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Tips for script authors

This page is a complement to our Script Publishing Rules, General House Rules, and Vendor Requirements. The sections below answer common questions about script publishing and provide general tips for publishing compliantly.

CONTENTS:

Should I publish my script publicly or privately?

Select the "Public" privacy setting in the "Publish script" window to share your script publicly if:

  • You want your publication to be visible to the entire TradingView community, or you are a vendor publishing an invite-only script for your subscribers
  • You believe your script is original and potentially beneficial to other users
  • You've ensured that the publication adheres to all requirements defined by our House Rules

Select the "Private" setting to create a private publication instead if any of the following apply:

  • You want the script to be visible to only you and specific friends with whom you share its URL
  • You want to create a draft publication that you can proofread and edit before you create a public version
  • You want to create a publication to test features or practice the publishing process
! Note: You can't change the privacy or visibility settings of your publication after you publish it. Ensure you select the appropriate settings while preparing your publication. 

If you publish your script privately, ensure it remains private on TradingView. Do not share links or references to your private script in any public content, or solicit users via private chats or other content to bring attention to it. Likewise, do not attempt to sell access to a private invite-only script or add unsuspecting users to your access list. These are all serious violations of our rules. Refer to the "Private scripts" section of the Script Publishing Rules and the "Private publications" section of the Vendor Requirements to learn more.

! Tip: If your script is intended for personal use only, publishing it is unnecessary. You can access your script from your personal library by using the menu options in the Pine Editor, and you can add it to your chart from the "Personal" tab in the "Indicators, metrics, and strategies" menu.  

Why should I publish my script with open-source code?

You are not required to share your published source code with other users. If you prefer not to share your script's code, you can select the "Protected" or "Invite-only" visibility setting in the "Publish script" window to create a closed-source publication. Make sure you read and understand our Script Publishing Rules and Vendor Requirements before doing so. 

However, we do often encourage using the "Open" visibility setting to create an open-source publication because:

  • It promotes openness and accountability, both of which are core values in our community
  • Open-source code allows other users to verify your script's logic, and to suggest code improvements that you might not have considered
  • Open-source code enables you to share your unique Pine knowledge and expertise with other users, which in turn helps them learn the language, its current features, and best coding practices
! Tip: Open-source scripts are also eligible for inclusion in our Editors' picks. Any open-source script can be featured in our picks, provided it is original, well-described, potentially useful for traders or programmers, and compliant with our House Rules.

Can I reuse open-source code in my scripts?

Sure! One reason why we encourage open-source publications is that they enable Pine programmers to learn from one another and gain inspiration for future Pine projects. You can reuse code privately to your heart's content.

However, if you intend to reuse open-source code in a script publication, make sure you do so responsibly:

  • Credit the original author in your publication's description.
  • Don't plagiarize the code. Aim to make meaningful improvements where you can, and ensure the reused code does not comprise the entire script.
  • Publish your script open-source as well, unless you have explicit permission from the original author to reuse their code in a closed-source publication.
! Note: Failing to follow our rules on open-source reuse will typically result in your publication being hidden from the community. It can also result in a ban from our social features.

See the "Requirements for public scripts" section of our Script Publishing Rules for more information.

Can I update my published script and its description?

If your script publication is private, you can edit its title or description at any time by selecting the "Edit" option in the top-right corner of the script page. However, if your script is public, the option to edit the description is available for only 15 minutes. Therefore, we recommend that you verify your public script descriptions and ensure the details are correct before publishing them. 

! Tip: One of the best ways to verify a public script's description is to create a private publication first. You can review and edit the private version's formatted text without a time limit, and then copy the final text into a new, public version when you're ready.

You can change other content in your private or public script publication, including its source code, chart, strategy report, and tags, at any time by publishing a script update. See the Script updates section of our Pine Script User Manual to learn more. 

Can I delete my script publication?

If your publication is private, you can delete it at any time by selecting the "Delete" option in the top-right corner of the script page. However, if your script is public, the option to delete the publication is available for only 15 minutes. Once that time elapses, the publication cannot be deleted by you or moderators. 

! Note: Script publications contain independent copies of your published code. Therefore, deleting scripts from your personal library or editing scripts in the Pine Editor does not affect them.

If you publish a script publicly by mistake, and the 15-minute window has already elapsed, you can send a private message to the PineCoders moderator account and ask them to hide it. Hidden publications are not deleted. However, they are invisible and inaccessible to everyone in the community except for you and moderators.

