EF Core Power Tools helps you generate EF Core entity classes and a DbContext from an existing database or SQL Server .dacpac file. It also provides tools to visualize and inspect your DbContext model in Visual Studio.
Start with the CLI (efcpt) for reverse engineering across a team or in CI. It runs on Windows, Linux and macOS, so developers, coding agents, and build agents can use the same scripted workflow regardless of their editor or operating system.
| Tool | Use it for | Get started |
|---|---|---|
Command-line tool (efcpt) |
Scripted reverse engineering for local development, shared team workflows and CI on Windows, Linux and macOS. | Follow the CLI installation and usage guide. |
| Visual Studio extension | Model visualization and inspection in Visual Studio 2022, plus a reverse engineering wizard for those who prefer a graphical workflow. | Install from Visual Studio Marketplace. For the reverse engineering wizard, follow the Quick Start, which includes a 10 minute video. |
You can use both tools together: generate and regenerate your code with the CLI, then use the Visual Studio extension to visualize and inspect the resulting DbContext model.
For the CLI, see its guide for runtime requirements and choosing a tool version that matches your EF Core version.
For reverse engineering with the Visual Studio extension, the .NET 8.0 or .NET 10.0 runtime must be installed. You can also install the extension through the Extensions > Manage Extensions dialog in Visual Studio.
The CLI lets you keep generation choices in source control and run the same command locally and in CI. This makes changes to object selection, naming and code generation settings reviewable alongside your application code. For consistent output across developers and build agents:
- Pin the CLI to an exact version and commit the generation script,
efcpt-config.json, and any custom renaming files or T4 templates. - Use the same source database schema or .dacpac input for each run.
- Set explicit line endings and character set so generated files use the same formatting on Windows, Linux and macOS.
| Task | Guide |
|---|---|
Run and configure efcpt. |
CLI guide |
| Choose database objects and customize generated code, names, templates and stored procedures. | Reverse Engineering guide |
| Visualize and inspect a DbContext model in Visual Studio. | Model graphing and scripting |
| Explore the Visual Studio extension's database and database project tools. | User guide and feature index |
| See what changed in a release. | Release notes |
- CLI: Follow Getting the latest daily build.
- Visual Studio extension: Download from Open VSIX Gallery. To receive daily build updates automatically, install the VSIX Gallery extension.
- EF Core Power Pack bundles EF Core Power Tools with database connection providers (DDEX) and other tools for Visual Studio.
- ErikEJ.EntityFrameworkCore.DgmlBuilder adds
AsDgml()to a derived DbContext to generate a model graph for the Visual Studio DGML viewer. - ErikEJ.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer.Dacpac enables reverse engineering a SQL Server .dacpac with the EF Core tooling (
dotnet ef). - Tools and utilities for embedded database development
If you encounter a bug or have a feature request, please use the Issue Tracker. The project is also open for pull requests following standard pull request guidelines.
To build and debug the Visual Studio extension, run the latest version of Visual Studio as Administrator with the Visual Studio extension development workload installed. Make EFCorePowerTools the startup project, and ensure your build configuration is Debug, AnyCPU.
You can smoke test changes to reverse engineering. Launch one of the efreveng console apps in the debugger using the name of a file in the TestFiles folder as a parameter.
In the ScaffoldingTester solution there are scripts to populate Northwind and Chinook databases with the required objects.
The tool and GitHub based support are free. A rating or review and sponsorships are greatly appreciated.
A massive thanks to AWS, who sponsored EF Core Power Tools from January 2024 via the .NET on AWS Open Source Software Fund.
And a huge thanks to everyone who sponsors this project through GitHub Sponsors.
