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Cristian Sifuentes
Cristian Sifuentes

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Scaffolding Elegance: Mastering `Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design` (v9.0.5) in ASP.NET Core Web API

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Scaffolding Elegance: Mastering raw `Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design` endraw (v9.0.5) in ASP.NET Core Web API

Scaffolding Elegance: Mastering Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design (v9.0.5) in ASP.NET Core Web API

In the evolving world of backend development, scaffolding and code generation are crucial for productivity, maintainability, and scaling real-world .NET solutions. One of the most powerful yet often underutilized tools in the Entity Framework Core ecosystem is the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design package.

In this blog, we’ll explore:

  • What the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design package offers
  • Why version 9.0.5 matters in modern .NET development
  • Step-by-step tutorial: scaffolding a real database into a clean API structure
  • Best practices to use it professionally

What is Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design?

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design is a helper package that brings the design-time tools necessary to scaffold DbContext, entities, migrations, and reverse engineer database schemas into code-first models.

It provides:

  • dotnet ef commands for managing migrations and database schema evolution
  • Code generation for entity classes and contexts (Scaffold-DbContext)
  • Runtime-independent metadata for tooling integration

Why Version 9.0.5?

Version 9.0.5 aligns with the modern .NET SDKs and is stable for use with both .NET 7 and .NET 8. While still backward compatible, it introduces performance and tooling improvements for upcoming versions of EF Core 10 and .NET 9. Here’s a snippet of how it’s declared in the .csproj:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="9.0.5">
    <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
    <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
  </PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>
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This ensures that the tooling dependency is design-time only and won’t bloat your final binaries.

Setting Up a Real Web API Project

Let’s scaffold a real database into a Web API project using:

dotnet new webapi -n ScaffoldingDemo
cd ScaffoldingDemo
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design --version 9.0.5
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
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Create a SQL Server database (or use an existing one), then scaffold it:

dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold "Server=localhost;Database=MyAppDb;Trusted_Connection=True;" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -o Models -f
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This command will generate:

  • A DbContext class (e.g., MyAppDbContext.cs)
  • A set of entity classes under /Models
  • Proper DbSet<T> definitions and annotations

Project Structure 

ScaffoldingDemo/
├── Controllers/
├── Models/
│   ├── Customer.cs
│   ├── Order.cs
│   └── MyAppDbContext.cs
├── Program.cs
├── appsettings.json
└── ScaffoldingDemo.csproj
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You can now inject MyAppDbContext into your controllers using DI:

[ApiController]
[Route("[controller]")]
public class CustomersController : ControllerBase
{
    private readonly MyAppDbContext _context;

    public CustomersController(MyAppDbContext context)
    {
        _context = context;
    }

    [HttpGet]
    public async Task<IEnumerable<Customer>> Get()
    {
        return await _context.Customers.ToListAsync();
    }
}
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Pro Tips for Real-World Projects

Tip Description
Use -f to force update scaffolding Avoid manual deletion
Use -c to name your DbContext Avoid default names
Customize .csproj assets Prevents shipping design dependencies
Use multiple contexts Separate authentication from business data
Enable nullable reference types Improves model correctness

Design-Time Only Best Practices

The use of <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets> ensures that your design tools do not end up in production deployments.

Always separate migration and scaffolding from runtime logic.

Conclusion

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design isn’t just a utility — it’s a productivity powerhouse. It accelerates API development by generating models, enforces consistency across teams, and integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio and CLI workflows.

Whether you’re reverse engineering an old database or bootstrapping a new app, using this package professionally makes your codebase elegant, clean, and future-ready.

✍️ Written by: Cristian Sifuentes – Full-stack dev crafting scalable apps with [NET - Azure], [Angular - React], Git, SQL & extensions. Clean code, dark themes, atomic commits

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