# How to manage the .openzeppelin file from a location other than the project root directory

**URL:** <https://forum.openzeppelin.com/t/how-to-manage-the-openzeppelin-file-from-a-location-other-than-the-project-root-directory/32163>\
**Category:** Upgrades\
**Tags:** upgrades, hardhat\
**Created:** [September 30, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/t/how-to-manage-the-openzeppelin-file-from-a-location-other-than-the-project-root-directory/32163 "2022-09-30T16:16:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bold](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.openzeppelin.com/bold/32/8906_2.png) [@bold](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/u/bold)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/t/how-to-manage-the-openzeppelin-file-from-a-location-other-than-the-project-root-directory/32163/1 "2022-09-30T16:16:35Z")

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Hi,  
I'm part of an organization that runs private networks and use upgradeable contracts. Our smart contract dev environment uses hardhat, and the openzeppelin-upgrades plugin is great for checking for storage conflicts and for deployment/upgrades.  
I was wondering if there are examples available of how to create, read, and update the .openzeppelin file from a location other than the hardhat project root directory?

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**Author:** ![ericglau](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.openzeppelin.com/ericglau/32/15149_2.png) [@ericglau](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/u/ericglau)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/t/how-to-manage-the-openzeppelin-file-from-a-location-other-than-the-project-root-directory/32163/2 "2022-09-30T21:29:56Z")

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Hi @bold, the .openzeppelin directory location isn't customizable at the moment. Can you please open a [GitHub issue](https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-upgrades/issues) and provide some details on your expected use case?

As a workaround, you could run your Hardhat command from another directory (and use relative or absolute paths to locate your Hardhat scripts), so the .openzeppelin subdirectory under that path would be used instead. If you have existing deployments, make sure to move the existing `.openzeppelin` folder to be under the root of that path.

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**Author:** ![bold](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.openzeppelin.com/bold/32/8906_2.png) [@bold](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/u/bold)\
**Post date:** [October 6, 2022, 3:54pm UTC](https://forum.openzeppelin.com/t/how-to-manage-the-openzeppelin-file-from-a-location-other-than-the-project-root-directory/32163/3 "2022-10-06T15:54:30Z")

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Hey @ericglau, I opened up this issue: [https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-upgrades/issues/672](https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-upgrades/issues/672)