Can I use AI to write content for my script publications?

Whether you choose to use AI tools, such as large language models (LLMs), externally to help you write Pine source code or script descriptions is entirely up to you. Regardless of the tools you use in your writing process, you are the one responsible for ensuring your published content is correct and compliant. AI cannot shoulder this responsibility for you. 

When used diligently, AI tools might help streamline parts of your writing process. However, we strongly recommend that you do not rely on such tools to write your content for you entirely. AI can and does make mistakes. See the article Will AI help me write and publish Pine Script indicators for more on this subject. 

If you use AI in your writing process, do so responsibly:

  • Test and debug any generated code thoroughly to ensure that it works as expected, just as you would with code that you wrote.
  • Ensure that any generated code or description content is not copied from another publication. Plagiarism is a serious violation of our House Rules.  
  • Confirm that all details in your description, code comments, and strings are correct and not misleading. Sharing misleading or harmful content is also a serious violation of our rules.
  • Before you publish your script, review all Script Publishing Rules, General House Rules, and Vendor Requirements to ensure that the publication is compliant. Your script won't be visible in our community script feeds if it doesn't comply with these rules.

Why can't I publish my script publicly?

You may be unable to publish a script publicly due to any of the following reasons:

  • You received a temporary or permanent ban following a moderation event
  • You have a Basic plan, which does not support publishing public scripts or ideas
  • You've reached the platform-wide publishing limits for public scripts 

If you've received a ban with a moderation event, you can't engage in TradingView's social features, including commenting on publications, messaging other users, and publishing scripts or ideas. You will typically receive a message from our moderators explaining the duration of the ban and the reasons for the event. You can publish your new script once your current ban expires. However, before doing so, make sure you understand and follow our House Rules to prevent subsequent bans. 

If you have a Basic plan, you can't create public script publications, but you can create private publications. However, as explained in our Script Publishing Rules, you are not allowed to share private scripts publicly with our community in any way, because such publications are for private use only. If you want to start sharing your scripts publicly, consider upgrading to one of our paid plans.

If neither of the above applies, but you can't publish your script, you've likely reached one of our platform-wide publishing limits. You can publish:

  • Up to 5 public scripts within a rolling 24-hour period
  • A maximum of 15 scripts within a rolling 30-day period

These limits help promote fairness in moderator reviews and script visibility. The "Publish script" window displays a message to inform you if you've reached either limit. You can then publish your new script as soon as your recent publishing volume drops below the limits. Note that moderated scripts also count toward these limits. If one of your latest scripts is hidden or unsuggested, that script still contributes to your publication count for the current period.

These limits do not apply to private publications or script updates. You can publish as many private scripts as you wish, provided you do not share those scripts publicly in any way. Likewise, you can publish updates to your existing public or private scripts at any time. 

! Tip: If you've reached the publishing limits and are waiting to publish a script, we recommend using the waiting time to create a private draft of the new publication. You can then check the draft to ensure that the content appears as intended and complies with our House Rules before creating the public copy. See the Private drafts section of our Pine Script User Manual to learn more. 

Why is my script visible only on my profile?

As explained in our Script Publishing Rules, when you first publish a public script, it is visible only in the Scripts tab of your profile while it is pending review from our script moderators. Neither you nor other users can find the script in community feeds, including the Indicators and strategies pages and the "Community" tab of the "Indicators, metrics, and strategies" menu on Supercharts.

After the moderators check your publication's compliance:

  • The script is suggested and approved for our community feeds if it meets the requirements and standards set by our Script Publishing Rules, General House Rules, and Vendor Requirements.
  • The script is unsuggested and remains visible only on your profile if it does not meet the quality and accessibility standards in our Script Publishing Rules, or it contains other non-severe rule violations.
! Note: This process applies only to public scripts, not private scripts. Users cannot find your private scripts by searching your profile or other public TradingView content. Our moderators do not analyze your private scripts, provided you do not share them with the community. 

If your script is unsuggested due to issues with your published chart or code, you might be able to fix them by publishing a script update. However, if your script contains issues that script updates alone cannot fix, you can achieve compliance by publishing a corrected version of your publication if you wish, then asking our script moderators to hide the old version. 

Below, we explain some of the most common issues that cause a script to become unsuggested, along with tips to help you fix and prevent these issues in your publications. 

If you are unsure why your script is unsuggested or how to address your script's compliance issues after reviewing these sections, feel free to send a direct message to the PineCoders moderator account. Our script moderators will be happy to help you. 

