dotnet/efcore

This repository holds two related Microsoft projects: Entity Framework Core, often shortened to EF Core, and a smaller library called Microsoft.Data.Sqlite. Both are part of the .NET Foundation and are released under the MIT license. The README presents them as separate sections inside a single codebase. EF Core is described as a modern object-database mapper for .NET. In simpler words, it lets a C# program talk to a database by working with regular C# objects instead of writing raw SQL. The README says it supports LINQ queries (a C# way of writing data lookups), automatic change tracking, updates, and schema migrations, which keep the database structure in sync with the code. It works with SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, SQLite, Azure Cosmos DB, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other databases through a provider plugin system, so each database gets its own installable add-on package. The project ships through NuGet, which is the standard package source for .NET. You install the provider that matches your database with a dotnet add package command. The README also mentions daily builds for people who want the very latest code, and links to instructions for building from source on your own machine. A short code example walks through inserting a row, reading rows, updating values, and deleting a row, all through a DbContext class that represents the database in code. The second project, Microsoft.Data.Sqlite, is a lightweight ADO.NET provider for the SQLite database. ADO.NET is the older, lower-level .NET API for talking to databases. The EF Core SQLite provider is built on top of this library, but it can also be used on its own or with other data access libraries. The README shows a small example that opens a SQLite connection, runs a SELECT query, and reads rows with a data reader. The rest of the README covers contributing guidelines, where to ask questions (Stack Overflow), how to report bugs (the GitHub issue tracker), and links to the official docs, roadmap, weekly status updates, and security notes.