Odoo data, sequences & configuration

Data files are code: records load on -i and, unless protected, are re-asserted from XML on every -u. Two failures dominate — a seeded record's manual edits silently vanish on the next upgrade, or you create a second copy of a record the base already ships. Both come from guessing what exists and how it's flagged.

The rule: before adding or editing shipped data, read what's already seeded and its noupdate flag from ir.model.data — don't guess.

Targets Odoo 17/18, through Odoo 19 (current LTS). For older versions check skills/odoo-introspect/references/version-matrix.md.

Discover first (introspect, don't grep)

Run odoo-introspect's scripts against the live DB before touching data: