dotnet ef not found in .NET Core 3

Question

I\'m following the docs in order to create an initial migration. When I execute dotnet, I get the help section, meaning that the PATH works properly.

Th

Answer 1

See the announcement for ASP.NET Core 3 Preview 4, which explains that this tool is no longer built-in and requires an explicit install:

The dotnet ef tool is no longer part of the .NET Core SDK

This change allows us to ship dotnet ef as a regular .NET CLI tool that can be installed as either a global or local tool. For example, to be able to manage migrations or scaffold a DbContext, install dotnet ef as a global tool typing the following command:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef

To install a specific version of the tool, use the following command:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef --version 3.1.4

The reason for the change is explained in the docs:

Why

This change allows us to distribute and update dotnet ef as a regular .NET CLI tool on NuGet, consistent with the fact that the EF Core 3.0 is also always distributed as a NuGet package.

In addition, you might need to add the following NuGet packages to your project:

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools