Speed Run: Connect Hermes Agent to Odoo via MCP

June 16, 2026 speed-run hermes mcp

Earlier this week we showed you a speed run connecting Hermes Agent to Odoo via direct XML-RPC — a dedicated Odoo user, direct API calls, no middle layer. That's the approach we recommend for production.

But there's another way: the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Instead of the agent talking directly to Odoo's API, an MCP server sits in between as a translation layer. The agent talks MCP, the MCP server talks XML-RPC to Odoo. It's an open standard from Anthropic, adopted by Claude Desktop, VS Code, Cursor, and now Hermes Agent.

This speed run walks through the MCP approach in 5 steps. Clone, configure, connect, done.

Pro Tip: We covered the direct API vs MCP trade-offs in detail here. TL;DR: Direct access wins on security, latency, and flexibility for single-ERP setups. MCP shines when your agent needs to talk to many different tools through one protocol. Pick the right tool for your use case.

How It Works

The architecture is simple:

Hermes Agent → MCP Protocol → mcp-server-odoo → Odoo XML-RPC

The MCP server (mcp-server-odoo by ivnvxd, 300+ GitHub stars) exposes a set of tools — search_records, create_record, read_record, count_records, inspect_model — that your agent can call. It runs locally on your Hermes instance and communicates over HTTP (streamable-http transport).

Prerequisites

You'll need an Odoo instance with XML-RPC enabled and an API key. Grab a free trial from ODOO4projects.com if you don't have one.

Integration — ODOO Community

URL — https://006-003-1d9183bb-8430-41a8-85a3-842b2b4d279d.odoo4projects.com/
API Key — 602e6ea0a0adda65b344a282495da3b05525f63f
Database — 006-003-1d9183bb-8430-41a8-85a3-842b2b4d279d
Hermes Agent — Any Hermes instance (derez.ai or self-hosted) running on Linux

Step 1 — Clone the MCP Server

The MCP server runs on your local machine — the same server where Hermes Agent is installed. It does not run on the Odoo server itself.

git clone https://github.com/ivnvxd/mcp-server-odoo.git
cd mcp-server-odoo

The repo has 315 stars, 144 forks, and 198 commits as of this writing. It's actively maintained and supports Odoo 16.0+ with both standard (MCP module) and YOLO (direct XML-RPC) modes.

Step 2 — Install Dependencies

The recommended way to run it is via uvx (from the uv Python package manager). If you don't have uv installed:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

That's it — uvx mcp-server-odoo handles the rest automatically.

Step 3 — Create the Startup Script

Create a bash script that sets the environment variables and launches the MCP server in YOLO read-only mode (no MCP module needed on the Odoo side):

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Odoo MCP configuration
export ODOO_URL="https://006-003-1d9183bb-8430-41a8-85a3-842b2b4d279d.odoo4projects.com/"
export ODOO_DB="006-003-1d9183bb-8430-41a8-85a3-842b2b4d279d"
export ODOO_USER="changeme@odoo4projects.com"
export ODOO_API_KEY="602e6ea0a0adda65b344a282495da3b05525f63f"
export ODOO_READONLY=1
export ODOO_MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http
export ODOO_MCP_PORT=8000
export ODOO_YOLO=read

uvx mcp-server-odoo

Save this as run-odoo-mcp.sh, make it executable (chmod +x run-odoo-mcp.sh), and run it. The server starts on http://localhost:8000/mcp.

Pro Tip: YOLO mode (ODOO_YOLO=read) bypasses the need for the Odoo MCP module. This is great for testing and speed runs. For production, install the Odoo MCP module on your Odoo instance and set ODOO_YOLO=off for full security controls.

Step 4 — Register the MCP Server with Hermes

With the MCP server running, tell Hermes Agent about it:

hermes mcp add odoo --url http://localhost:8000/mcp

This registers the MCP endpoint with Hermes. From now on, any Hermes session can discover the Odoo tools automatically. The hermes mcp add command takes a name (we used odoo) and the server's URL.

To verify it worked:

hermes mcp list

You should see odoo listed with status connected.

Step 5 — Start Hermes and Use the Tools

Start a Hermes session and ask your agent to work with Odoo:

hermes run

Then in the chat, try something like:

Show me my 5 most recent leads from Odoo CRM.

The agent discovers the available MCP tools, calls search_records on the crm.lead model, and returns the results. Same goes for partners, products, invoices, sales orders — any model your Odoo user has access to.

Comparison at a Glance

Aspect	Direct API (Speed Run)	MCP (This Post)
Setup time	~3 min (paste credentials)	~5 min (clone + run server)
Components	None — agent talks directly to Odoo	MCP server process + Hermes MCP client
Latency	1 hop (agent → Odoo)	2 hops (agent → MCP → Odoo)
Tool surface	Full Odoo model access (any method)	Predefined MCP tools (search, read, create, etc.)
Multi-tool agent	Each tool needs its own integration	One protocol for all tools (GitHub, Slack, Jira, etc.)

Wrap Up

In 5 steps and about 5 minutes, you connected Hermes Agent to Odoo through the Model Context Protocol. Clone the repo, set the env vars, start the server, register with Hermes, and your agent can query CRM leads, partners, products, invoices — anything your Odoo user has access to.

Which approach should you use?

Direct API — if Hermes Agent is your only tool and Odoo is your only backend. Faster, no middle layer, full model access.
MCP — if you're building a multi-tool agent (Odoo + GitHub + Notion + Slack) and want one protocol to rule them all.

Both work. Both connect your agent to live Odoo data. Both take under 10 minutes. The right choice depends on your architecture.

Pro Tip: You can run both. Use MCP for the tools that benefit from a unified protocol (docs, chat, code repos) and direct API for Odoo. Hermes Agent supports mixed setups — MCP tools and direct integrations coexist in the same session. Pick the best connection for each backend.

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