Foundry

Foundry is a Rust-based, command-line toolkit for Ethereum and other EVM smart-contract projects. It keeps compilation, Solidity tests, deployment scripts, local-chain control, and direct contract calls close to the terminal rather than centering a project on JavaScript or TypeScript tooling.

Forge keeps contracts, tests, and scripts in Solidity

Forge compiles Solidity, runs Solidity test contracts, executes deployment scripts and contract calls, and can verify deployed source code with supported explorers. Tests and application contracts can therefore share Solidity types, compiler settings, dependencies, and project setup.

Its test tools include fuzzing, fork tests, gas reports, traces, bytecode inspection, and storage-layout inspection. Generated fuzz inputs can exercise a function beyond a hand-picked example, while verbose traces show the calls, revert, gas use, and storage changes behind a failure.

Anvil, Cast, and Chisel cover local state and quick investigation

Anvil is Foundry’s in-memory Ethereum node, with funded development accounts, controllable mining, state dump and load, traces, and chain forks at a chosen block. Its time, account-impersonation, and state controls let a team reproduce a scenario locally without broadcasting to the parent network.

Cast reads chain data, encodes or decodes ABI data, signs messages, sends transactions, and interacts with contracts from the command line. Chisel is an interactive Solidity REPL for experimenting with expressions, project dependencies, and forked-chain state, giving the toolkit a route from quick inspection to repeatable project tests.

A Solidity-native alternative to Hardhat

Hardhat is the close alternative for teams whose plugins, custom tasks, and common tests are organized around Node.js and JavaScript or TypeScript. Foundry instead makes Rust tooling and Solidity-native tests and scripts its defining approach.

Tenderly solves a different problem. Foundry supplies the local compiler, test runner, and controllable node; Tenderly adds managed shared environments, visual simulation, transaction inspection, and monitoring. Teams that need persistent production-state simulation or alerts may use both rather than treating Foundry as a hosted operations platform.