EF Core best practices covering NoTracking queries, migration management, query splitting, and change tracking patterns.

• Configure NoTracking by default for read-heavy workloads; explicitly use .AsTracking() or .Update() for mutations to avoid silent failures
• Never manually edit migration files; always use CLI commands (dotnet ef migrations add/remove/script) to manage schema changes safely
• Implement a dedicated migration service with .NET Aspire to separate database setup from application startup and ensure migrations complete before the app runs
• Use ExecuteUpdateAsync() and ExecuteDeleteAsync() for bulk operations instead of loading entities into memory; apply CreateExecutionStrategy() for transient failure handling
• Enable QuerySplittingBehavior.SplitQuery globally to prevent cartesian explosion when loading multiple navigation collections, overriding per-query with AsSingleQuery() when appropriate