Hardhat 3 Setup

Hardhat 3 setup with node:test runner explorer in VSCode

# add hardhat alias as hh to .zshrc
alias hh="npx hardhat"

1. Create Hardhat 3 project

mkdir hardhat-example

cd hardhat-example

pnpm dlx hardhat --init

Hardhat options while initialization

👷 Welcome to Hardhat v3.0.9 👷

✔ Which version of Hardhat would you like to use? · hardhat-3
✔ Where would you like to initialize the project?

Please provide either a relative or an absolute path: · .
✔ What type of project would you like to initialize? · node-test-runner-viem
✨ Template files copied ✨
✔ You need to install the necessary dependencies using the following command:
pnpm add --save-dev "hardhat@^3.0.9" "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox-viem@^5.0.0" "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-ignition@^3.0.0" "@types/node@^22.8.5" "forge-std@foundry-rs/forge-std#v1.9.4" "typescript@~5.8.0" "viem@^2.30.0"

Do you want to run it now? (Y/n) · true

pnpm add --save-dev "hardhat@^3.0.9" "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox-viem@^5.0.0" "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-ignition@^3.0.0" "@types/node@^22.8.5" "forge-std@foundry-rs/forge-std#v1.9.4" "typescript@~5.8.0" "viem@^2.30.0"

2. Test setup for Hardhat 3 project

Add required VSCode extension for test explorer

• node:test runner

Add required settings in settings.json of VSCode

{
  "nodejs-testing.extensions": [
    {
      "extensions": ["mjs", "cjs", "js"],
      "parameters": []
    },
    {
      "extensions": ["mts", "cts", "ts"],
      "parameters": ["--import", "tsx"]
    }
  ]
}

Add required dependencies

 pnpm add -D tsx

 # Don't forget to build before running tests using the explorer
 hh build

 #Run tests from command line
 hh test