Why Indie — a Programming Language for Indicators and Strategies

Most charting platforms give you a fixed library of indicators and a settings panel. TakeProfit gives you the library and the language it is written in. This page explains why that matters — and when it does not.

The short version

Runs on our servers

Your code is executed and sandboxed on the platform side, not in your browser tab.

It is Python, near enough

A subset of Python with decorators on top — not a bespoke dialect you have to learn from zero.

Every built-in is open

Each indicator shipped with the platform is written in Indie, and you can fork any of them.

1. The calculation is not your laptop’s problem

Indie code runs on TakeProfit servers inside a sandbox, which is also why the runtime restricts parts of the standard library — see Language differences with Python. The practical consequence: a heavy indicator over a long history is a server job, not a frozen browser tab. The same code also runs where you are not — a cloud alert built on your own indicator keeps watching the market with every tab closed, and a backtest walks years of history without your machine doing the walking.

2. You are not learning a new language, you are learning a few decorators

Indie is a dialect of Python — essentially a subset of its constructs, plus syntactic sugar in the form of decorators such as @indicator, @param.int or @plot.line. If you have written Python, you can read Indie today and write it tomorrow. That is a deliberate trade. A purpose-built scripting language is faster to design but slower to learn, and everything you know about it stays inside one platform. Python knowledge does not expire.

# indie:lang_version = 5
from indie import indicator, param, plot, color
from indie.algorithms import Sma


@indicator('My SMA')
@param.int('length', default=20, min=1)
@plot.line(color=color.AQUA)
def Main(self, length):
    return Sma.new(self.close, length)[0]

Full syntax, data model and API surface: Library reference.

3. Nothing is a black box

Every indicator that ships with the platform is implemented in Indie, and its source is open. Click the Source Code icon on any open-source indicator and the IDE opens with your own copy of it. This is the difference between “the platform’s RSI does something I cannot see” and “here is the RSI, change the smoothing and keep the rest”. Learning by reading working code is usually faster than learning by reading a reference — start with Code examples.

4. One language covers the whole path

The same script, extended, walks the full distance from an idea to a live position:

Stage	What you write	Where it runs
Idea on the chart	`@indicator` with plots and drawings	Chart widget
Notification	the same indicator, as an alert source	Cloud alerts
Rules with orders	`@strategy` with `trading` calls	Strategy tester
A product	published script, free or paid	Marketplace

You do not re-implement the idea three times in three tools. It is one file that gains capabilities.

5. What you build stays yours — and can be sold

A finished indicator can be published to the Marketplace, free to grow an audience or paid by subscription, with your own price. See Sell your indicators for the publishing flow and the revenue split.

Scripts that use external CSV data cannot be published to the Marketplace — they stay private to your account.

6. You do not have to type any of it

The strongest argument for a language is that you can skip writing in it. The MCP server connects Claude, Cursor, VS Code and other clients to the Indie compiler, the docs and the indicator library, so an LLM can write the code, check it against the real runtime, and fix its own errors before handing it over. The AI assistant in the IDE does the same inside the platform, and it converts scripts from Pine Script or MQL5 into Indie. Describe the idea in plain words; what you get back is a compiled indicator you own.

When you do not need any of this

If the built-in library covers your analysis, use it — a language you never open costs you nothing. Indie starts to matter at the point where you hear yourself saying “I wish this indicator also…”.

What you can build

Six things that are only possible because the language is there.

Quick start

Write and run your first indicator in a few minutes.

Documentation

Why a language of its own

The short version

Runs on our servers

It is Python, near enough

Every built-in is open

1. The calculation is not your laptop’s problem

2. You are not learning a new language, you are learning a few decorators

3. Nothing is a black box

4. One language covers the whole path

5. What you build stays yours — and can be sold

6. You do not have to type any of it

When you do not need any of this

What you can build

Quick start

​The short version

Runs on our servers

It is Python, near enough

Every built-in is open

​1. The calculation is not your laptop’s problem

​2. You are not learning a new language, you are learning a few decorators

​3. Nothing is a black box

​4. One language covers the whole path

​5. What you build stays yours — and can be sold

​6. You do not have to type any of it

​When you do not need any of this

What you can build

Quick start

The short version

1. The calculation is not your laptop’s problem

2. You are not learning a new language, you are learning a few decorators

3. Nothing is a black box

4. One language covers the whole path

5. What you build stays yours — and can be sold

6. You do not have to type any of it

When you do not need any of this