I assume the automapper is subsetting on the target type's structure, right? So its something like this, target_dto = { k: MyDbModel.get(k) for k in MyTar

I assume the automapper is subsetting on the target type's structure, right? So its something like this, target_dto = { k: MyDbModel.get(k) for k in MyTargetModel.keys() } Writing this is a big issue with simple static languages (ie., those without much compile-time programming). This deficiency should really be addressed at the language-level. Ie., what you want is structural typing in the view-layer, and a means of restructuring (ie., filtering) the original db object. So, renderView(myDbModel as {Just,The,Necessary,Fields}) I'd imagine with C# Shapes, Extension Methods and Pattern Matching, you'd be able to do roughly this -- but i'm not sure of the status of "shapes" (ie., typeclasses) in the C# RFC process.