testing

name	testing
description	Testing conventions for openzeppelin-contracts. Use when writing or modifying tests, mocks, or formal verification specs. Covers hardhat-exposed $-wrappers, when manual mocks are warranted, Hardhat+Chai patterns (loadFixture, shouldBehaveLike, multi-target loops), Foundry fuzz, Halmos symbolic execution, Certora rule-based verification, and the changeset rule.

Testing

When to use each approach

Approach	Required when
Formal verification (Certora)	Contract includes a state machine or access-control rules complex enough that fuzzing won't cover the cases
Symbolic execution (Halmos)	A property is expressible as a Foundry test with symbolic inputs — fast, no external credentials
Fuzzing (Foundry)	Math-heavy code, data structures, complex invariants not suited for FV
Edge unit cases (Hardhat)	All contracts: golden path + pathological/border cases. This is the baseline.

Default to Hardhat+Chai unit tests, add Halmos for invariants you can express symbolically, escalate to Certora when state-machine coverage requires it.

A bug fix must add a minimal test that reproduces the bug, committed alongside the fix. The objective is 100% branch coverage per PR.

Accessing internal functions: hardhat-exposed

$-prefixed wrapper contracts are auto-generated by hardhat-exposed. The plugin creates a $ContractName for every contract in contracts/, with every internal _function re-exposed as an external $_function. Output goes to contracts-exposed/ (gitignored). Use them directly:

const token = await ethers.deployContract('$ERC20', ['Name', 'SYM']);
await token.$_mint(holder, 1000n);

Do not write $-prefixed wrappers by hand.

Manual mocks in contracts/mocks/

Manual mocks live in contracts/mocks/ (not test/) and mirror the contracts/ directory layout. Write a manual mock only when hardhat-exposed cannot give you what you need:

• Constructor-level setup that auto-generation can't provide — e.g. ERC721ConsecutiveMock calling _mintConsecutive during construction.
• Multi-extension composition to test how extensions compose — e.g. ERC721Consecutive + ERC721Pausable + ERC721Votes.
• Injected behavior that overrides a hook to simulate an edge case — e.g. ERC20Reentrant firing a reentrant call inside _update.
• Adversarial behavior with no analogue in the base — e.g. ReentrancyAttack, ERC20ReturnFalseMock.
• A plain public wrapper for an internal operation where the auto-generated signature is unsuitable — e.g. ERC20Mock.mint.

Even inside a manual mock, prefer the auto-generated $_ functions over redeclaring the same exposure:

// prefer (reuses auto-generated exposure):
await token.$_mint(holder, 1000n);

// avoid (redundant — hardhat-exposed already provides this):
contract ERC20Mock is ERC20 {
    function __mint(address account, uint256 value) external { _mint(account, value); }
}

Hardhat + Chai (.test.js)

Fixtures: use loadFixture from @nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers. Declare the fixture with a named function, not an inline arrow — loadFixture keys its cache on the function reference, so an anonymous function (especially an inline loadFixture(async () => {...})) re-runs on every test instead of restoring the snapshot.

async function fixture() {
  const [holder, recipient] = await ethers.getSigners();
  const token = await ethers.deployContract('$ERC20', [name, symbol]);
  await token.$_mint(holder, initialSupply);
  return { holder, recipient, token };
}

beforeEach(async function () {
  Object.assign(this, await loadFixture(fixture));
});

Structure: describe('ContractName') > describe('methodName') > it('description').

Shared behavior: reuse via shouldBehaveLike* functions in sibling .behavior.js files. Mount with this-context state set in the fixture:

const { shouldBehaveLikeERC20 } = require('./ERC20.behavior');
// ...
shouldBehaveLikeERC20(initialSupply, { forcedApproval });

Multi-target loops: when the same suite should run against several wrappers (e.g. the auto-generated $ERC20 and a manual $ERC20ApprovalMock), iterate at the top:

const TOKENS = [{ Token: '$ERC20' }, { Token: '$ERC20ApprovalMock', forcedApproval: true }];
for (const { Token, forcedApproval } of TOKENS) {
  describe(Token, function () {
    /* … */
  });
}

Assertion style:

• bigint literals (100n) for uint values — not ethers.BigNumber.
• Custom errors: .revertedWithCustomError(contract, 'ErrorName').withArgs(...).
• Panics: .revertedWithPanic(PANIC_CODES.ARITHMETIC_UNDER_OR_OVERFLOW).
• Events: .emit(contract, 'EventName').withArgs(...).
• Balance changes: .changeTokenBalance(token, account, delta) / .changeTokenBalances(token, [a, b], [d1, d2]).

Foundry (.t.sol)

Foundry tests live next to their Hardhat counterparts in test/. They are picked up by forge test. Two distinct purposes:

Fuzzing: function name starts with test, parameters are typed. Foundry generates random inputs.

function testFuzzAdd(uint256 a, uint256 b) public pure {
  vm.assume(a < type(uint256).max - b); // restrict if needed
  assertEq(Math.add(a, b), a + b);
}

Use assertEq, assertGt, etc. from forge-std/Test.sol. Fuzz settings live in foundry.toml (default runs = 5000).

Symbolic execution (Halmos): function name starts with symbolic or testSymbolic — that's what the CI halmos job matches (--match-test '^symbolic|^testSymbolic'). These run as regular Foundry fuzz tests as well.

function testSymbolicTransfer(address to, uint256 amount) public {
  // Halmos treats inputs as fully symbolic (all values).
  // Use vm.assume(...) for preconditions.
}

Halmos runs on every PR, needs no credentials. Reach for it when a property can be expressed as a Foundry test.

Pragma note: Foundry compiles with solc 0.8.31 (foundry.toml); contract pragmas in contracts/ may still be ^0.8.20. New .t.sol files should match the contract's pragma minimum unless they specifically need a newer feature.

Certora (rule-based formal verification)

Certora specs live in fv/specs/ as .conf + .spec pairs. The CI job runs on PRs labeled formal-verification or formal-verification-force-all. Requires a CERTORAKEY.

Local workflow:

make -C fv apply           # apply harness patches first
node fv/run.js AccessControl   # runs fv/specs/AccessControl.conf
node fv/run.js --all           # runs every spec

Use Certora when a property is too complex for Halmos, or when a state machine needs deeper rule coverage than fuzzing provides.

Changesets

Every PR that changes contract behavior needs a changeset. Skip for NatSpec-only edits, internal refactors with no user-visible effect, or pure repo plumbing.

npx changeset add

The generated file in .changeset/ looks like:

---
'openzeppelin-solidity': minor
---

`ComponentName`: One-sentence description starting with a backtick-quoted contract or component name.

• patch — bug fixes.
• minor — new features.
• One sentence. No bullet points, no multi-paragraph prose. The release pipeline composes these into CHANGELOG.md automatically.

CI matrix you should keep in mind

Job	What it runs	Triggered by
lint	npm run lint	Every push/PR
tests	npm test + inheritance, pragma, generation checks	Every push/PR
tests-upgradeable	Transpile then re-run all Hardhat tests + storage-layout diff	Every push/PR
tests-foundry	forge test -vvv (includes Halmos symbolic)	Every push/PR
coverage	npm run coverage → codecov	Every push/PR
slither	Slither static analysis for common vulnerabilities	Every push/PR
formal verification	Certora specs for changed .spec files (or all, with the force label)	PRs labeled formal-verification / formal-verification-force-all