# Selection actions

A React component in [Beamline](https://beamline.io/)'s [AI & agents](https://beamline.io/components/ai) category. Live demo: https://beamline.io/components/selection-actions

Select a passage and hand it to the agent: a bar over the selection with quick actions, your own instruction and More; while the agent works it says so, and its suggestion comes back to Replace, Copy or Discard, with the passage kept marked.

## Use it for

- Letting people select text in a document or an answer and ask the agent to rewrite, shorten, explain or translate it.

## Not for

- Formatting text ([rich-text-editor](https://beamline.io/components/rich-text-editor)'s own toolbar).
- Asking about the whole document ([prompt-bar](https://beamline.io/components/prompt-bar)).
- Comments on a selection ([comment-thread](https://beamline.io/components/comment-thread)).

## Anatomy

- region (your text; programmatically focusable to return focus)
- bar (toolbar, portalled at the popover layer, above the selection or below when there is no room)
- instruction field with send
- quick actions (icon + label; icons only under 560px)
- More (menu)
- working line (spinner, action, the passage)
- error line with Retry
- suggestion with Discard, Copy, Replace
- passage mark (CSS highlight while focus is in the bar)

## States

- closed
- open (a passage of minLength or more is selected inside the region)
- working
- suggestion
- refused (error, Retry)
- read-only (no onReplace: Copy and Discard only)
- disabled
- stale completion ignored after selection changes
- failed request retry

## Keyboard

- Alt+Enter, while a passage is selected, moves focus into the bar's field
- ← → (Home, End) move along the bar; mirrored in RTL
- Enter in the field sends the instruction
- Escape closes the bar and returns focus to where it was (or the region)
- Pressing outside the region and the bar closes it

## Motion

The bar arrives with enter-scale on --motion-in; it follows the selection on scroll and resize without animating; nothing runs while closed.

## Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `children` (required) | `ReactNode` | — | The selectable text. |
| `actions / maxVisible` | `SelectionAction[] / number` | — | { id, label, icon?, busyLabel? }; past maxVisible (3) they fold under More. DEFAULT_SELECTION_ACTIONS: Improve, Shorten, Explain, Fix grammar, Translate. |
| `onAction` | `(request: { action, instruction?, selection: { text, start, end } }) => void \| Promise<string \| void>` | — | Resolve with text to offer a suggestion; throw to show why it failed. action is "ask" for an own instruction. |
| `onReplace` | `(selection, replacement) => void` | — | Shows Replace; update your text (start/end are offsets in the region's text). |
| `placeholder / label / minLength / disabled` | `string / number / boolean` | — |  |
| `classNames` | `SelectionActionsClassNames` | — |  |
| `style / ref` | `CSSProperties / native Ref` | — |  |

## Built from

- button
- [dropdown-menu](https://beamline.io/components/dropdown-menu)
- [copy-button](https://beamline.io/components/copy-button)
- spinner

## Dependencies

`lucide-react`, `radix-ui`

## Import

```tsx
import { SelectionActions, DEFAULT_SELECTION_ACTIONS } from "@/components/selection-actions/selection-actions";
```

## Get it

Selection actions 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)

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