pinescript

Pine Script Development

Verify before implementing: For Pine Script version-specific syntax or new built-in functions, look up current official docs before writing code. Prefer Context7 (query-docs) when available. Otherwise use available web tools to read the TradingView Pine Script docs for the script's version. TradingView updates Pine Script frequently and training data may be stale.

Critical Syntax Rules

• Keep simple ternaries readable; multiline expressions require valid continuation indentation. For complex ternaries, use intermediate variables:

  isBull = close > open
  barColor = isBull ? color.green : color.red
  

• Continuation lines outside parentheses MUST be indented by a non-multiple of 4: same indentation as the start errors, and 4/8/12 spaces parse as a local block and error too (2 spaces is the conventional choice). Inside parentheses (function calls, parenthesized expressions) any indentation works, including multiples of 4
• NEVER use plot() inside local scopes (if/for/functions); use conditional value instead: plot(condition ? value : na)
• Use barstate.isconfirmed when signals require the chart bar's closing values. It does not establish that requested higher-timeframe values are confirmed; inspect request.security() offsets and lookahead separately.

Platform Limits

Check the current platform limits before sizing a script: 64 plot counts (one call can consume several); up to 500 line, box, or label IDs each and 100 polyline IDs; 40 unique request.*() calls, or 64 on Ultimate; 100,000 compiled tokens. History buffers, requested intrabars, and chart history have distinct limits; there is no general 500-bar request.security() history limit.

• Drawings positioned with xloc.bar_index reach at most 9,999 bars into the past and 500 into the future; for anything older, switch the drawing to xloc.bar_time and pass a timestamp (a time value without xloc.bar_time is treated as a future bar index and errors)
• Set the relevant max_*_count declaration parameter and cap growth with a rolling buffer: push each object, then line.delete(arr.shift()) after the intended line count is exceeded. The default display count is approximately 50 per drawing type.