17.2k stars · Apache-2.0 · v5.2.1 (2026-08-12) · Track this in Rising ↗
TradingView's own charting library — the chart a forex trader already knows how to read.
Radar check
What we found when we opened it. Every bar is one fact, with its date.
Last code pushed 23 Oct 2026, 4 days before this check.
Latest release v5.2.1 on 12 Aug 2026.
Public since May 2019, a little over 7 years.
17,698 stars and 2,668 forks.
269 commits and 4 new issues in the last 90 days.
70 contributors. 43 pull requests merged in 90 days.
No security policy file says how to report a problem. No published security advisories.
How the bars are scored
- Alive. Days since the last code push: a week or less 100, a month 90, three months 70, six months 50, a year 30, eighteen months 15, older 0.
- Releases. Age of the latest GitHub release, on a similar scale; no bar when the project publishes no releases.
- Maturity. Age of the project: eight years 100, five 90, three 70, two 55, one 40, six months 25, younger 10.
- Adoption. Stars on a log scale: 100,000 stars is 100, 10,000 is 80, 1,000 is 60, 100 is 40.
- Activity. Commits in the last 90 days: 300 or more 100, 100 85, 30 65, 10 45, any 25.
- Community. People who have contributed: 100 or more 100, 30 80, 10 60, 5 40, 2 25, one 10.
- Security. A published security policy 80, none 40; published advisories are listed, not scored.
Checked by Repo Radar on 27 Oct 2026 from the repository on GitHub. Covered in Edition 11.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it does
It draws candlesticks, lines, areas, bars and histograms on an HTML5 canvas, which is a drawing area the browser paints directly. It is built for long series, so years of one-minute bars pan and zoom without the page struggling. It handles touch, so it works on a phone. Several series can share a chart, and scales can be configured per series. It includes an option to display the attribution logo on the chart itself, which satisfies part of the licence requirement. What it does not do is calculate anything: no moving averages, no indicators, no drawing tools and no order overlay. Those are left entirely to the application, which is a deliberate choice and the reason it stays small.
Why it matters
Who it suits. Any product that shows price history to people who trade, where recognition matters more than novelty. It suits a product that already computes its own indicator values and only needs them drawn. Skip it if the requirement is a general-purpose chart for business figures, because a general charting library will do that with less work and more chart types.
Verdict. The right default for price data, and the recognition argument is the real one: a trader reads a familiar chart in the first second instead of learning a new one. Apache-2.0 matters here, because this can sit inside a paid screen where an AGPL library could not. Three things to settle before shipping. The licence requires an attribution notice and a link to the company's site on a page users can see, so read the NOTICE file rather than assuming. Version 5 was a breaking rewrite, so most tutorials and forum answers still describe version 4 and will mislead you; the newest release is 5.2.1, dated 12 August 2026, with code on 12 October 2026. And the project publishes no numeric size figure, only a claim of being close to static images, so plan from your own measurement.
Summary (Key Points)from the README
Key features
- Small, fast footprint: The README describes the library as one of the smallest and fastest financial HTML5 charts, and says it does not slow down page loading or affect performance.
- Size versus static images: The library is close in size to a static image, so replacing many image charts with it can make the page smaller.
- Built-in charting: It provides a rich set of charting capabilities out of the box.
- Custom plugins: You can extend it by building plugins, with a plugin catalog, interactive plugin examples, and a plugin-examples guide for writing your own.
- Multiple build variants: It ships ES module and IIFE builds, with production and development modes, and standalone versions that include their dependencies.
- Browser-global option: The standalone build creates a `window.LightweightCharts` object with all exports from the ESM version.
- Latest master builds: You can try unreleased master builds through pkg.pr.new before a release.
- AI assistant skills: Two Agent Skills give AI coding assistants current v5 knowledge: one for using the library and one for writing plugins, including warnings about autoscale, whitespace, and hit-test traps.
Ways to install
| Platform or method | What it needs | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| npm (ES6 module) | An npm-based project and the import shown in the README | Low |
| CDN via unpkg (standalone) | A web page that can load scripts from unpkg | Low |
| Latest master build (pkg.pr.new) | Access to pkg.pr.new; an unreleased, pre-release build | Low |
| Build from source | Following BUILDING.md in the repository | Higher |
Important
- Attribution required: The Apache 2.0 license requires you to name TradingView as the product creator and to add the attribution notice from the NOTICE file, plus a link on a page of your website or app available to users.
- Attribution logo option: The `attributionLogo` chart option can display a suitable link on the chart itself, which can satisfy the link requirement.
- Master builds are unreleased: The pkg.pr.new master build is for trying the newest code before a release, so it may change.
- Bundled dependencies differ by build: The ES module builds do not include dependencies, while the standalone builds do, so pick the variant that fits your setup.
- Plugin pitfalls: The README warns about common autoscale, whitespace, and hit-test traps when writing plugins.
- Third-party code notice: The project incorporates parts of tslib under the BSD Zero Clause License.
Written by an AI model from the project’s README; not part of the review, and it can be wrong.
- Apache-2.0 and made by the company whose conventions traders already know.
- Built for long series and touch screens, so it survives years of data and a phone.
- Deliberately small, with no features to configure that the product does not need.
- No indicator arithmetic, no drawing tools and no order overlay; all of that is yours to build.
- Version 5 was a breaking rewrite, so most tutorials still describe version 4.
- The licence requires a visible attribution notice and link, which is easy to miss before shipping.
npm install lightweight-charts
