Session.query() removal in SQLAlchemy 2.0 migration

Transitioning from Legacy Query API to select()

SQLAlchemy 2.0 introduces a significant architectural shift by removing the legacy Session.query() method in favor of the Core-style select() construct. While the 1.4 series provided a compatibility shim via the future=True flag on create_engine, this transition boundary is absolute in version 2.0.

The primary goal is to migrate existing ORM codebases to the new session.execute(select(Model)) pattern without introducing regressions in result handling or auto-flush behavior. There is uncertainty regarding how to handle complex legacy queries that rely on orm.Query specific methods when moving to the scalars() execution pattern.

• What is the recommended approach for replacing Query.filter_by() and Query.order_by() chains within the new select() syntax?
• How does the removal of the query attribute affect third-party extensions that have not yet updated to the 2.0 API?