TheCodeBuzz

Error: Your startup project doesn’t reference Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design

Issue Description

While running EFCore commands like Scaffold-DbContext or Add-Migration etc. application throws below error,

Your startup project ‘ your project’ doesn’t reference Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design. This package is required for the Entity Framework Core Tools to work. Ensure your startup project is correct, install the package, and try again.

The error is most visible when running EFCore commands using PMC in Visual Studio but might also exist even using efcore global commands.

Resolution

This error I found to be due to the EFCore not able to decide on which project the Scaffolding needs to be run when you have multiple projects within the solution. Especially when you have Multilayer projects like APILayer, BusinessLayer, or DataAccessLayer.

Step 1: Set your Target project as Startup Project

If your solution has multiple projects then before running EFCore commands please make sure to set your target project (basically the project which will be containing your DBContext) as the StartUp project.

Step 2- Running the command from PMC

Please make sure to select the project as default within the Package manager console PMC also.

Once after running the commands for the right module i.e DataLayer(In my case EmployeeService layer), I see the issue got fixed.

Reference:

• Getting Started with EFCore in .NET Core

• Understanding EFCore scaffold-dbcontext Commands in .NET Core

That’s all! Happy coding!

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