Error connecting to localhost after npm hardhat run

Question

I am new to deploying smart contracts with hardhat and am following a tutorial at https://dev.to/dabit3/the-complete-guide-to-full-stack-ethereum-development-3j13. However, after running npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js --network localhost, I get the following error. Any ideas on how to fix connection issues?

HardhatError: HH108: Cannot connect to the network localhost.
    Please make sure your node is running, and check your internet connection and networks config
        at HttpProvider._fetchJsonRpcResponse (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/providers/http.ts:176:15)
        at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:93:5)
        at HttpProvider.request (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/providers/http.ts:55:29)
        at GanacheGasMultiplierProvider._isGanache (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/providers/gas-providers.ts:302:30)
        at GanacheGasMultiplierProvider.request (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/hardhat/src/internal/core/providers/gas-providers.ts:291:23)
        at EthersProviderWrapper.send (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/@nomiclabs/hardhat-ethers/src/internal/ethers-provider-wrapper.ts:13:20)
        at Object.getSigners (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/@nomiclabs/hardhat-ethers/src/internal/helpers.ts:23:20)
        at getContractFactoryByAbiAndBytecode (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/@nomiclabs/hardhat-ethers/src/internal/helpers.ts:250:21)
        at main (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/scripts/deploy.js:17:19)
    
        Caused by: FetchError: request to http://127.0.0.1:8545/ failed, reason: connect ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:8545
            at ClientRequest.<anonymous> (/Users/cuneydtasoglu/Desktop/hardhat_list/blockchain/node_modules/node-fetch/lib/index.js:1461:11)
            at ClientRequest.emit (node:events:376:20)
            at Socket.socketErrorListener (node:_http_client:490:9)
            at Socket.emit (node:events:376:20)
            at emitErrorNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:188:8)
            at emitErrorCloseNT (node:internal/streams/destroy:153:3)
            at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:80:21)

Answer 1

Petr has the right solution - your local test node (which you started with npx hardhat node) needs to continue running when you deploy your smart contract.

In other words, you should:

1. Run npx hardhat node in your terminal. Leave the process running.
2. Open a new terminal window.
3. Run npx hardhat run [script-name] --network localhost

Answer 2

Similar issue when running the deploy script with the following:

npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js --network localhost

I could fix this by using hardhat instead of localhost:

npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js --network hardhat

Answer 3

I had the same issue with running:

npx hardhat run scripts/deploy.js --network localhost

and tried to change the solidity version, clean up the project, removed and installed the npm_modules from scratch but the only solution that I found is reviewing my /etc/hosts file. There was this record:

::1             localhost

which obviously was creating troubles for the hardhat server.

As a tip please note the WebSocket JSON-RPC server address when you run npx hardhat node to be sure at which url it's running.