Entity Registration

options.Entity<T>(route) registers an EF Core entity with OtterApi and returns an OtterApiEntityBuilder<T>. Every method on the builder returns the same instance, so calls can be chained fluently.

Full builder API

Fluent builder — all options

options.Entity<TEntity>(route)
    .Authorize(bool authorize = true)
    .WithEntityPolicy(string policy)
    .WithGetPolicy(string policy)
    .WithPostPolicy(string policy)
    .WithPutPolicy(string policy)
    .WithPatchPolicy(string policy)
    .WithDeletePolicy(string policy)
    .Allow(OtterApiCrudOperation operations)
    .ExposePagedResult(bool expose = true)
    .WithQueryFilter(Expression<Func<T, bool>> predicate)
    .WithScopedQueryFilter(Func<IServiceProvider, Expression<Func<T, bool>>> factory)
    .WithCustomRoute("slug", ...)
    .BeforeSave(...)
    .AfterSave(...);

Restricting HTTP methods — .Allow()

By default, all five CRUD operations are enabled. Use .Allow() to restrict which HTTP methods are accepted. Requests for a disallowed method return 405 Method Not Allowed.

Allow only GET and POST

options.Entity<Product>("products")
    .Allow(OtterApiCrudOperation.Get | OtterApiCrudOperation.Post);

OtterApiCrudOperation flags

Flag	Value	HTTP methods
`Get`	1	GET
`Post`	2	POST
`Put`	4	PUT
`Delete`	8	DELETE
`Patch`	16	PATCH
`All`	31	All of the above (default)

Exposing PagedResult — .ExposePagedResult()

Calling .ExposePagedResult() enables the /pagedresult endpoint for that entity, which returns a rich pagination envelope with total, pageCount, and items. See Query Parameters → PagedResult.

Enable /pagedresult

options.Entity<Product>("products").ExposePagedResult();

// Now available:
// GET /api/products/pagedresult?page=1&pagesize=20

Entity requirements

Must be registered as DbSet<T> in the provided DbContext. If it is not, an InvalidOperationException is thrown at startup.
Primary key is auto-detected (see Getting Started).
Filterable and sortable property types: primitives, string, Guid, DateTime, DateTimeOffset, enum, and all nullable variants.
Navigation properties (collections, nested objects) are excluded from filtering but available via ?include=.

Practical example

Full entity configuration

options.Entity<Product>("products")
    .Authorize()                          // require authentication
    .WithPostPolicy("IsManager")           // POST needs Manager role
    .WithPutPolicy("IsManager")            // PUT needs Manager role
    .WithPatchPolicy("IsManager")          // PATCH needs Manager role
    .WithDeletePolicy("IsAdmin")           // DELETE needs Admin role
    .ExposePagedResult()                   // enable /pagedresult
    .WithQueryFilter(p => p.IsActive)      // server-side row filter
    .BeforeSave((ctx, p, _, op) =>
    {
        if (op == OtterApiCrudOperation.Post)
            p.CreatedAt = DateTime.UtcNow;
    });

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