Following the Hardhat tutorial, I get this error: TypeError: ethers.getSigners is not a function

Question

I am following this tutorial https://hardhat.org/tutorial/testing-contracts.html and I get this unexpected error:

const { expect } = require("chai");
const { ethers } = require("ethers");

describe("Token contract", function() {
  it("Deployment should assign the total supply of tokens to the owner", async function() {
    const [owner] = await ethers.getSigners();
    const Token = await ethers.getContractFactory("Token");

    const hardhatToken = await Token.deploy();

    const ownerBalance = await hardhatToken.balanceOf(owner.address);
    expect(await hardhatToken.totalSupply()).to.equal(ownerBalance);
  });
});




$ npx hardhat test

TypeError: ethers.getContractFactory is not a function

Answer 1

Two things happened:

1. require("@nomiclabs/hardhat-waffle"); was missing in hardhat.config.js (as mentionned at the end of https://hardhat.org/tutorial/creating-a-new-hardhat-project.html)
2. const { ethers } = require("ethers"); should be replaced by const { ethers } = require("hardhat"); or removed as it is available in the global scope.

Answer 2

As per MadBreaks comment, Hardhat is better organised to keep things internal (ie. provide defaults) including not needing to bring in ...-waffle yourself.

You should just require this in the hardhat.config.[js|ts] as per https://hardhat.org/hardhat-runner/docs/guides/project-setup:

(typescript)

import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox";

(JavaScript)

require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox");

And these will bring in:

(Typescript)

import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-chai-matchers";
import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-ethers";
import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-verify";
import "@typechain/hardhat";
import "hardhat-gas-reporter";
import "solidity-coverage";

(JavaScript)

require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-chai-matchers");
require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-ethers");
require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-verify");
require("@typechain/hardhat");
require("hardhat-gas-reporter");
require("solidity-coverage");

And hardhat-ethers is what you need. Specifically it is (type-extensions.d.ts):

(Typescript)

import type { ethers } from "ethers";
import type { FactoryOptions as FactoryOptionsT, getContractFactory as getContractFactoryT, HardhatEthersHelpers, Libraries as LibrariesT } from "../types";
import "hardhat/types/runtime";
declare module "hardhat/types/runtime" {
    interface HardhatRuntimeEnvironment {
        ethers: typeof ethers & HardhatEthersHelpers;
    }
    type Libraries = LibrariesT;
    type FactoryOptions = FactoryOptionsT;
    type getContractFactory = typeof getContractFactoryT;
}
//# sourceMappingURL=type-extensions.d.ts.map