hardhat-plugin

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📃 Read white paper | 📒 Documentation | 💛 Community support | 📚 FHE resources by Zama

FHEVM Hardhat Plugin

Hardhat plugin for developing and testing FHEVM contracts.

Quickstart & Tutorial

• The FHEVM Hardhat Template
• Quickstart Tutorial

For additional documentation and resources:

• Setting up Hardhat
• FHEVM Hardhat Plugin Development Guide
• FHEVM Examples

List of peer dependencies

This Hardhat plugin relies on the following peer dependencies to function correctly.

• @fhevm/mock-utils
• @fhevm/solidity
• @zama-fhe/relayer-sdk
• @nomicfoundation/hardhat-ethers
• ethers
• hardhat

Automatic Installation (npm v7+)

If you're using npm version 7 or later, these peer dependencies will be automatically installed when you install this plugin — no additional action is required.

Manual peer dependencies installation

If you're using a package manager that does not automatically install peer dependencies (like pnpm or npm <7) then you'll need to add them manually to your package.

Installation

npm install --save-dev @fhevm/hardhat-plugin

And register the plugin in your hardhat.config.js:

// Typescript
import "@fhevm/hardhat-plugin";

Zama API Key (Mainnet)

To generate encrypted inputs or decrypt FHE data on Ethereum mainnet, you need a Zama API key. To configure it in the FHEVM Hardhat Plugin, run:

npx hardhat vars set ZAMA_FHEVM_API_KEY <your-api-key>

To verify the Zama API key is properly set up:

npx hardhat vars get ZAMA_FHEVM_API_KEY

🚀 Quick Start: Hello World with FHEVM

In this guide, we'll walk through a simple Hello World example using FHEVM (Fully Homomorphic Encryption). The objective is to build a Solidity smart contract that:

• Validates and stores an encrypted input value a
• Validates and stores a second encrypted input value b
• Computes the FHE sum of a and b, storing the result as aplusb
• Reads and decrypts the encrypted result aplusb

Let’s get started!

1. Set Up Your Project Directory

Create and navigate into a new project folder:

mkdir hello_fhevm
cd ./hello_fhevm

2. Install Hardhat & FHEVM Hardhat plugin

Install Hardhat and the FHEVM Hardhat plugin as development dependencies:

npm install --save-dev hardhat
npm install --save-dev ethers
npm install --save-dev @nomicfoundation/hardhat-chai-matchers
npm install --save-dev @nomicfoundation/hardhat-ethers
npm install --save-dev @nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers
# Warning: @nomicfoundation/hardhat-chai-matchers requires v4
npm install --save-dev chai@^4.2.0
# Install Typescript related packages required to run Hardhat using Typescript
npm install --save-dev typescript
npm install --save-dev ts-node
npm install --save-dev @types/mocha

Install FHEVM related packaged as development dependencies:

npm install --save-dev @fhevm/hardhat-plugin

3. Create the Smart Contract APlusB.sol

First, create a contracts folder to hold your Solidity code:

mkdir contracts
cd ./contracts

Then, inside the contracts directory, create a new Solidity file named APlusB.sol with the following content:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause-Clear
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;

import { FHE, euint8, externalEuint8 } from "@fhevm/solidity/lib/FHE.sol";
import { ZamaEthereumConfig } from "@fhevm/solidity/config/ZamaConfig.sol";

contract APlusB is ZamaEthereumConfig {
  euint8 private _a;
  euint8 private _b;
  euint8 private _aplusb;

  constructor() {}

  function setA(externalEuint8 inputA, bytes calldata inputProof) external {
    _a = FHE.fromExternal(inputA, inputProof);
    FHE.allowThis(_a);
  }

  function setB(externalEuint8 inputB, bytes calldata inputProof) external {
    _b = FHE.fromExternal(inputB, inputProof);
    FHE.allowThis(_b);
  }

  function computeAPlusB() external {
    _aplusb = FHE.add(_a, _b);
    FHE.allowThis(_aplusb);
    FHE.allow(_aplusb, msg.sender);
  }

  function aplusb() public view returns (euint8) {
    return _aplusb;
  }
}

4. Create the Hardhat config file

In the project root directory hello_fhevm, create a new Typescript file named hardhat.config.ts with the following content:

