feat(hardhat): add deployment persistence to hardhat node

- Add volume mappings for deployments, artifacts and cache
- Implement manual deployment file saving
- Update hardhat configuration for proper deployment paths

This change ensures that deployed contracts persist between container
restarts by saving deployment data to mounted volumes.

Note: Block persistence still requires a different solution (Ganache/Geth/Besu)
as Hardhat Network doesn't support state persistence.

Related issue: #669

.gitignore

@@ -154,10 +154,11 @@ nginx/ssl/*.key
 nginx/ssl/*.crt
 
 # Hardhat files
-hardhat/cache
-hardhat/artifacts
+hardhat/cache/*
+hardhat/artifacts/*
 hardhat/.openzeppelin
 hardhat/coverage
 hardhat/coverage.json
 hardhat/typechain
 hardhat/typechain-types
+hardhat/deployments/*

docker-compose.yml

@@ -195,11 +195,19 @@ services:
     ports:
       - "${HARDHAT_PORT:-8545}:8545"
     volumes:
-      - ./hardhat/contracts:/app/contracts
-      - ./hardhat/scripts:/app/scripts
-      - ./hardhat/test:/app/test
-      - ./hardhat/hardhat.config.js:/app/hardhat.config.js
-      - ./hardhat/artifacts:/app/artifacts
+      - ./hardhat/contracts:/app/contracts:ro
+      - ./hardhat/scripts:/app/scripts:ro
+      - ./hardhat/test:/app/test:ro
+      - ./hardhat/hardhat.config.js:/app/hardhat.config.js:ro
+      - ./hardhat/deploy:/app/deploy:ro
+      - hardhat_artifacts:/app/artifacts
+      - hardhat_cache:/app/cache
+      - hardhat_deployments:/app/deployments
     environment:
       - HARDHAT_NETWORK=hardhat
+    restart: always
 
+volumes:
+  hardhat_artifacts:
+  hardhat_cache:
+  hardhat_deployments:

docker/Dockerfile.hardhat

@@ -11,18 +11,22 @@ RUN npm install --ignore-scripts
 
 COPY ./hardhat .
 
-# Change ownership of the app directory to the non-root user
-RUN chown -R hardhat-user:hardhat-group /app
+# Create directories and set permissions BEFORE switching user
+RUN mkdir -p /app/deployments/localhost && \
+    mkdir -p /app/deployments/hardhat && \
+    mkdir -p /app/artifacts/build-info && \
+    mkdir -p /app/cache && \
+    chown -R hardhat-user:hardhat-group /app && \
+    chmod -R 777 /app/deployments && \
+    chmod -R 777 /app/artifacts && \
+    chmod -R 777 /app/cache
 
 ENV PATH="/app/node_modules/.bin:${PATH}"
 
-RUN echo -e '#!/bin/sh\necho "Compiling contracts..."\nnpx hardhat compile --force\necho "Starting Hardhat node..."\nexec ./node_modules/.bin/hardhat node --network hardhat' > /app/start.sh && \
-    chmod +x /app/start.sh && \
-    ls -la /app/start.sh
+# Copy the start script from hardhat/scripts instead of creating it
+COPY ./hardhat/scripts/start.sh /app/start.sh
+RUN chmod +x /app/start.sh
 
 EXPOSE 8545
 
-# Switch to non-root user
-USER hardhat-user
-
-CMD ["/app/start.sh"]
+CMD ["/app/start.sh"]

hardhat/deploy/001_deploy_contracts.js

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+module.exports = async function ({ getNamedAccounts, deployments, network }) {
+    const { deploy, save, getArtifact } = deployments;
+    const { deployer } = await getNamedAccounts();
+
+    console.log("Starting deployment of GhostContract...");
+
+    const result = await deploy('GhostContract', {
+      from: deployer,
+      args: [],
+      log: true,
+      deterministicDeployment: false,
+      gasPrice: 0,
+      gasLimit: 5000000,
+      waitConfirmations: 1
+    });
+
+    const artifact = await getArtifact('GhostContract');
+    const deploymentData = {
+      address: result.address,
+      abi: artifact.abi,
+      bytecode: artifact.bytecode,
+      transactionHash: result.transactionHash
+    };
+
+    const fs = require('fs');
+    const path = require('path');
+    const deploymentDir = path.join('./deployments', network.name);
+    const deploymentFile = path.join(deploymentDir, 'GhostContract.json');
+
+    fs.mkdirSync(deploymentDir, { recursive: true });
+
+    fs.writeFileSync(deploymentFile, JSON.stringify(deploymentData, null, 2));
+
+    console.log(`Deployment successful! Contract deployed at: ${result.address}`);
+  };
+
+  module.exports.tags = ['GhostContract'];

hardhat/hardhat.config.js

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-toolbox");
+require("hardhat-deploy");
 
 /** @type import('hardhat/config').HardhatUserConfig */
 module.exports = {
@@ -21,15 +22,24 @@ module.exports = {
       chainId: 31337,
       gasPrice: 0,
       initialBaseFeePerGas: 0,
-      accounts: {
-        count: 1
-      }
+      blockGasLimit: 30000000,
+      live: false,
+      saveDeployments: true,
+      allowUnlimitedContractSize: true,
+      tags: ['local']
     }
   },
   paths: {
     sources: "./contracts",
     tests: "./test",
     cache: "./cache",
-    artifacts: "./artifacts"
+    artifacts: "./artifacts",
+    deploy: "./deploy",
+    deployments: "./deployments"
+  },
+  namedAccounts: {
+    deployer: {
+      default: 0
+    }
   }
 };

hardhat/package.json

@@ -20,5 +20,8 @@
   },
   "engines": {
     "node": ">=18.0.0"
+  },
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "hardhat-deploy": "^0.14.0"
   }
 }

hardhat/scripts/start.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+echo "Checking and compiling contracts if needed..."
+npx hardhat compile
+
+echo "Starting Hardhat node..."
+npx hardhat node --hostname 0.0.0.0 --no-deploy &
+
+# Wait for the node to start
+sleep 5
+
+# Check if the contract is already deployed (using hardhat network)
+if [ ! -f "/app/deployments/hardhat/GhostContract.json" ]; then
+    echo "Running deployments..."
+    npx hardhat deploy
+else
+    echo "Contracts already deployed, skipping deployment..."
+fi
+
+# Keep the container running
+wait