Hardhat — your Solidity dev environment

bash
mkdir my-contracts && cd my-contracts
npm init -y
npm install --save-dev hardhat
npx hardhat init
# choose: "Create a TypeScript project"
npm install --save-dev @openzeppelin/contracts

• contracts/*.sol — your Solidity source
• test/*.ts — Mocha/Chai tests
• scripts/*.ts — deployment scripts
• hardhat.config.ts — networks, compiler settings
• artifacts/ — compiled bytecode + ABIs (auto-generated)
• cache/ — incremental build cache

typescript
import { HardhatUserConfig } from "hardhat/config";
import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox";

const config: HardhatUserConfig = {
  solidity: {
    version: "0.8.24",
    settings: { optimizer: { enabled: true, runs: 200 } },
  },
  networks: {
    sepolia: {
      url: process.env.SEPOLIA_RPC || "",
      accounts: process.env.PRIVATE_KEY ? [process.env.PRIVATE_KEY] : [],
    },
  },
};

export default config;

bash
npx hardhat compile                     # build
npx hardhat test                        # run tests on local in-memory chain
npx hardhat node                        # start a local devnet
npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.ts --network sepolia

typescript
import { expect } from "chai";
import { ethers } from "hardhat";

describe("KraftyToken", () => {
  it("mints 1M to deployer", async () => {
    const [deployer] = await ethers.getSigners();
    const T = await ethers.deployContract("KraftyToken");
    const expected = ethers.parseUnits("1000000", 18);
    expect(await T.balanceOf(deployer.address)).to.equal(expected);
  });
});

Answer what each Hardhat command does.