Connect provider to hardhat built-in network

[ghost]

There are two kinds of networks in Hardhat: JSON-RPC based networks, and the built-in Hardhat Network.

I know I can use localhost with hardhat node, but is it possible to connect ethers provider to built-in network like this?:
const provider = new ethers.providers.JsonRpcProvider(builtin_network_url);
I want to use pure ethers.js library to deploy contract but with built-in network, so I don't need to restart node every time.
With hardhat-ethers it's ethers.provider object, but without this plugin?

If I do this:

const provider = new ethers.providers.JsonRpcProvider();
const deployer = new ethers.Wallet(
    process.env.ADMIN_PRIVATE_KEY!,
    provider
);
console.log(provider.connection);
console.log(await deployer.getBalance());

I get:

[fvictorio]

This is not possible because the in-process network doesn't open an HTTP connection. So your options are:

1. Use ethers.provider from the hardhat-ethers plugin
2. Wrap the network.provider with ethers.Web3Provider. network.provider is an EIP-1193 provider so you can pass it to that ethers's provider.

[ghost]

const prov = new ethers.providers.Web3Provider(network.provider) ?
Argument of type 'EthereumProvider' is not assignable to parameter of type 'ExternalProvider | JsonRpcFetchFunc'.
Type 'EthereumProvider' is not assignable to type 'ExternalProvider'.
Types of property 'sendAsync' are incompatible.

[fvictorio]

Oh, I don't know why it doesn't compile. But I'm pretty sure it should work fine. I'd recommend you do (network.provider as any), check if it works, and then decide if losing type-safety there is worth it.

[ghost]

Seems it works. Maybe Ill use it to deploy my contract with ethers as for practice. For main projects I gonna definitely use hardhat-ethers. Thanks!