Expose Result type for task action success/failure signaling

[schaable]

Summary

• Expose Result interface that task actions can optionally return to signal success or failure to the CLI
• When task.run() returns a Result with success: false, the CLI sets process.exitCode = 1
• Both success and failure can optionally carry a value
• Backward compatible: tasks that return undefined or non-Result values continue to work unchanged
• Exports the isResult() type guard and successfulResult() / errorResult() factory helpers from hardhat/utils/result

Usage

import type { Result } from "hardhat/types/result";
import { successfulResult, errorResult } from "hardhat/utils/result";

// Success without data (e.g. keystore, telemetry)
async function configureAction(): Promise<Result<void, void>> {
  if (conflictingFlags) {
    return errorResult();
  }
  // ...
  return successfulResult();
}

// Success/failure with data (e.g. test runners)
interface TestSummary {
  failed: number;
  passed: number;
}

async function testAction(): Promise<Result<TestSummary, TestSummary>> {
  const summary = await runTests();

  if (summary.failed > 0) {
    return errorResult(summary); // CLI sets exitCode=1, caller still gets data
  }

  return successfulResult(summary);
}

Docs: NomicFoundation/hardhat-website#228

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: db636ad

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
hardhat	Patch

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[alcuadrado]

I'll review this better tomorrow, but I think using taskSuccess and the other helpers from non-builtin plugins would force us to peer-bump all of them, for little user-value. Other than that, I like the general idea. They can achieve the same type-safety without the helpers though.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces a public Result type (plus isResult, successResult, and errorResult) so task actions can explicitly signal success/failure to the Hardhat CLI, enabling the CLI to set process.exitCode = 1 when a task returns a failing result.

Changes:

• Add Result type + isResult() guard and successResult() / errorResult() helpers, and export them via package subpaths.
• Update CLI main to detect failing Result returns from tasks and set process.exitCode = 1.
• Refactor Solidity resolver code/tests to use the shared Result type and add new tests/fixture coverage for CLI behavior.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 14 out of 14 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
v-next/hardhat/src/types/result.ts	Adds the new public Result type.
v-next/hardhat/src/utils/result.ts	Adds successResult, errorResult, and isResult.
v-next/hardhat/src/types/index.ts	Re-exports the new Result type from the types barrel.
v-next/hardhat/src/internal/cli/main.ts	Sets process.exitCode = 1 when a task returns a failing Result.
v-next/hardhat/src/internal/builtin-plugins/solidity/build-system/resolver/types.ts	Removes local Result definition and imports shared Result.
v-next/hardhat/src/internal/builtin-plugins/solidity/build-system/resolver/utils.ts	Updates Result import to shared public type.
v-next/hardhat/src/internal/builtin-plugins/solidity/build-system/resolver/remapped-npm-packages-graph.ts	Updates Result import to shared public type.
v-next/hardhat/src/internal/builtin-plugins/solidity/build-system/resolver/dependency-resolver.ts	Updates Result import to shared public type.
v-next/hardhat/package.json	Exposes ./types/result and ./utils/result export subpaths.
v-next/hardhat/test/utils/result.ts	Adds unit tests for factories and isResult.
v-next/hardhat/test/internal/cli/main.ts	Adds CLI tests asserting process.exitCode behavior based on returned Result.
v-next/hardhat/test/fixture-projects/cli/result/hardhat.config.ts	Adds fixture tasks returning various Result/non-Result values.
v-next/hardhat/test/internal/builtin-plugins/solidity/build-system/resolver/dependency-resolver.ts	Updates tests to use shared Result type.
.changeset/nice-parrots-do.md	Adds a changeset entry for the patch release.

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[alcuadrado]

There are some minor comments about naming, exports and a test, but pre-approving.

[alcuadrado]

Also: on could create an issue to change all the builtin plugins' tasks to use Result, and update their tests so that they don't depend on process.exitCode

[alcuadrado]

And we should update the docs of setAction and setInlineAction, both in the website and the jsdoc.

[schaable]

Also: on could create an issue to change all the builtin plugins' tasks to use Result, and update their tests so that they don't depend on process.exitCode

This is already done in #8015

And we should update the docs of setAction and setInlineAction, both in the website and the jsdoc

Done in db636ad and NomicFoundation/hardhat-website#228