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BeatBax web-lite client

The BeatBax web-lite client is a browser editor and player at app.beatbax.com. Use it to try the language, play examples, and sketch .bax songs without installing anything.

It is a lite host of the same grammar and playback engine — not the full IDE. There is no song export, no BeatBax Copilot, no Song Visualizer, and no access to files on disk beyond what the browser allows. For those, use BeatBax Desktop (recommended) or the CLI. See the Tools overview for a comparison of all three hosts.

What it is for​

  • Trying BeatBax on a machine where you cannot or do not want to install Desktop
  • Opening bundled examples, or pasting a tutorial song, and hearing it immediately
  • Lightweight edits in the BeatBax Editor, with diagnostics, live playback, and mute/solo
  • Taking work with you: the buffer auto-saves in the browser, and Save downloads a .bax file you can reopen later in Desktop or the CLI

Using the web-lite client​

  1. Open app.beatbax.com.
  2. Paste a .bax song, open a file, or pick an example from the toolbar.
  3. Click Apply or Play (or enable Live so edits apply automatically with debounce).

Controls​

  • Toolbar — Open, New (New Song Wizard), Save (downloads a .bax file), Verify, theme, word wrap, fold, examples
  • Transport — play, pause, stop, apply, BPM readout, volume
  • Live — debounced auto-apply while editing
  • Per-channel Mute / Solo after a song is applied
  • Help — syntax reference (H / ?, or the help control)
  • Problems and Output (bottom)
  • Status bar with Window menu
  • Open via file picker or ?song= URL
  • Editor content auto-saved to localStorage

Editor​

Web-lite uses the same BeatBax Editor as Desktop for syntax highlighting, completions, diagnostics, folding, theme, and word wrap.

It does not include Desktop-only editor features: CodeLens previews (Preview / Loop / instrument and effect audition), the glyph margin, beat decorations, or the command palette. For those, use BeatBax Desktop.

Settings​

The web-lite client has no Settings modal, so appearance and settings such as wrapping are changed from the toolbar.

Theme switches the editor between dark and light. Click the theme control in the toolbar, or press Alt+Shift+L. The choice is stored in the browser and restored on later visits.

Word wrap controls whether long lines wrap in the editor instead of scrolling horizontally. Toggle it from the wrap control in the toolbar. Wrapped lines are easier to read on a narrow window; turning wrap off is useful when you want a strict column layout.