Support using hardhat-verify package without depending on main hardhat package

[numtel]

Describe the feature

I am creating a project called circuitscan.org which needs to submit Solidity sources to Etherscan, Sourcify, and (soon) Blockscan for contract verification. In order to not duplicate efforts, I've used the hardhat-verify package but don't want to pull in the main hardhat package when it's not really needed.

To work around this, I've created a stub package that can fill in for hardhat: https://github.com/numtel/hardhat-plugin-noop

While this works, it would be nice to have have to do this kind of workaround. If there's interest in this, I could prepare a PR.

Search terms

No response

[schaable]

Hi @numtel, thanks for submitting this issue. I understand the value of having a general-purpose verification library. However, the hardhat-verify plugin is designed as a core Hardhat plugin and assumes it is running within the context of a Hardhat project. Changing it to function as a general verification library is not within our current scope, but we may reconsider this in the future.