diff --git a/templates/odoo-deployment.yaml b/templates/odoo-deployment.yaml
index 3675d7e..6301792 100644
--- a/templates/odoo-deployment.yaml
+++ b/templates/odoo-deployment.yaml
@@ -84,6 +84,15 @@ spec:
               # check below skips the odoo step when base is already
               # installed — fresh deploys still bootstrap correctly
               # because base isn't installed in a brand-new database.
+              # Init both vars to "" so `set -u` doesn't crash when
+              # the schema query returns nothing (fresh DB case —
+              # ir_module_module doesn't exist yet, so the inner
+              # query block is skipped, leaving BASE_INSTALLED
+              # unset). Without this, db-init crashlooped on every
+              # fresh deploy with: "BASE_INSTALLED: parameter not
+              # set".
+              IS_INIT=""
+              BASE_INSTALLED=""
               IS_INIT=$(PGPASSWORD="$PASSWORD" psql -h "$HOST" -p "$PORT" -U "$USER" -d "$DBNAME" -tAc \
                 "SELECT 1 FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema='public' AND table_name='ir_module_module'" 2>/dev/null || true)
               if [ "$IS_INIT" = "1" ]; then