Description quality

A common issue, especially for new script authors, is the lack of clear, helpful details in a script's description. Most users rely on your description to understand your script, even if you publish the script with open-source code. A description that doesn't explain important details about your script doesn't help users. In some cases, missing information can even mislead them.

Therefore, we expect your publication's description to explain all necessary details about your script, including:

  • What the script does
  • How it works
  • How to use it
  • What makes it original
  • Applicable shortcomings or limitations
  • Any relevant concepts that help users understand its functionality or purpose

These details should be self-contained; users should not have to view other content outside your description to understand them. If your description references other content, such as other publications or our documentation, it should not delegate this information to that content.

The above criteria apply to both open-source and closed-source publications. However, another key detail that should be understandable from a closed-source description is why you chose to hide the code. Closed-source scripts that reproduce the behaviors of open-source scripts do not benefit users. Therefore, if your script has unique features or behaviors that require protection, ensure your description clearly explains those qualities so that users understand why they can't see the code.

If your script's description does not meet these criteria, your publication will typically be unsuggested. However, it will remain visible to other users on your profile if it does not contain other, more severe rule violations. 

If you wish to resolve the detected issues in your script's description, you can create a new version of your publication with a corrected description, then ask our moderators to hide the previous publication. Before you do so, ensure your new description meets the above criteria and follows all other House Rules.

See the "Description" and "Originality and usefulness" sections of the Script Publishing Rules to learn more about our quality and accessibility standards for script descriptions. For additional description writing tips, refer to the Title and description section of the Pine Script User Manual.

To see examples of compliant script descriptions, refer to the publications in:

Chart quality

Publishing a script with an unclear or cluttered chart can block it from being suggested. As with other parts of your publication, the chart you publish should help users understand your script. Your publication's chart is not the place for sharing irrelevant information or complex charting setups. 

Your script publication will typically not be suggested if your chart contains any of the following issues:

  • It shows outputs or status lines from other scripts, and the description doesn't explain why
  • It includes extra drawings or images that do not help users understand your script
  • It does not show symbol, timeframe, and script information in its status lines

If your publication contains any of these issues, but not other, more severe violations, it will remain visible only on your profile. You can often fix a publication's chart issues by cleaning your current chart and publishing a script update. 

! Note: Other chart-related violations are more severe and often result in a script becoming hidden rather than unsuggested. For example, moderators will typically hide your publication if you use your chart to advertise, mislead traders, or demonstrate private scripts. You can't publish script updates to correct these issues. 

When creating a script publication, we recommend preparing your chart carefully and fixing any compliance issues before you publish it:

  1. Ensure your current chart contains only necessary visuals. Remove all unnecessary scripts, drawings, and images.
  2. Make sure your chart's status lines are visible. If they are hidden, unhide them from the "Status line" tab of the chart's settings. If the status lines use an invisible color, change the color using the "Text" color input in the "Canvas" tab.
  3. Confirm all other chart details, such as the symbol, timeframe, and chart type, are correct.
  4. Open the "Publish script" window.
  5. If your chart includes other visuals for valid reasons, make sure you mention them and the reasons in the description field.

Non-English text

Some script publications are unsuggested due to any of the following reasons:

  • The published title is not written in English
  • The description or "Author's instructions" field includes non-English text without corresponding English translations
  • The script's inputs or outputs use non-English text, and the publication doesn't include English translations

The community feeds for public scripts differ from those for public ideas. While different localized versions of TradingView include separate community feeds for ideas, all versions use the same feeds for scripts. Therefore, script publications must use English text to be suggested, because English is the most common language in global communication. 

If the above language issues apply to your publication, it will remain visible only on your profile, unless it also contains other, more severe rule violations. 

You can publish updates to adjust your script's code if its inputs or outputs use non-English text. However, script updates cannot fix language issues in your publication's title or description.

Therefore, to avoid these issues, we recommend preparing your source code, title, description, and instructions with English text to prevent language issues before publishing a script:

  • Write your publication's title in English only. Don't use another language here. 
  • If you want to explain your script or provide access instructions in multiple languages, include an English explanation at the top of the text, not at the bottom or between other translations.
  • If your script's inputs or outputs use non-English text, list English translations in your description, or update the strings in your code to include English translations. For example, if your script creates a plot named "Media móvil," include the name's translation (e.g., "Media móvil" = "Moving average") in the description, or change the name in the code, to help users in other regions understand what it means.

