Nice to not be the only one:

Our current approach is manually trigger a method (on res.company).

1. refresh the app-list

2. Loop through all the modules and if available in the system install them

   1. in this method we keep the current state of test and prod to have a single proof of state (What is in test and production)
   2. We check if the database name contains "test" for additionally installing the modules in test.

With this the functional people can be sure the current state is installed without the complexities of the refresh and depends.
But it still feels hacky - hope sombody finds a better solution for this.

Hello, 

This is a common challenge in Odoo.sh when working with frequently refreshed test environments.

By default, when you reset the test database from production, only the modules installed in production are restored any test-only modules will need to be reinstalled manually or via a defined process.

A common approach followed by many teams is:

• Maintain a dedicated list of test modules (via a script or documentation)
• Use post-init scripts or automated actions in Odoo.sh to reinstall required modules after each rebuild
• Alternatively, manage a separate staging branch/database where test modules remain persistent instead of resetting frequently

The “application module with dependencies” approach can work, but as you noticed, it may introduce deployment complexities.

A more stable approach is to automate module reinstallation rather than relying on dependency chaining.

Hope this works for you! If you need any help implementing this or want a more optimized approach, feel free to reach out for further discussion

Regards,

Zehntech Technologies Inc.

santosh.sekwadia@zehntech.com