hre.viem.getPublicClient() fails without explicit transport parameter

[s-di-cola]

Version of Hardhat

2.22.19

What happened?

Bug: hre.viem.getPublicClient() fails without explicit transport parameter

Description

When using the hardhat-viem plugin, calling hre.viem.getPublicClient() without parameters fails, but works correctly when explicitly providing a transport with hre.viem.getPublicClient({transport: http()}).

Expected Behavior

hre.viem.getPublicClient() should work properly without requiring an explicit transport, as the plugin should configure the transport automatically when connecting to the Hardhat Network.

Actual Behavior

Without an explicit transport, the function fails. With {transport: http()}, it works correctly.

Workaround

Use either:

// Working solution with hardhat-viem
const publicClient = await hre.viem.getPublicClient({transport: http()})

// OR use viem directly
const publicClient = createPublicClient({
  chain: hardhat,
  transport: http()
});

### Minimal reproduction steps

### Steps to Reproduce
1. Set up a Hardhat project with the hardhat-viem plugin
2. Try to get a public client with: `const publicClient = await hre.viem.getPublicClient()`
3. Observe that this fails
4. Change to: `const publicClient = await hre.viem.getPublicClient({transport: http()})`
5. Observe that this works correctly

### Search terms

_No response_

[kanej]

I was not able to reproduce this.

I created a new Hardhat project (v2.22.19) with Viem, then created a ./scripts/viem-public-client-test.ts:

import hre from "hardhat";

const main = async () => {
  const publicClient = await hre.viem.getPublicClient();

  const blockNumber = await publicClient.getBlockNumber();

  console.log(blockNumber);
};

main();

Then on running I get the expect 0th block number printed:

npx hardhat run ./scripts/viem-public-client-test.ts
# 0n

Is this a version issue?