Originality and usefulness

Your script might be unsuggested because it does not meet the standards in the "Originality and usefulness" portion of our Script Publishing Rules. While we do not require all your publications to cover unique, novel, or never-before-seen concepts, as that would be unrealistic, our standards do expect you to publish scripts with code and features that are original to you and potentially useful.

As per our Script Publishing Rules, your script publication may be unsuggested if any of the following issues apply:

  • Your published script rehashes our open-source built-in scripts, the example codes in our documentation, auto-generated code from the Pine Editor, or other public domain code.
  • Your publication is intended to demonstrate a trading idea based on common indicators with specific parameter values.
  • Your script combines various indicators or code components without a clear purpose.
  • You published a closed-source script that behaves similarly to other open-source scripts, and your description does not help users understand why the code is hidden.
  • Your script behaves similarly to an existing closed-source script, and your publication states or implies that you've reverse-engineered the original code. 
  • Your script is an incomplete project or a test publication.

If any of these issues are present in your publication, it will remain visible only on your profile, unless other, more severe violations cause it to become hidden.

If your script is not hidden, you can publish updates to enhance its originality or usefulness to traders. However, because some of the above issues also involve your published description, updating the code alone may not resolve all issues that prevented the script from being suggested.

Therefore, we recommend fixing issues relating to originality and usefulness before publishing your script:

  • Don't blatantly rehash common indicators or other code components. If your script relies on code in the public domain, ensure it applies that code in a meaningful way.
  • If your script is intended only to demonstrate a trading setup using existing indicators with specific settings, create an idea publication instead of a script publication.
  • If your script combines other indicators or code components, ensure that the combination serves a specific purpose, and that your description includes details about the combination and its purpose.
  • If you intend to publish a closed-source script, ensure that the script has some distinct qualities that justify hiding the code, and explain those qualities in your description.
  • If your code behaves similarly to an existing closed-source script, prepare your chart and description carefully to avoid stating or implying that you've reverse-engineered closed-source code.
  • If you intend to share a work-in-progress script with friends or test publication features, publish the script privately instead of publicly. 

See the "Originality and usefulness" section of our Script Publishing Rules to learn more about these standards. Refer to our Editors' picks for examples of publications that follow these standards.

Multiple script versions

If you publish a variation of one of your previously suggested scripts as a separate publication, the new version may be unsuggested if these issues apply:

  • The differences between the original publication and the new one are minor
  • The new version's description does not explain the differences or the reasons for creating a new publication rather than updating the existing one

If these issues apply to your publication, it will typically remain visible only on your profile. However, if you repeatedly publish minor variations of a script as separate publications without clear reasons, or if you publish separate versions to spam the community or gain attention, your publication may be hidden instead.

Therefore, if you intend to publish more than one version of a script, make sure you follow the Script Publishing Rules on versions:

  • If you want to publish a new version of a script, and you don't have a clear reason to create a separate publication, publish it as an update to your original publication
  • If you want to preserve the previous version's functionality while also providing a new version for users, describe what's different in the new version and why you chose to publish it separately
! Tip: If you publish a new version of a script to fix issues in a previously unsuggested version, or to replace a previously suggested version with updated content, you can ask our script moderators to hide the previous version from the community.

Why does my publication have a red background?

A red background in your script publication indicates that it is hidden. Other users cannot find the publication anywhere on TradingView; only you and moderators can see it on your profile.

Your publication may be hidden for any of the following reasons:

  • It does not meet all of our requirements for public scripts
  • It contains other serious issues
  • You asked our script moderators to hide it

If your script is hidden, you cannot publish updates or edit its content to fix issues. Depending on the severity of the compliance issues, you may also be banned from social features. After any applicable ban expires, you can publish a new, corrected version of your hidden script if you wish. Before doing so, make sure you understand our House Rules to avoid repeated moderation events. 

To help ensure your publication does not contain serious issues before you publish it, we recommend carefully reviewing the following:

  • The "Requirements for public scripts" section of our Script Publishing Rules
  • All Vendor Requirements
  • All General House Rules

We also recommend reviewing the "Quality and accessibility standards" section of our Script Publishing Rules. Repeatedly or intentionally failing to adhere to some of these standards may result in your script being hidden. Furthermore, meeting these standards is required for your script to become suggested.

If you are unsure why your publication is hidden after reviewing our rules, or if you have other questions about a moderation event, feel free to send a direct message to the PineCoders moderator account. Our script moderators will be happy to help.

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