost)
  3. Computes margin = price_unit - standard_price
  4. Applies the company currency conversion...

$ codex "Fix the TypeError in stock_picking.py line 47"

Reading /workspace/dev/my-custom-addon/models/stock_picking.py...

Line 47: partner_id.name.upper()
Issue: partner_id can be empty recordset when picking
       is created from inventory adjustment.

Fix applied:
  - partner_id.name.upper() if partner_id else "N/A"

$ cd /workspace/staging/my-custom-addon
$ git add models/sale_order.py
$ git commit -m "fix: handle empty partner in margin compute"
$ git push origin staging

Environment Lifecycle Stays Clean

The dev sidecar is decoupled from your Odoo environments. This is a deliberate architectural choice:

This means you can maintain long-running AI sessions that build up context about your codebase — even as environments come and go underneath.

Architecture

The dev sidecar is a separate Docker container (oecsh/dev-sidecar) running alongside your Odoo containers on the same server. It is intentionally minimal and isolated:

The sidecar cannot reach your Odoo database, PostgreSQL, or other service containers. It only has access to the addon source code on disk and outbound internet for AI API calls.

Available on Pro Plan

AI Dev Mode is included in the Pro and Agency plans at no extra cost. You bring your own API keys for the AI services you want to use.

See full plan details at oec.sh/pricing. API key costs are billed directly by each AI provider (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI) based on your token usage.