# Contract deployment - Hardhat

In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through the process of deploying your very first smart contract using Hardhat and mastering the art of interaction through SwisstronikJS scripts `sendShieldedQuery` and `sendShieldedTransaction`

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The full repository for this tutorial can be found here <https://github.com/SigmaGmbH/swisstronik-tutorials/tree/main/Contract_deployment%20_hardhat>
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### 📜 **Overview: What's Inside?**

In this section, you'll find everything you need to confidently deploy and interact with smart contracts using Hardhat:

1. **Environment Setup**: Quickly get ready with Hardhat. We'll show you how step by step.
2. **Your Network in `hardhat.config.js`**: Customize for Swisstronik. Learn to use `hardhat.config.js` for network setup.
3. **Smart Contracts**: Create a contract in Solidity to set and retrieve messages.
4. **Deploy Contracts**: Deploy your smart contract into the Swisstronik blockchain
5. **Transactions**: Execute a transaction to set a message in the smart contract using `sendShieldedTransaction`
6. **Calls**: Talk to your deployed smart contract. Retrieve the message using `sendShieldedQuery`


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