Fix: Your startup project doesn't reference Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design
Add Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design to the startup project that dotnet ef builds, not the project holding your DbContext, and pass -s in layered solutions.
Tag: ef-core-11
27 posts · Page 1 of 3
Fix: "The model for context 'X' has pending changes" in EF Core 11
EF Core throws PendingModelChangesWarning when your model no longer matches the last migration snapshot. Add the migration, or fix the false positive behind it.
How to apply EF Core 11 migrations in production with dotnet ef migrations bundle
A complete guide to deploying EF Core 11 schema changes with migration bundles: building efbundle in CI, the appsettings.json trap with named connection strings, self-contained bundles and the Alpine musl RID, migration locking since EF Core 9, rolling back with a target migration, and why per-migration transactions do not save you on MySQL.
Complex types vs owned entities in EF Core 11: which should you pick?
On EF Core 11, default to complex types for value objects and drop to owned entities only when you need a separate table or a collection mapped to its own rows.
TPH vs TPT vs TPC inheritance mapping in EF Core 11: which should you pick?
On EF Core 11, default to TPH for almost every hierarchy, reach for TPC only when you mostly query one leaf type and a benchmark proves it wins, and use TPT only when an external constraint forces you to.
How to configure table-per-hierarchy (TPH) inheritance mapping in EF Core 11
TPH is EF Core's default inheritance strategy: one table, one discriminator column. Here is how to configure the discriminator, share columns, handle nullable derived properties, and the gotchas on EF Core 11.
How to map a complex type instead of an owned entity in EF Core 11
Owned entities carry a hidden key and reference identity that fights value objects. Here is how to map a value object as a complex type in EF Core 11, when to switch, and the gotchas.
How to do keyset (cursor) pagination in EF Core 11
Replace Skip/Take with a WHERE clause that seeks past the last row you saw. Order by a fully unique key, carry the last row's values as a cursor, and EF Core 11 turns the next page into an index seek instead of an OFFSET scan.
How to map and query JSON columns in EF Core 11
Map a nested type to a single JSON column with ComplexProperty(...).ToJson(), let EF Core 11 store it in the native SQL Server 2025 json type, then query into it with LINQ that translates to JSON_VALUE, JSON_CONTAINS, and JSON_PATH_EXISTS.
AsNoTracking vs AsNoTrackingWithIdentityResolution in EF Core 11: which should you use?
Use AsNoTracking for read-only queries by default. Reach for AsNoTrackingWithIdentityResolution only when the result graph contains the same entity more than once and your code depends on getting a single shared instance back.