Integrating Claude Code CLI with Odoo Data via CData CLI
Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic command-line tool that brings AI assistance directly into your development workflow. Running natively in the terminal, it can plan and execute multi-step tasks: reading files, running commands, and making decisions across your project without constant manual input. Its ability to load and follow agent skill files makes it especially well-suited for structured workflows, making it a natural fit for connecting to external data sources through tools like CData CLI. With Claude Code, you can describe your data goals in plain language and let the agent handle driver setup, connection configuration, and query execution automatically.
This article details step-by-step directions for how to connect Odoo data to Claude Code CLI through CData CLI.
Prerequisites
- Claude Code installed
- CData CLI installed
About Odoo Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from Odoo has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access live data from both Odoo API 8.0+ and Odoo.sh Cloud ERP.
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Extend the native Odoo features with intelligent handling of many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many data properties. CData's connectivity solutions also intelligently handle complex data properties within Odoo. In addition to columns with simple values like text and dates, there are also columns that contain multiple values on each row. The driver decodes these kinds of values differently, depending upon the type of column the value comes from:
- Many-to-one columns are references to a single row within another model. Within CData solutions, many-to-one columns are represented as integers, whose value is the ID to which they refer in the other model.
- Many-to-many columns are references to many rows within another model. Within CData solutions, many-to-many columns are represented as text containing a comma-separated list of integers. Each value in that list is the ID of a row that is being referenced.
- One-to-many columns are references to many rows within another model - they are similar to many-to-many columns (comma-separated lists of integers), except that each row in the referenced model must belong to only one in the main model.
- Use SQL stored procedures to call server-side RFCs within Odoo.
Users frequently integrate Odoo with analytics tools such as Power BI and Qlik Sense, and leverage our tools to replicate Odoo data to databases or data warehouses.
Getting Started
Step 1: Download skill (one-time setup)
The CData CLI should always be used with the official Skill.
- The official CData CLI Skill on GitHub can be downloaded using npx skills through the terminal:
npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills
- Follow prompts in terminal to install skill for Claude Code
Step 2: Set up project directory
A project directory should be created to contain all project files.
Navigate to directory within the terminal and start a session using the claude command
Step 3: Establish driver and connection
Describe what you hope to accomplish in this session with the CLI and Odoo data. For example, consider the following prompt:
"I would like to build a command line app that connects to Odoo data and checks for updates from res_users. Make sure to include data from important columns like name and email."
This should automatically load the Skill and kick off the following process. You can always manually prompt the agent for each of the following steps.
- Driver setup: Check for existing CData Odoo driver, or search and download a new one:
cdatacli drivers list
cdatacli drivers search Odoo
cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id "artifact-id"
- Activation: Activate Odoo driver with a single command for trial or full license:
cdatacli drivers activate Odoo --name "name" --email "email" --trial
cdatacli drivers activate Odoo --name "name" --email "email" --key "product-key"
- Establish Odoo connection: Check for existing Odoo connections or create a new one:
cdatacli connection list
cdatacli connection create --driver Odoo –name "my_Odoo_connection" --connectionstring "Prop1=value1;Prop2=value2;..."
- Create Odoo skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources that can be used to create a source specific skill to guide the agent through best practices for the driver.
Run the following command to generate a skill file and save the output to your skills directory. You can choose to save the skill either at the project level or globally. (Note: If "No instructions available for Odoo" error is returned, no driver instructions exist and you can continue to use main driver skill)
cdatacli drivers skill Odoo > ~/skills/cdata-Odoo/SKILL.md
Step 4: Query Odoo data
With the CData Odoo Driver fully setup, your agent can now begin executing queries and writing code if desired.
cdatacli query sql --connection "my_Odoo data_connection" --sql "SELECT * FROM table"
Query Odoo data directly from your terminal with CData CLI
Claude Code and CData CLI together give your AI coding agent a direct path to live Odoo data without custom middleware, scheduled syncs, or manual setup at each step. Describe your goal, and the agent handles driver configuration, connection setup, and query execution from start to finish in the terminal.
Download the free CData CLI and start a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Odoo today.