diff --git a/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService/Worker.cs b/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService/Worker.cs
index d1008a3dc..36fcecfc2 100644
--- a/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService/Worker.cs
+++ b/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService/Worker.cs
@@ -1,21 +1,65 @@
+using System.Diagnostics;
+using FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.Persistence.Queries.Context;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Storage;
+using OpenTelemetry.Trace;
+
 namespace FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService;
 
-public class Worker : BackgroundService
+/// <remarks>https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/aspire/database/ef-core-migrations#create-the-migration-service</remarks>
+public class Worker(
+    IServiceProvider serviceProvider,
+    IHostApplicationLifetime hostApplicationLifetime,
+    IHostEnvironment hostEnvironment) : BackgroundService
 {
-    private readonly ILogger<Worker> _logger;
+    private const string ActivitySourceName = "Migrations";
+    private static readonly ActivitySource ActivitySource = new(ActivitySourceName);
 
-    public Worker(ILogger<Worker> logger)
+    protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        _logger = logger;
+        // allow SQL Server container time to start
+        await Task.Delay(3000, cancellationToken);
+
+        // ReSharper disable once ExplicitCallerInfoArgument
+        using var activity = ActivitySource.StartActivity("Migrating database", ActivityKind.Client);
+
+        try
+        {
+            using var scope = serviceProvider.CreateScope();
+            var dbContext = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<QueryDbContext>();
+
+            if (hostEnvironment.IsDevelopment()) await EnsureDatabaseAsync(dbContext, cancellationToken);
+            await RunMigrationAsync(dbContext, cancellationToken);
+        }
+        catch (Exception ex)
+        {
+            activity?.RecordException(ex);
+            throw;
+        }
+
+        hostApplicationLifetime.StopApplication();
     }
 
-    protected override async Task ExecuteAsync(CancellationToken stoppingToken)
+    private static async Task EnsureDatabaseAsync(QueryDbContext dbContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
     {
-        while (!stoppingToken.IsCancellationRequested)
+        var dbCreator = dbContext.GetService<IRelationalDatabaseCreator>();
+
+        var strategy = dbContext.Database.CreateExecutionStrategy();
+        await strategy.ExecuteAsync(async () =>
         {
-            if (_logger.IsEnabled(LogLevel.Information))
-                _logger.LogInformation("Worker running at: {time}", DateTimeOffset.Now);
-            await Task.Delay(1000, stoppingToken);
-        }
+            if (!await dbCreator.ExistsAsync(cancellationToken)) await dbCreator.CreateAsync(cancellationToken);
+        });
+    }
+
+    private static async Task RunMigrationAsync(QueryDbContext dbContext, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
+    {
+        var strategy = dbContext.Database.CreateExecutionStrategy();
+        await strategy.ExecuteAsync(async () =>
+        {
+            await using var transaction = await dbContext.Database.BeginTransactionAsync(cancellationToken);
+            await dbContext.Database.MigrateAsync(cancellationToken);
+            await transaction.CommitAsync(cancellationToken);
+        });
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure/Persistence/SeedExtensions.cs b/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure/Persistence/SeedExtensions.cs
index 3d1c08a25..edc589dfd 100644
--- a/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure/Persistence/SeedExtensions.cs
+++ b/services/Directory/FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure/Persistence/SeedExtensions.cs
@@ -1,22 +1,8 @@
 using System.Text.Json;
-using FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.Persistence.Queries.Context;
-using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
 using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata.Builders;
-using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
-using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
 
 namespace FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.Persistence;
 
-public static class SeedExtension
-{
-    public static async Task MigrateAsync(this IHost host)
-    {
-        using var scope = host.Services.CreateScope();
-        var db = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<QueryDbContext>();
-        await db.Database.MigrateAsync();
-    }
-}
-
 internal static class SeedConfigurationExtensions
 {
     private static readonly JsonSerializerOptions CamelCaseJsonSerializerOptions =
diff --git a/services/FilterLists.AppHost/FilterLists.AppHost.csproj b/services/FilterLists.AppHost/FilterLists.AppHost.csproj
index 9ef25c2e6..ddcb87976 100644
--- a/services/FilterLists.AppHost/FilterLists.AppHost.csproj
+++ b/services/FilterLists.AppHost/FilterLists.AppHost.csproj
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 
     <ItemGroup>
         <ProjectReference Include="..\Directory\FilterLists.Directory.Api\FilterLists.Directory.Api.csproj"/>
+        <ProjectReference Include="..\Directory\FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService\FilterLists.Directory.Infrastructure.MigrationService.csproj"/>
         <ProjectReference Include="..\FilterLists.Web\FilterLists.Web.csproj"/>
     </ItemGroup>
 
diff --git a/services/FilterLists.AppHost/Program.cs b/services/FilterLists.AppHost/Program.cs
index 6b0b9b1ed..96ab2060d 100644
--- a/services/FilterLists.AppHost/Program.cs
+++ b/services/FilterLists.AppHost/Program.cs
@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@
     .PublishAsConnectionString() // customized for free tier, don't trust Aspire to provision db
     .AddDatabase("directorydb");
 
+builder.AddProject<FilterLists_Directory_Infrastructure_MigrationService>("directorymigrationservice")
+    .WithReference(directoryDb)
+    .WithReference(appInsights);
+
 var directoryApi = builder.AddProject<FilterLists_Directory_Api>("directoryapi")
     .WithReference(directoryDb)
     .WithReference(appInsights);