Shiny EF Core Extensions

Feature packages for EF Core 10 that fill the gaps EF leaves:

• Spatial, vector and full-text search on SQLite, including iOS and Android, where mod_spatialite can't run.
• A transactional outbox.
• Temporal history on every relational provider, not only SQL Server.
• Scoped AI tools and an MCP server over a DbContext.
• Versioned seeding, plus an Aspire seed gate.

Every package plugs in through EF's own extension points, so you never derive from a base DbContext.

Docs: https://shinylib.net/efcore

Package	What it does
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite.Mobile	NetTopologySuite spatial predicates without SpatiaLite (with an R*Tree index), sqlite-vec vectors, FTS5 full-text
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.Outbox	Enqueue messages in your SaveChanges transaction; background processor with retries, dead letters, ordered partitions
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.Temporal	HasHistory() → History / AsOf / AsOfAll / Restore / JSON Patch diffs / ChangesByActor
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.AI	Microsoft.Extensions.AI tools whose per-entity scope the model cannot widen
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.Mcp	The same scoped tools as an MCP server
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.Seeding	Run-once seeders keyed by name + version, exactly once across instances
Shiny.EntityFrameworkCore.Aspire.Hosting	AppHost seed gate: seed on first setup or on a deliberate recreate

The outbox, temporal history, AI tools and seeding are tested on SQLite, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and MySQL (MySql.EntityFrameworkCore). Sqlite.Mobile is SQLite-only.

SQLite on mobile

services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(o => o.UseSqlite(cs, s => s
    .UseShinySpatial()      // NTS predicates + GeoDistanceMeters, no mod_spatialite
    .UseShinyVectors()      // bundled sqlite-vec (static on iOS, 16 KB-aligned on Android)
    .UseShinyFullText()));  // FTS5

// OnModelCreating
e.HasSpatialIndex(x => x.Location);
e.HasVectorIndex(x => x.Embedding, dimensions: 384);
e.HasFullTextIndex(x => new { x.Title, x.Body });

// queries
db.Places.Where(p => p.Location!.Within(area));
db.Places.Where(p => EF.Functions.IsWithinMeters(p.Location, here, 500));
db.Docs.NearestTo(d => d.Embedding, query, k: 5);
db.Docs.Where(d => EF.Functions.FullTextMatch(d, "tomato"))
       .OrderBy(d => EF.Functions.FullTextRank(d, "tomato"));

Outbox

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder mb) => mb.AddOutbox();

services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(o => o.UseNpgsql(cs)
    .AddOutboxPublishing(p => p.Publish<Order>(c => new OrderChanged(c.Entity.Id, c.Operation))));
services.AddDbContextOutbox<AppDbContext, BusDispatcher>();

db.Orders.Add(order);
db.Enqueue(new OrderPlaced(order.Id));   // same transaction as the order
await db.SaveChangesAsync();

Temporal history

modelBuilder.Entity<Order>().HasHistory(h => h.MaxVersions = 50);
services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(o => o.UseNpgsql(cs)
    .UseEntityHistory(h => h.ResolveActor = sp => sp.GetService<ICurrentUser>()?.Name));

var versions = await db.HistoryAsync<Order>(id);
var lastWeek = await db.AsOfAsync<Order>(id, DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddDays(-7));
var patch    = await db.GetDiffBetweenAsync<Order>(id, 1, 3);
await db.RestoreAsync<Order>(id, version: 2);

AI tools & MCP

services.AddDbContextAITools<AppDbContext>(b => b.AddEntity<Order>(t => t
    .Where<ICurrentTenant>((tenant, _) => o => o.TenantId == tenant.Id)   // the model cannot remove or widen this scope
    .AllowQuery().AllowCount().AllowAggregate().AllowGet()
    .Ignore(o => o.InternalNotes)));

var tools = sp.GetRequiredService<DbContextAITools<AppDbContext>>().Tools;

services.AddMcpServer().WithHttpTransport()
    .WithDbContext<AppDbContext>(m => m.ExposeResources().AddEntity<Order>(/* same scope */));

Versioned seeding & Aspire

// app
services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(o => o.UseNpgsql(cs).UseVersionedSeeding<AppDbContext>());
services.AddDbSeeder<AppDbContext, CountrySeeder>();   // runs again only when CountrySeeder.Version goes up

// AppHost
builder.AddPostgres("pg").WithDataVolume().AddDatabase("appdb")
    .WithDbContextSeeder<AppDbContext>(
        (o, cs) => o.UseNpgsql(cs),
        (db, ctx, ct) => DbSeedRunner.RunAsync(db, [new CountrySeeder()], ct),
        DbSeedMode.FirstTimeOnly);

Commercial Support

Shipping this to production? ShinySoft Technologies, the company that builds and maintains the Shiny libraries, offers priority issue response, support agreements, architecture reviews and private office hours. See Commercial Support or get in touch. Community support through GitHub issues and discussions stays free.