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Join the Hardhat team! We are hiring
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#2. Setting up the environment

Most Ethereum libraries and tools are written in JavaScript, and so is Hardhat. If you're not familiar with Node.js, it's a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. It's the most popular solution to run JavaScript outside of a web browser and Hardhat is built on top of it.

TIP

Hardhat for Visual Studio Code is the official Hardhat extension that adds advanced support for Solidity to VSCode. If you use Visual Studio Code, give it a try!

# Installing Node.js

You can skip this section if you already have a working Node.js >=16.0 installation. If not, here's how to install it on Ubuntu, MacOS and Windows.

#Linux

#Ubuntu

Copy and paste these commands in a terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install curl git
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

#MacOS

Make sure you have git installed. Otherwise, follow these instructions.

There are multiple ways of installing Node.js on MacOS. We will be using Node Version Manager (nvm). Copy and paste these commands in a terminal:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.1/install.sh | bash
nvm install 18
nvm use 18
nvm alias default 18
npm install npm --global # Upgrade npm to the latest version

#Windows

If you are using Windows, we strongly recommend you use Windows Subsystem for Linux (also known as WSL 2). You can use Hardhat without it, but it will work better if you use it.

To install Node.js using WSL 2, please read this guide.

Make sure you also have git installed on WSL.

# Upgrading your Node.js installation

If your version of Node.js is older and not supported by Hardhat follow the instructions below to upgrade.

#Linux

#Ubuntu

  1. Run sudo apt remove nodejs in a terminal to remove Node.js.
  2. Find the version of Node.js that you want to install here and follow the instructions.
  3. Run sudo apt update && sudo apt install nodejs in a terminal to install Node.js again.

#MacOS

You can change your Node.js version using nvm. To upgrade to Node.js 18.x run these in a terminal:

nvm install 18
nvm use 18
nvm alias default 18
npm install npm --global # Upgrade npm to the latest version

#Windows

You need to follow the same installation instructions as before but choose a different version. You can check the list of all available versions here.