How can I connect a local Hardhat network to Metamask?

Question

I have started a Hardhat network with default configuration using npx hardhat node. After running this command, I see Started HTTP and WebSocket JSON-RPC server at http://127.0.0.1:8545/ and a list of 20 seed accounts along with their private keys.

Then, in Metamask, I've gone to "Custom RPC" network configuration, and entered the following:

Network Name: Hardhat

New RPC URL: http://localhost:8545

Chain ID: 31337

But when I try to apply the changes, I see this error: Could not fetch chain ID. Is your RPC URL correct?

If I enter http://localhost:8545 in my web browser, I see this JSON: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":null,"error":{"code":-32700,"message":"Parse error: Unexpected end of JSON input"}}

I am able to successfully run code that connects to the local Hardhat network and passes tests. I'm able to successfully run Hardhat tasks by using commands like npx hardhat TASKNAME --network localhost. I've tried using 127.0.0.1 instead of localhost in the Metamask config. I'm using WSL2 to run Bash and the Hardhat server.

Answer 1

The issue turned out to be caused by the browser I was using: Brave. It has some default ad blockers called "shields". These somehow prevented me from connecting the Metamask extension to my local network. In Brave settings for shields, I set "Trackers & ads blocking" to "disabled", and the issue was resolved.

Answer 2

I had the same issue in chrome. I've added a new network with the same RPC URL: http://localhost:8545 with chainId 31337 and i was able to connect to the local network.

Answer 3

yarn hardhat node (run this command into project terminal and then try to run )

Answer 4

Add this to your hardhat.config.js and then do npx hardhat node. After that it should not show any error in your metamask.

networks: { hardhat: { chainId: 1337 }