EF Core 11 makes your split queries faster

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Pruning reference‑nav joins brings real performance wins

“The real win in EF Core 11 is pruning the reference‑nav joins out of split child queries, that's been dead weight since AsSplitQuery existed.” – preetham_rangu
Data duplication over the wire causes Cartesian explosion

“If you join multiple/many tables, you could end up with a large volume of data… This table will get serialized as‑is, with all duplicate data.” – fuzzy2
“Correct. However, this imho does not need to be a problem when using references to data instead of data duplication when sending results over the wire.” – exceptione
“There is a name for this problem, Cartesian explosion.” – azibi
Custom LINQ shaping (Select + sub‑queries) avoids duplication better than default includes

“Assume you fetch a single customer entity with their 100 order entities as includes… With a single query this will join both tables and produce 100 rows that contain the order data but also each one contains the customer data redundantly.” – fabian2k
“You can get much better queries here if you write a Select() and let EF Core translate that into SQL.” – fabian2k

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

Automates conversion of EF Core Include chains into single‑shot SQL using subqueries or array_agg/jsonb_agg to avoid Cartesian explosion.
Generates ready‑to‑use query templates that preserve navigation data without row duplication.

Key	Value
Target Audience	EF Core developers building data‑intensive applications
Core Feature	Query template generator that rewrites eager loading to optimized single‑shot SQL
Tech Stack	.NET 8, Roslyn analyzer, EF Core extensions, SQLite for unit testing
Difficulty	Medium
Monetization	Revenue-ready: SaaS subscription $15/mo

HN commenters repeatedly cited the need for array_agg support and reference‑based wire formats; this tool directly addresses those pain points.
Could spark discussion around EF Core query best practices and provide practical utility for performance tuning.

Provides a lightweight .NET library that serializes EF entities over the wire using reference offsets instead of duplicating nested payloads.
Reduces network bandwidth and latency for APIs that expose EF‑backed endpoints.

Key	Value
Target Audience	Backend services and micro‑service developers using EF Core
Core Feature	Binary serializer that emits entity references as offsets, preserving navigation graphs without duplication
Tech Stack	ASP.NET Core middleware, Protocol Buffers, Span\<T>, .NET 8
Difficulty	High
Monetization	Revenue-ready: Per‑request licensing $0.005 per 1k calls

Directly responds to exceptione’s idea of “byte offsets in the result set” and the desire to avoid bit‑for‑bit duplication discussed on HN.
Offers tangible performance gains for high‑throughput services, likely to generate strong community interest.

Interactive visualizer that maps EF Core queries to their Cartesian explosion risk, highlighting duplicate rows and suggesting split‑query alternatives.
Provides instant rewrite suggestions and performance estimations.

Key	Value
Target Audience	.NET developers debugging EF Core performance bottlenecks
Core Feature	Query planner that visualizes row multiplication, recommends split queries or aggregation, and estimates network impact
Tech Stack	Electron, TypeScript, EF Core diagnostics SDK
Difficulty	Low
Monetization	Revenue-ready: Freemium with premium queries $9/mo

Users like azibi and moomin repeatedly mentioned “Cartesian explosion” and the pain of optimizing patterns; this tool makes that visible and actionable.
Likely to generate discussion on HN about query optimization utilities and best practices.