Hardhat toolbox: ethers + Mocha

This skill builds on the core hardhat skill. Load that first for test organization, the network.create() shape, networkHelpers, fixtures, and the typechecking workflow. Everything below hangs off the connection returned by network.create().

This stack runs tests under Mocha (global describe / it) and asserts with chai. Mocha doesn't await describe callbacks, so the connection is set up at the top of the file with top-level await:

import { expect } from "chai";
import { network } from "hardhat";

const { ethers, networkHelpers } = await network.create();

describe("Counter", function () {
  // ...
});

One connection per file is the norm. State isolation between tests comes from loadFixture (see the hardhat skill), not from creating a fresh connection per describe.