diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..39adec81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/deploy.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+name: Deploy Backend to Staging
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+
+jobs:
+  deploy:
+    name: Deploy backend to staging
+    runs-on: self-hosted
+    steps:
+      - name: Pull latest code
+        run: |
+          cd /opt/encoach/encoach_backend_new_v2
+          git fetch origin
+          git reset --hard origin/main
+          echo "Deployed: $(git log -1 --oneline)"
+
+      - name: Build Odoo image
+        run: |
+          cd /opt/encoach/encoach_backend_new_v2
+          # odoo.conf is not in the repo; copy from the persistent override for the build context
+          cp /opt/encoach/overrides/odoo.conf ./odoo.conf
+          docker compose \
+            -f docker-compose.yml \
+            -f /opt/encoach/overrides/encoach.override.yml \
+            build odoo
+          rm -f ./odoo.conf
+
+      - name: Run DB migrations
+        run: |
+          # Dynamically fetch the list of installed encoach_* modules from the DB
+          MODULES=$(docker exec encoach-v4-db psql -U odoo -d encoach_v2 -tAc \
+            "SELECT string_agg(name, ,) FROM ir_module_module WHERE state=installed AND name LIKE encoach%;")
+          echo "Upgrading modules: $MODULES"
+
+          docker run --rm \
+            --network encoach_backend_new_v2_default \
+            -v /opt/encoach/overrides/odoo.conf:/etc/odoo/odoo.conf:ro \
+            -v /opt/encoach/encoach_backend_new_v2:/mnt/extra-addons:ro \
+            -v /opt/encoach/encoach_backend_new_v2/openeducat_erp-19.0/openeducat_erp-19.0:/mnt/extra-addons/openeducat_erp-19.0:ro \
+            -v encoach_backend_new_v2_odoo-web-data:/var/lib/odoo \
+            encoach-backend:latest \
+            odoo -u "$MODULES" --stop-after-init 2>&1 | tail -20
+
+      - name: Restart Odoo
+        run: |
+          cd /opt/encoach/encoach_backend_new_v2
+          docker compose \
+            -f docker-compose.yml \
+            -f /opt/encoach/overrides/encoach.override.yml \
+            up -d --no-deps odoo
+
+      - name: Smoke test
+        run: |
+          echo "Polling Odoo /api/health (max 180s)..."
+          STATUS="000"
+          for i in $(seq 1 18); do
+            STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 10 http://localhost:8069/api/health 2>/dev/null || echo "000")
+            [ "$STATUS" = "200" ] && echo "Odoo healthy after $((i*10))s" && break
+            echo "  attempt $i: $STATUS — waiting 10s..."
+            sleep 10
+          done
+          [ "$STATUS" != "200" ] && echo "ERROR: Odoo still $STATUS after 180s" && exit 1
+          FE=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 10 http://localhost:3000/ 2>/dev/null || echo "000")
+          [ "$FE" != "200" ] && echo "ERROR: Frontend $FE" && exit 1
+          echo "All OK — Odoo=200 Frontend=$FE"
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index d805796e..9c8aca68 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ FROM odoo:19.0
 USER root
 
 COPY requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.txt
-RUN pip3 install --no-cache-dir -r /tmp/requirements.txt
+RUN pip3 install --break-system-packages --no-cache-dir --ignore-installed typing_extensions -r /tmp/requirements.txt
 
 COPY custom_addons /opt/odoo/custom_addons
 COPY odoo.conf /etc/odoo/odoo.conf
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1b3913b8..6158173d 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -12,3 +12,4 @@ psycopg2-binary>=2.9.0
 # `OpenAIService` wrapper; LangGraph only adds the state machine + tool routing on top.
 langgraph>=0.2.0
 langchain-core>=0.3.0
+sentence_transformers>=2.7.0