Interesting the auth()->user() seems not to return a subclass of CodeIgniter\Shield\Entities\User so we can't use a custom/inherited entity class (very useful when Adding Attributes to Users).
But, interesting, something like auth()->getProvider()->findById(\user_id()) can be used. Is it possible @kenjis to normalize this kind of situation using returnType?

Interesting the auth()->user() seems not to return a subclass of CodeIgniter\Shield\Entities\User so we can't use a custom/inherited entity class (very useful when Adding Attributes to Users).

What do you mean exactly? Could you clarify?
The output for me is as follows:

What do you mean exactly? Could you clarify? The output for me is as follows:

Maybe I'm confused here or maybe I'm missing something... But I thought that:

auth()->user() was equivalent to auth()->getProvider()->findById(user_id()).

But, in this case, when using the first approach, I'm getting a call to undefined method error: auth()->user()->getName()
I will provide a MWE below to make things clear and also to help other confused users like me :-)

<?php
// app/Config/Auth.php
public string $userProvider = \App\Models\UserModel::class;

My custom user model:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Models;

use App\Entities\User;
use CodeIgniter\Shield\Models\UserModel as ShieldUserModel;

class UserModel extends ShieldUserModel
{
    protected function initialize(): void
    {
        parent::initialize();

        $this->allowedFields = [
            ...$this->allowedFields,
            'name', // Added
        ];
        $this->returnType = User::class;
    }
}

And finally our custom entity class:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Entities;

use CodeIgniter\Shield\Entities\User as ShieldUser;

/**
 * @property string|null  $name
 */
class User extends ShieldUser
{
    private ?string $name = null;

    public function getName(): ?string {
        return $this->name;
    }

    public function setName(string $name): void {
        $this->name = $name;
    }
}

Now in any controller that extends the BaseController:

<?php

// this works by calling method App\Entities\User::getName()
$name = auth()->getProvider()->findById(\user_id())->getName();

// this gives error: Call to undefined method CodeIgniter\Shield\Entities\User::getName()
$name = auth()->user()->getName();

My question/concern is whether the getAuthenticator()->getUser() method called in auth()->user() shouldn't return the derived entity App\Entities\User instead of CodeIgniter\Shield\Entities\User for the sake of library uniformity. Maybe I can use the new createNewUser() here also, but I don't think so...

PS1: Migration class for adding new fields to the user table omitted.
PS2: I'm using CI 4.6.0 and Shield develop branch.

Please review the subject with the following changes:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Models;

use App\Entities\User;
use CodeIgniter\Shield\Models\UserModel as ShieldUserModel;

class UserModel extends ShieldUserModel
{
++protected $returnType = User::class;

    protected function initialize(): void
    {
        parent::initialize();

        $this->allowedFields = [
            ...$this->allowedFields,
            'name', // Added
        ];
--$this->returnType = User::class;
    }
}

Wow... that was tricky! Thanks @datamweb for such a prompt reply. I'm always a bit confused when methods such as initController() and initialize() will be used and by whom :-(