What Is Hardhat?

Hardhat is developed by the Nomic Foundation. In a Hardhat project, the developer compiles Solidity contracts, writes tests usually in JavaScript or TypeScript using libraries such as ethers.js, and runs deployment scripts. The built-in Hardhat Network is a local Ethereum network designed for development; it makes debugging easier with features such as providing detailed stack traces on errors and allowing console output from within the contract.

One of the tool's strengths is its plugin system. Functions such as contract verification, gas reporting, code coverage measurement, and integration with various libraries can be added to a project through plugins. It is also possible to run interactive tests against real protocols by replicating the mainnet's state at a specific block locally (mainnet forking).

After the development of Truffle and Ganache was discontinued, many projects moved to Hardhat. Together with the Rust-based Foundry, it is one of the most widely used frameworks in the Ethereum development ecosystem today; the two tools offer different testing approaches and are often used together in the same project.