#Using Ignition in Hardhat tests

Ignition can be used in Hardhat tests to simplify test setup, as Ignition modules can capture complex deployments of contract systems, which is a common problem when creating test fixtures.

# The Ignition object

Requiring Ignition within your hardhat.config.{ts,js} will automatically inject the ignition object as a global variable within Hardhat test files.

The ignition object exposes a deploy method, that takes a Module as the first argument and an optional configuration object as the second argument. Module parameters can be passed under the parameters property of the options object, indexed by the ModuleId:

it("should allow setting the start count for new counters", async function () {
  const CounterModule = buildModule("Counter", (m) => {
    const startCount = m.getOptionalParam("startCount", 0);

    const counter = m.contract("Counter", { args: [startCount] });

    return { counter };
  });

  const { counter } = await ignition.deploy(CounterModule, {
    parameters: {
      Counter: {
        startCount: 42,
      },
    },
  });

  assert.equal(await counter.count(), 42);
});

The ignition.deploy method automatically converts any ContractFutures returned from the passed module into ether's contract objects, so they can be manipulated and invoked.

Next learn how to run a deployment:

Running a deployment