hardhat

Hardhat is a toolkit for developers building software on Ethereum, the blockchain platform known for smart contracts. Smart contracts are programs that run directly on the Ethereum network, and writing them requires a different kind of workflow than typical software. Hardhat provides the tools to compile those contracts, deploy them to a network, write automated tests, and step through bugs when something goes wrong.

The project describes itself as a development environment for professionals, meaning it is built for people actively writing and shipping Ethereum-based applications rather than beginners exploring the concept for the first time. That said, starting a new project is straightforward: running a single command in a terminal begins an interactive setup process that walks you through the initial configuration.

The README for this repository covers Hardhat 3, which is the latest major version. If you are working with an older project using Hardhat 2, a separate branch of the repository holds that version's code and documentation. The full documentation for Hardhat 3 lives on the project's website rather than in the README itself, so the README is intentionally brief and points readers outward.

Hardhat is maintained by the Nomic Foundation, an organization focused on Ethereum developer tooling. The project is open to contributions, and the repository includes a separate contributing guide with instructions for setting up a local development environment to work on Hardhat itself.