Integrating GitHub Copilot CLI with Odoo data via CData CLI

Justin Floyd
Product Business Analyst

CData CLI gives AI coding agents direct, command-line-native access to CData Drivers across hundreds of data sources, allowing agents to manage licenses, configure connections, run SQL queries, and explore schema metadata, all without leaving the terminal.

GitHub Copilot CLI is the terminal interface for GitHub Copilot, giving developers direct access to an AI agent without leaving the command line. It can autonomously complete multi-step tasks driven by natural language instructions, including reading and modifying files, running shell commands, managing pull requests on GitHub, and delegating work to specialized custom agents. Its support for agent skills and custom instructions makes it well-suited for structured, tool-driven workflows, making it a natural fit for connecting to external data sources through CData CLI.

By describing your data goals in plain language, GitHub Copilot CLI can handle the full setup process, from driver configuration and license activation to connection creation and query execution, without manual intervention at each step.

This article details step-by-step directions for how to connect Odoo data to GitHub Copilot CLI through CData CLI.

Prerequisites

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.
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 the skill (one-time setup)

Always use CData CLI with the official skill.

The official CData CLI Skill is available on GitHub and installs through npx skills in the terminal:
```
npx skills add CDataSoftware/cli-skills
```
Follow the prompts in the terminal to install for GitHub Copilot. 👁 Install for GitHub Copilot

Step 2: Set up the project directory

Create a project directory to contain all project files.

Navigate to the directory within the terminal and start a session with the copilot command: 👁 Start a session
👁 GitHub Copilot CLI UI

Step 3: Establish the driver and connection

Describe what you want to accomplish in this session with the CLI and Odoo data.

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 prompt automatically loads the skill and kicks off the following process. You can always manually prompt the agent for each of the following steps.

Driver setup: GitHub Copilot CLI checks for an existing CData Odoo driver, or searches and downloads a new one:

```
cdatacli drivers list
```
```
cdatacli drivers search --driver "Odoo"
```

cdatacli drivers download --artifact-id <artifact-id>

Activation: Activate the Odoo driver with a single command for a 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 the 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 a Odoo skill (if applicable): CData provides driver instructions for popular sources. You can use these to generate a source-specific skill file that guides the agent through best practices for the driver.

Run the following command and save the output to your skills directory, either at the project level or globally. (Note: If you receive a "No instructions available for Odoo" message, no driver instructions exist for this source. You can continue using the main driver skill.)
```
cdatacli drivers skill "Odoo" > ~/skills/cdata-odoo/SKILL.md
```

Step 4: Query Odoo data

With the CData driver fully configured, your agent can now execute queries and write code against live Odoo data:

cdatacli query sql --connection my_odoo_connection --sql "SELECT * FROM res_users"

Query Odoo data directly from your terminal with CData CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI 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 in plain language, 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.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Odoo Driver to get started:

Download Now

Learn more:

👁 Odoo Icon
Odoo JDBC Driver

Rapidly create and deploy powerful Java applications that integrate with Odoo ERP data, including Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Accounts, and more!

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/odoo-jdbc-cli-github-copilot.rst