Dynamic Entities in .NET: Building Low-Code Systems on Top of Entity Framework Core

Designing a truly dynamic data model is one of the most challenging tasks in modern application development. Many teams fall back to traditional approaches like Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) or overly generic schemas, only to struggle later with complexity, performance bottlenecks, and maintainability issues. In this talk, we will explore the landscape of dynamic entity systems, compare alternative patterns, and highlight their strengths and tradeoffs, before zooming in on how Entity Framework Core can be leveraged to build something both flexible and efficient. Drawing on real-world experience from building the low-code capabilities in ABP Framework, I will share the key architectural decisions, pitfalls, and solutions that made our dynamic entity system robust and performant. You’ll see how EF Core’s extensibility can be pushed to its limits, how to handle querying and schema evolution at runtime, and how to avoid common traps while maintaining developer productivity. By the end of this session, you will have practical insights and patterns you can apply in your own projects when facing the challenge of designing dynamic yet reliable data models.