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EntityFramework Reverse POCO Code First Generator

This generator creates code like an expert reverse-engineered your database and created the code for you. Perfectly.

Reverse engineers an existing database and generates Entity Framework Code First Poco classes, Configuration mappings, Enumerations, DbContext, FakeDbContext (for easy unit testing) and calling Stored procedures and table-valued functions.

Beautifully generated code first code that is fully customisable

Please note that this is not the Microsoft reverse generator. This generator creates code as if you reverse-engineered a database and lovingly created the code by hand. It also allows you to customise the generated code to your liking.

Requirements

  • Visual Studio 2022 or later, including Visual Studio 2026. The v4 extension does not install on Visual Studio 2017 or 2019; v3 remains available for those.
  • Or JetBrains Rider, without the extension: add Database.tt and EF.Reverse.POCO.v4.ttinclude to the project and run the template. Same output. See JetBrains Rider on the wiki.
  • The efrpg dotnet tool, which reads your database: dotnet tool install -g Efrpg. It needs the .NET 10 runtime and is installed once per machine.

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Installation

v4 comes in two parts. You need both.

1. The efrpg command-line tool - reads your database. Requires the .NET 10 runtime.

dotnet tool install -g Efrpg

2. The Visual Studio extension - generates the code. Install the VSIX from the Visual Studio Marketplace.

Then right-click your project → Add → New Item, search for reverse poco, and add it. Set your connection string in the .tt file and save. That's it.

The tool is installed once per machine and shared by every project on it.

Upgrade it with dotnet tool update -g Efrpg.

Why two parts?

In v3, the T4 template opened the database connection itself, which meant loading a database provider assembly inside the Visual Studio T4 host. That is where the "could not load file or assembly Npgsql / MySql.Data / System.Data.SQLite" problems came from, along with mismatches between the provider your project referenced and the one the T4 host found, and 32-bit/64-bit surprises.

In v4, the tool reads the schema in its own process and hands the result back to the template. Provider versions are the tool's problem, not your project's - and MySQL and Oracle are properly supported as a result. Your connection string is passed to the tool over stdin, so it stays out of process listings and command-line audit logs.

Upgrading from v3

Read Upgrading from v3 to v4. In short: install the tool, update the extension, then point your .tt file at EF.Reverse.POCO.v4.ttinclude and replace the block at the bottom of the file.

The include is versioned in its filename, so v3 and v4 sit side by side in one project and you can migrate one template at a time.

To remove trial limitations, you will require a licence key.

Free to academics (you need a .edu, .ac or .sch email address), not free for commercial use.

Go to the ReversePOCO website for your licence key.

What's new

Click here to see what's new in this release.

Supported databases

  • SQL Server
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • Oracle
  • SQLite

SQL Server Compact was removed in v4. It reached end of support in July 2021 and has no provider for modern .NET. If you still need it, stay on v3.

Highly customisable output

This generator is designed to be customisable from the very beginning and not fixed and rigid like other generators. Play with the settings in the <database>.tt file. That's what it's there for.

If your database changes, re-save the <database>.tt file. That's it.

Click here to see a full list of features.

Example connection strings

Set these in your <database>.tt file. DatabaseType picks the reader; the connection string is passed straight to that provider, so anything the provider accepts works here.

Settings.DatabaseType Example Settings.ConnectionString
DatabaseType.SqlServer Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=True;Encrypt=false;TrustServerCertificate=true
DatabaseType.PostgreSQL Server=127.0.0.1;Port=5432;Database=Northwind;User Id=myuser;Password=mypassword;
DatabaseType.MySql Server=localhost;Port=3306;Database=Northwind;User Id=myuser;Password=mypassword;
DatabaseType.Oracle User Id=myschema;Password=mypassword;Data Source=localhost:1521/pdb1;
DatabaseType.SQLite Data Source=C:\path\to\Northwind.db

A few dialect quirks worth knowing:

  • SQL Server - Encrypt=false;TrustServerCertificate=true is usually needed against a local instance, because Microsoft.Data.SqlClient now defaults to encrypting.
  • Oracle - there is no database name in the connection string. The user is the schema, and one run reads one schema.
  • MySQL - a database is a schema, so the reader sees only the database you connect to.

Regards, Simon Hughes