# Waveform

A React component in [Beamline](https://beamline.io/)'s [Voice & audio](https://beamline.io/components/voice) category. Live demo: 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 state. Peaks can be decoded from the file in the browser.

## Use it for

- Showing a recording's shape in a list, a message or a player.
- Playback progress over the shape (pass [progress](https://beamline.io/components/progress)); to seek on it, use [scrub-bar](https://beamline.io/components/scrub-bar) with peaks.

## Not for

- Live microphone input ([live-waveform](https://beamline.io/components/live-waveform)).
- An agent's speaking state ([bar-visualizer](https://beamline.io/components/bar-visualizer) or orb).
- Seeking ([scrub-bar](https://beamline.io/components/scrub-bar), which draws this waveform when given peaks).

## Anatomy

- bars (resampled to the width)
- played overlay (clipped, accent)
- unmeasured slices (hatched stubs)

## Variants

- **variant**: mirror (centred), bars (from the baseline)
- **tone**: accent, neutral

## States

- loading (skeleton bars)
- empty (emptyLabel)
- static
- with progress
- unmeasured slices

## Keyboard

- None: it is a picture (role img with a label). Seeking lives in scrub-bar.

## Motion

None. Progress moves by clipping one overlay, so following playback repaints nothing else; the loading skeleton shimmers only while loading and not under reduced motion.

## Props

| Prop | Type | Default | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `peaks` (required) | `(number \| null)[]` | — | Loudness 0–1 per slice, any count (resampled by maximum to fit); null for a slice that was not measured. |
| `progress` | `number` | — | Played fraction 0–1. |
| `variant` | `"mirror" \| "bars"` | `"mirror"` |  |
| `tone` | `"accent" \| "neutral"` | `"accent"` | Colour of the played part. |
| `height` | `number` | `40` |  |
| `barWidth / gap` | `number` | `2 / 2` |  |
| `loading` | `boolean` | — |  |
| `emptyLabel` | `string` | `"No audio"` |  |
| `label` | `string` | — | Accessible name, e.g. "Waveform of the billing call". |
| `classNames` | `WaveformClassNames` | — |  |
| `style / ref` | `CSSProperties / native Ref` | — |  |

## Import

```tsx
import { Waveform } from "@/components/waveform/waveform";
```

## Get it

Waveform 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…
- [Bar visualizer](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…
- [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…