Skip to main content

Deploy with Hardhat

This page outlines the steps for deploying and testing contracts in the Neon EVM using the Hardhat tool.

Before beginning the tutorial below, make sure that you have properly configured Hardhat for the Neon EVM.

How to Use Hardhat: A Tutorial

The example this tutorial is based on is located in this repository.

By the end of this tutorial, you will deploy a contract describing an ERC-20 token to Neon Devnet.

Step 1: Installation

Note: This page is just a quickstart based on a specific example program. For more details on installing Hardhat, refer to the Hardhat documentation.

Using Git, clone the example Hardhat project from the remote repository and navigate to it:

git clone https://github.com/neonlabsorg/neon-tutorials
cd neon-tutorials/hardhat

Then, run the following command:

npm install

This will install all the necessary packages to continue with the example. These packages include the Hardhat library.

If the above command results in an error, run:

npm cache clear --force
npm install

Step 2: Set Up MetaMask Accounts

info

This step requires an EVM-compatible wallet such as MetaMask, connected to Neon Devnet, with a balance in Devnet NEON available from NeonFaucet.

The following tutorials assist you to meet these prerequisites:

2.1 Obtain the private key for your wallet account.

To obtain the private key from MetaMask, from the hamburger menu, click Account Details > Show Private Key, enter your password, and click Confirm for access to the private key for that account.

2.2 Create a .env file and add these lines:

PRIVATE_KEY_OWNER=<YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY>
info

Replace <YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY> with your data.

2.3 Run:

source .env

Step 3: Compile Contracts

All of the contracts are located in the project's contracts/ directory. Before these contracts can be run, they must first be compiled. To compile the project's contracts, run the following command:

npx hardhat compile

After running this step, you should see output similar to the following:

Compiled 23 Solidity files successfully

Step 4: Deploy Contracts

To deploy the project's contracts, simply run the command below to run the deployment script in the scripts/ directory:

npx hardhat run scripts/TestERC20/deploy.js --network neondevnet

After running this command and deploying our TestERC20 smart contract now we can take the newly deployed contract address and included it inside scripts/TestERC20/transfer.js where we can intitiate a token transfer:

npx hardhat run scripts/TestERC20/transfer.js --network neondevnet

The output should look like:

Sender balance before transfer 1000000000000000000000n
Receiver balance before transfer 0n
Sender balance after transfer 990000000000000000000n
Receiver balance after transfer 10000000000000000000n

Step 5: Contract verification

npx hardhat verify --network neondevnet <CONTRACT_ADDRESS>

This command is how we verify contracts on Neonscan. More info about verifying smart contracts thru Hardhat can be found here.

info

Replace <CONTRACT_ADDRESS> with your smart contract address.

Was this page helpful?