# Bar visualizer

A React component in [Beamline](https://beamline.io/)'s [Voice & audio](https://beamline.io/components/voice) category. Live demo: https://beamline.io/components/bar-visualizer

A row of bars that says what a voice agent is doing: a sweep while connecting, the person's voice while listening, a slow breath while thinking, the agent's voice while talking. Bars move only while there is something to show.

## Use it for

- The state indicator of a voice agent: a call screen, a voice button, a conversation bar.
- Showing that the agent hears you, without a full waveform.

## Not for

- A recording's shape ([waveform](https://beamline.io/components/waveform)).
- Recording feedback with history ([live-waveform](https://beamline.io/components/live-waveform)).
- The agent's presence or avatar ([orb](https://beamline.io/components/orb)).

## Anatomy

- bars (5–40)
- state caption (optional, visible)
- reduced-motion level number

## Variants

- **align**: center, bottom
- **size**: sm, md, lg

## States

- idle (still)
- connecting (a highlight sweeps across)
- listening (follows the source)
- thinking (bars breathe together)
- talking (follows the source, accent)
- off screen (stopped)
- reduced motion (still bars by state, a dB number while sound plays)

## Keyboard

- None: a picture of the agent's state (role img named by the state).

## Motion

Bars are transforms written straight to the DOM each frame while listening or talking, on screen; connecting and thinking are compositor CSS loops tied to the state; idle runs nothing. Under reduced motion nothing loops: connecting holds every other bar raised, thinking an even row in the accent, both with the state in words; listening and talking show a dB number.

## Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `state` | `null \| "connecting" \| "listening" \| "thinking" \| "talking"` | `null` | The same vocabulary as Orb and useVoiceAgent's agentState. |
| `source` | `MediaStream \| LevelSource \| (() => number) \| null` | — | Whose voice to draw: the person's while listening, the agent's while talking. |
| `bars` | `number` | `15` |  |
| `align` | `"center" \| "bottom"` | `"center"` |  |
| `size` | `"sm" \| "md" \| "lg"` | `"md"` | Heights 24 / 48 / 96 px. |
| `showLabel` | `boolean` | — | A visible caption with the state in words. |
| `label` | `string` | `"Agent"` | Who the bars are about; the accessible name reads "Agent, listening". |
| `classNames` | `BarVisualizerClassNames` | — |  |
| `style / ref` | `CSSProperties / native Ref` | — |  |

## Import

```tsx
import { BarVisualizer } from "@/components/bar-visualizer/bar-visualizer";
```

## Get it

Bar visualizer is part of Beamline: 190 React components and screens your coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client) installs into your app through Beamline's MCP server, as a ready-built package or as plain React source you can change. $49 one payment (regular $200), no subscription, a year of updates, one licence for your whole team. [Get Beamline](https://beamline.io/checkout?pack=complete) · [Connect your agent](https://beamline.io/connect)

## More in Voice & audio

- [Audio player](https://beamline.io/components/audio-player): One audio element and its controls: play with a loading state, a scrub bar with time, skip, speed and a playlist whose rows play into the same player…
- [Conversation bar](https://beamline.io/components/conversation-bar): The control bar of a voice call with an agent: one button to call and hang up, the agent's state as bars, a call timer, mute, and typing when talking is…
- [Live waveform](https://beamline.io/components/live-waveform): Loudness drawn as it happens: a scrolling history of the microphone (or any live source) or its spectrum, a calm processing state while words are…
- [Matrix](https://beamline.io/components/matrix): A dot-matrix display: animated frame sets (loading, pulse, wave, syncing), text and digits in a 5×7 font, or a VU meter of levels or a live source. One…
- [Microphone selector](https://beamline.io/components/mic-selector): Choose the microphone, test it with a live level and mute it, with every permission and device state spelled out: not yet allowed, blocked (and how to…
- [Orb](https://beamline.io/components/orb): The agent's presence: a thin ring of light around a lens in the brand's hue that holds still at rest, sends an arc round while thinking and widens with…
- [Scrub bar](https://beamline.io/components/scrub-bar): A seekable timeline for audio or video: elapsed and total time, what has loaded, chapter marks, a time preview under the pointer, and the full keyboard…
- [Speech input](https://beamline.io/components/speech-input): A text field you can speak into: the mic dictates through any speech-to-text provider, the phrase being heard shows apart from the finished words, and…
- [Transcript viewer](https://beamline.io/components/transcript-viewer): A recording and its words together: the spoken word lights up as it plays and the transcript follows it, any word or paragraph time plays from there…
- [Voice button](https://beamline.io/components/voice-button): The control that starts and stops talking: click to toggle or hold to talk (pointer, Space, Enter or a global shortcut), with a live level while…
- [Voice picker](https://beamline.io/components/voice-picker): Choose a text-to-speech voice from a searchable list (name, accent, tone, use) and hear it first: each voice has its own orb, previews play one at a time…
- [Waveform](https://beamline.io/components/waveform): The shape of a recording: one bar per slice of loudness, fitted to any width, with the played part in the accent, unmeasured slices hatched and a loading…