How do you handle distributed transactions (Saga/2PC) involving EF Core?

Distributed transactions span multiple databases or microservices. EF Core cannot natively manage this, so you must use patterns like Saga or Outbox.

In modern architectures, Two-Phase Commit (2PC) is discouraged due to blocking and lock contention. Instead, use the Outbox Pattern: EF Core saves the domain entity AND a message/event to an 'Outbox' table within a single local SaveChanges() transaction. A background worker reads the Outbox table and reliably publishes to a message broker (e.g., Kafka) to trigger downstream services.