// Add the FHEVM Hardhat plugin here!
import "@fhevm/hardhat-plugin";
import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-chai-matchers";
import "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-ethers";
import { HardhatUserConfig } from "hardhat/config";

const config: HardhatUserConfig = {
  solidity: {
    version: "0.8.28",
    settings: {
      // ⚠️ FHEVM requires at least the "cancun" EVM version
      evmVersion: "cancun",
    },
  },
};

export default config;

5. Compile the Solidity contract

npx hardhat compile

6. Test the FHEVM Solidity Contract using the FHEVM mock environment

First, from the project root directory, create a test folder to hold your test code:

mkdir test
cd ./test

Then, inside the test directory, create a new Solidity file named APlusB.ts with the following content:

import { FhevmType } from "@fhevm/hardhat-plugin";
import { HardhatEthersSigner } from "@nomicfoundation/hardhat-ethers/signers";
import { expect } from "chai";
import { ethers } from "ethers";
import * as hre from "hardhat";

async function deployAPlusBFixture(account: HardhatEthersSigner) {
  const contractFactory = await hre.ethers.getContractFactory("APlusB");
  const contract = await contractFactory.connect(account).deploy();
  await contract.waitForDeployment();
  return contract as any as ethers.Contract;
}

describe("APlusB", function () {
  let aplusbContract: ethers.Contract;
  let aplusbContractAddress: string;

  before(async function () {
    const [alice] = await hre.ethers.getSigners();

    aplusbContract = await deployAPlusBFixture(alice);
    aplusbContractAddress = await aplusbContract.getAddress();

    await hre.fhevm.assertCoprocessorInitialized(aplusbContract, "APlusB");
  });

  it("uint8: add 80 to 123 should equal 203", async function () {
    const [alice] = await hre.ethers.getSigners();

    // 1. Validates and Stores value 'a'

    // Create the encrypted input
    const inputA = hre.fhevm.createEncryptedInput(aplusbContractAddress, alice.address);
    inputA.add8(80);
    const encryptedInputA = await inputA.encrypt();

    // Call the contract with the encrypted value `a`
    const encryptedA = encryptedInputA.handles[0];
    const proofA = encryptedInputA.inputProof;

    let tx = await aplusbContract.setA(encryptedA, proofA);
    await tx.wait();

    // 2. Validates and Stores value 'b'

    // Create the encrypted input
    const inputB = hre.fhevm.createEncryptedInput(aplusbContractAddress, alice.address);
    inputB.add8(123);
    const encryptedInputB = await inputB.encrypt();

    // Call the contract with the encrypted value `b`
    const encryptedB = encryptedInputB.handles[0];
    const proofB = encryptedInputB.inputProof;

    tx = await aplusbContract.setB(encryptedB, proofB);
    await tx.wait();

    // 3. Computes the FHE sum of `a` and `b`, storing the result as `aplusb` on chain
    tx = await aplusbContract.computeAPlusB();
    await tx.wait();

    // 4. Reads the encrypted result `aplusb` = `a` + `b`
    const encryptedAPlusB = await aplusbContract.aplusb();

    // 5. Decrypts `aplusb`
    const clearAPlusB = await hre.fhevm.userDecryptEuint(
      FhevmType.euint8,
      encryptedAPlusB,
      aplusbContractAddress,
      alice as unknown as ethers.Signer,
    );

    expect(clearAPlusB).to.eq(80 + 123);
  });
});

From the project root directory, run the test by executing the following hardhat command:

npx hardhat test

📘 FHEVM Documentation and Examples

For more FHEVM examples and detailed documentation please go here