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Running Pine Script Locally

· 3 min read
Pineify Team
Pineify Team

So you want to run Pine Script on your own computer? I get it - lots of traders ask about this. The short answer is: you can't, at least not officially. Pine Script is tied to TradingView's platform, and they don't offer any way to run it locally.

Why Would You Want to Run Pine Script Locally?​

Here's why people keep asking about this:

  • TradingView's timeout is annoying: Your scripts get cut off after about 40 seconds, which is frustrating when you're running complex backtests
  • You want to code offline: Sometimes you just want to write and test code without being connected to the internet
  • Cost and freedom: Running your own scripts means no subscription fees and complete control over your data and execution
The Best Pine Script Generator

The Reality Check​

Here's the deal with running Pine Script locally:

  • TradingView keeps everything locked up: The Pine Script compiler and all the runtime stuff is proprietary. They don't share it, so there's no way to run it outside their platform
  • No file uploads: You can't even upload script files from your computer - you have to copy and paste everything into their web editor
  • People have tried: There are some folks on GitHub who've attempted to reverse engineer Pine Script or build interpreters, but nothing really works completely

What Can You Actually Do?​

If you're determined to work around this, here are your options:

  • Write code offline, test online: You can use any text editor to write your Pine Script code when you're offline, then copy it to TradingView when you want to test it
  • Check out community projects: There are some GitHub repos where people are trying to build Pine Script parsers or simulators, but they're pretty limited
  • Learn Python instead: Honestly, if you want to run backtests locally, you're better off learning Python and using libraries like backtrader or zipline
  • That "pine" Python package: There's a Python package called "pine" but it's for testing APIs, not for running Pine Script - just in case you stumble across it

Look, I wish I had better news, but Pine Script is basically stuck on TradingView. They built it that way on purpose to keep you on their platform. If you really need offline backtesting or longer execution times, you'll have to bite the bullet and either stick with TradingView or learn a different programming language that gives you the freedom to run things locally.

It's not ideal, but that's where we are right now.