EFFluentify.Tool 1.0.2

EFFluentify

EFFluentify is a .NET CLI tool that converts Entity Framework Core Data Annotations into equivalent Fluent API configurations. Point it at your entity classes and it generates clean IEntityTypeConfiguration<T> classes, optionally stripping the now-redundant annotations from your original source.

It parses your C# with Roslyn, so it understands your real types and relationships rather than matching strings.

Why

Data Annotations are convenient but scatter mapping concerns across your domain classes and can't express everything the Fluent API can. EFFluentify lets you keep the ergonomics of annotations while moving your configuration into dedicated, testable IEntityTypeConfiguration<T> classes — in one pass, across a whole project.

Example

Given an annotated entity:

[Table("Users", Schema = "dbo")]
[Index(nameof(Email), IsUnique = true, Name = "IX_User_Email")]
public class User
{
    [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
    public int Id { get; set; }

    [Required, MaxLength(50)]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    public string? Email { get; set; }

    [NotMapped]
    public string TemporaryToken { get; set; }

    [ConcurrencyCheck]
    public string RowGuid { get; set; }

    public int? ManagerId { get; set; }
    [ForeignKey(nameof(ManagerId))]
    public User Manager { get; set; }
    public ICollection<User> Subordinates { get; set; }
}

EFFluentify emits:

// <auto-generated />
namespace EFFluentify.Configurations;

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata.Builders;

internal sealed class UserConfiguration : IEntityTypeConfiguration<User>
{
    public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<User> builder)
    {
        builder.ToTable("Users", "dbo");
        builder.HasIndex(e => e.Email).IsUnique().HasDatabaseName("IX_User_Email");

        builder.Ignore(e => e.TemporaryToken);
        builder.HasOne(x => x.Manager).WithMany(x => x.Subordinates).HasForeignKey(x => x.ManagerId);

        builder.Property(x => x.Id).ValueGeneratedOnAdd();
        builder.Property(x => x.Name).IsRequired().HasMaxLength(50);
        builder.Property(x => x.Email).IsRequired(false);
        builder.Property(x => x.RowGuid).IsConcurrencyToken();
    }
}

Installation

Requires the .NET 9 SDK.

The project is packaged as a .NET tool (PackAsTool) with the command name effluentify. Pack and install it locally from the repository root:

dotnet pack EFFluentify.Cli -c Release
dotnet tool install --global --add-source ./EFFluentify.Cli/bin/Release EFFluentify.Tool

Or run it straight from source without installing:

dotnet run --project EFFluentify.Cli -- --input ./Models --out ./Configurations

Usage

effluentify --input <path> [--input <path> ...] [--out <dir>] [--manyFiles] [--removeAnnotationsFromMyOriginal] [--namespace <ns>]

If you run effluentify with no arguments, it prompts you to enter the command line interactively.

Options

Examples

Preview the output in the console:

effluentify --input ./Models

Generate one configuration file per entity into a folder:

effluentify --input ./Models --out ./Configurations --manyFiles

Convert and clean up the original entities (creating .bak backups), using a custom namespace:

effluentify --input ./Models --out ./Configurations --removeAnnotationsFromMyOriginal -n MyApp.Data.Configurations

Supported annotations

Property-level

Entity-level

Relationships are resolved across all input entities, so foreign keys and their inverse navigations are wired up together.

Project structure

The solution follows a clean-architecture layering:

All projects target net9.0.

Building & testing

dotnet build
dotnet test

The test suite includes integration tests that compile the generated configuration code, along with a set of expected-output fixtures under ExpectedOutput/ that lock down the emitter's behavior.

Publishing (maintainers)

The tool is published to nuget.org as EFFluentify.Tool. To cut a new release:

1. Bump the version in EFFluentify.Cli/EFFluentify.Cli.csproj (the <Version> element).

2. Pack:

   dotnet pack EFFluentify.Cli -c Release
   

3. Push (dotnet nuget push is the publish step — there is no separate one):

   dotnet nuget push ./EFFluentify.Cli/bin/Release/EFFluentify.Tool.<version>.nupkg --api-key YOUR_API_KEY --source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
   

Notes:

• Get an API key from nuget.org → API Keys (scope: Push). Never commit it or share it — treat it as a secret.
• Each version number can be pushed only once, so bump <Version> for every release.
• Users then install or upgrade with dotnet tool install --global EFFluentify.Tool / dotnet tool update --global EFFluentify.Tool.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — you're free to use, modify, and distribute it, including commercially.