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Polytropos

Polytropos logo

Polytropos is a Python build backend for Odoo modules that enables writing code once and using it across multiple Odoo releases.

Features

  • Multi-release support: Write your module once, target multiple Odoo releases
  • Conditional manifests: Configure different manifest values per Odoo release, to let you include or exclude data files per release
  • Editable installs: Develop in editable is supported
  • PEP 517 compliant: Works with any PEP 517 compatible frontend

Quick Example

Replace your module's __manifest__.py with this pyproject.toml file:

pyproject.toml
[build-system]
requires = ["polytropos[build]"]
build-backend = "polytropos.build"

[project]
name = "odoo-addon-my-module"
version = "1.0.0"
dependencies = [
    # Specify supported Odoo versions here
    "odoo>=17"
]

# All versions have this data
[[tool.polytropos.manifest]]
depends = ["base"]
data = ["data/views.xml"]

# This section is only for Odoo 18+
[[tool.polytropos.manifest]]
releases = ">=18"
data = ["security/ir.model.access.csv"]

Then, inside the module folder:

# Don't forget the module must be a Python package
touch __init__.py

# Build wheels for different odoo releases
uv build --sdist
uv build --wheel --config-setting odoo_release=17.0
uv build --wheel --config-setting odoo_release=18.0
uv build --wheel --config-setting odoo_release=19.0

# List artifacts
ls -1 dist/
my_module-1.0.0.tar.gz
odoo_addon_my_module-17.0.1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
odoo_addon_my_module-18.0.1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl
odoo_addon_my_module-19.0.1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl

Single branch, single code, multiple releases! 🤯

Installation

Python will auto-install the build backend when you build a module.

But yes, you can install a small CLI with:

pip install polytropos[cli]

For development, the recommended tool you need is uv. Then:

uvx polytropos[cli] --help-all

Why Polytropos?

Odoo modules traditionally require separate codebases or branches for each release. Polytropos solves this by generating release-specific code at build time, allowing you to maintain a single codebase.

So, it will help you or not depending on your product vision:

What is your product? What does that mean? Is Polytropos for you?
Odoo + its release + all addons in that release Customers that want new features must upgrade to newer Odoo releases. â›” No
Addons that should work always the same way Customers need new features and cannot wait for the upgrade to the next Odoo release; but when they upgrade, they expect the same features they have now ✅ Yes

Examples

Check out the examples folder for real-world modules with views, models, and tests that exercise the conditional logic.

Credits

Moduon logo

Polytropos is developed and maintained by Moduon. Need a professional Odoo partner? Contact us.