[net11.0][Mac Catalyst][CoreCLR] EF Core fails in Debug because dynamic code is reported unsupported

[scrossen]

Apple platform

Mac Catalyst

Framework version

net11.0-*

Affected platform version

macOS 26.5.2 arm64; Xcode 26.5; SDK 11.0.100-preview.7.26381.103; workload 11.0.100-preview.7.26410.2

Description

A stock .NET 11 Preview 7 MAUI Mac Catalyst Debug application using the matching EF Core 11 Preview 7 SQLite package cannot create or use a normal DbContext.

The first call to Database.EnsureCreatedAsync() throws:

System.InvalidOperationException: Model building is not supported when publishing with NativeAOT. Use a compiled model.

The application is not published with NativeAOT (PublishAot is not set). The app bundle contains libcoreclr.dylib, and the runtime reports:

RuntimeFeature.IsDynamicCodeSupported == false
RuntimeFeature.IsDynamicCodeCompiled == false

This appears to put EF Core into its NativeAOT-only path even though this is a normal CoreCLR Debug application. It blocks existing EF Core + SQLite MAUI applications from moving to net11.0-maccatalyst, and Preview 6 removed the Mono runtime fallback.

The attached project is a synthetic stock-template reproduction with one entity and no application-specific code. It uses:

• SDK 11.0.100-preview.7.26381.103
• workload set 11.0.100-preview.7.26410.2
• MAUI 11.0.0-preview.7.26406.9
• EF Core SQLite 11.0.0-preview.7.26381.103
• maccatalyst-arm64

Expected: a non-NativeAOT Debug application can build its EF model and execute ordinary EF queries through the CoreCLR interpreter, as the equivalent .NET 10/Mono application can.

Actual: EF immediately treats the process as NativeAOT and refuses runtime model creation.

Possibly related runtime work:

• CoreCLR Interpreter runtime#112748
• [clr-ios] Validate runtime IL emission for reflection in CoreCLR interpreter on Apple mobile runtime#120046

The latter explicitly discusses supporting expression-tree compilation, DynamicMethod, and Reflection.Emit through the CoreCLR interpreter on Apple mobile. Should IsDynamicCodeSupported be true for that supported interpreter path, or does EF need another way to distinguish CoreCLR-interpreted MAUI from NativeAOT?

DotNet11EfCoreMacCatalystRepro.zip

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install .NET SDK 11.0.100-preview.7.26381.103 and workload set 11.0.100-preview.7.26410.2.

2. Extract the attached DotNet11EfCoreMacCatalystRepro.zip.

3. From the extracted directory, run:

   dotnet build -c Debug -f net11.0-maccatalyst
   ./bin/Debug/net11.0-maccatalyst/maccatalyst-arm64/DotNet11EfCoreMacCatalystRepro.app/Contents/MacOS/DotNet11EfCoreMacCatalystRepro

4. The app catches and displays the exception and also writes it to stderr.

The repro calls only EnsureCreatedAsync, SaveChangesAsync, and a simple OrderBy(...).FirstAsync(). It fails on EnsureCreatedAsync while EF retrieves the model.

Did you find any workaround?

Remain on net10.0-maccatalyst/Mono.

Generating a compiled model is not a complete workaround for a real application: in a separate larger validation it got past initial model discovery, but EnsureCreatedAsync then failed because design-time model operations are unavailable, and ordinary queries failed because they were not precompiled. Supporting that path would require compiled models, precompiled queries, and replacing runtime schema initialization. The Mono selection property is no longer available in .NET 11 Preview 6+.

Relevant logs

FAIL
.NET 11.0.0-preview.7.26381.103; dynamic supported=False; dynamic compiled=False

System.InvalidOperationException: Model building is not supported when publishing with NativeAOT. Use a compiled model.
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Internal.DbContextServices.CreateModel(Boolean designTime)
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Internal.DbContextServices.get_Model()
   ...
   at Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure.DatabaseFacade.EnsureCreatedAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
   at DotNet11EfCoreMacCatalystRepro.MainPage.RunReproAsync(...) in MainPage.xaml.cs:line 29

.NET SDK:       11.0.100-preview.7.26381.103 (arm64)
.NET runtime:   11.0.0-preview.7.26381.103
Workload set:   11.0.100-preview.7.26410.2
MAUI manifest:  11.0.0-preview.7.26406.9
macOS:          26.5.2 (25F84)
Xcode:          26.5 (17F42)
RID:            maccatalyst-arm64
Configuration:  Debug
PublishAot:     not set