You updated your module — added a new field, changed a view, ran a migration script. You restart Odoo and… nothing. The migration didn't run. The field isn't in the database. The UI looks wrong. You spent 10 minutes debugging before realizing you forgot to pass --update=my_module.

In Docker environments it gets worse: the restart script doesn't include -u, the CI pipeline doesn't know which modules changed, and teams rely on tribal knowledge to remember which modules need manual updating.

• Detects version changes in all installed custom modules
• Works at server startup — before any HTTP request is served
• Compatible with Docker, Kubernetes, and any deployment pipeline
• Handles multi-database setups (each DB checked independently)
• Safe: if the database isn't initialized yet, startup proceeds normally
• Detailed startup log: shows exactly which modules were queued

• Works with PreforkServer (production) and ThreadedServer (dev)
• Zero dependencies beyond Odoo base
• Enabled/disabled via a single config flag — no code changes needed
• Module itself auto-upgrades when its own version changes
• No UI or views — purely server-side, no performance overhead

Add the following to your odoo.conf:

[options]
server_wide_modules = web,odoocraft_autoupgrade_modules
trigger_update_via_version = True

The server_wide_modules line ensures the module is loaded at server startup (before any database is initialized). The trigger_update_via_version flag acts as a kill-switch — set it to False to disable auto-upgrade without uninstalling the module.

Docker example — your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  web:
    image: odoo:19.0
    volumes:
      - ./my_modules:/mnt/extra-addons
      - ./odoo.conf:/etc/odoo/odoo.conf
    command: odoo --config /etc/odoo/odoo.conf

No extra flags needed. The module handles the rest on each restart.