ardalis/Specification

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

2276 stars · 262 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

A .NET library implementing the Specification pattern for building reusable, composable query specifications, commonly used with EF Core and the repository pattern in domain-driven design. It centralizes query logic like filtering, includes, and paging into specification classes instead of scattering Where/Include expressions across the codebase.

Use cases

• encapsulate EF Core query logic in reusable specification classes
• reduce boilerplate repository methods in a DDD application
• build composable filters, includes, and paging for queries
• implement the repository pattern with a single generic ListAsync method
• clean up scattered Where and Include expressions in ASP.NET Core apps

When to choose

• you use EF Core with a repository or Clean Architecture style design
• you want query logic centralized and testable via the specification pattern
• you follow domain-driven design in .NET

When to avoid

• you use a non-.NET stack or an ORM other than EF Core without an adapter
• your queries are trivial and direct LINQ is sufficient
• you prefer micro-ORMs or raw SQL over repository abstractions

Facets

library · maturity stable

orm database middleware backend web-development developer-tools dotnet cross-platform specification-pattern domain-driven-design repository-pattern ef-core ddd query-builder

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