Debug hardhat solidity tests In WebStorm

Question

After running Hardhat tests in the console with npx hardhat test I decided that being able to set break points would help me iterate faster.

How can I get Webstorm to run the underlying functions started by npx hardhat test so that I can use the built in Debugger?

Answer 1

I've since discovered that hardhat runs mocha under the hood.

To debug in WebStorm you can:

1. delete your existing configurations
2. create a new mocha configuration
3. set any configurations in 'Node options'. Note: since I'm forking the main net it takes a while for tests to start so I added the --timeout 10000 because mocha's default timeout is only 2000ms
4. select the mocha package, WebStorm doesn't select it by default
5. set your test file pattern
6. add const {ethers} = require('hardhat'); to your test file because it is no longer injected by hardhat during run time.
7. If the green debug icon does not appear I had success in closing and reopening WebStorm.

At this point I could successfully set break points in my test file but not in the MyContract.sol file. This is not surprising given that the contract is compiled before its run.